Termites munching on 3 MHS buildings

Three buildings at Marianas High School are in dire need of repair but the school, which has the CNMI’s largest student population, continues to get the cold shoulder treatment by government authorities.

According to MHS acting principal Karen Borja, some of the school’s buildings are in bad shape and have been infested by termites in the last four years.

“We’ve been relaying this to the Public School System CIP, but unfortunately there’s no money to correct the situation,” she said.

Borja said the buildings that badly need repairs are the S-Building, J-Building, and T-Building.

Board of Education member Herman Guerrero took a tour of five schools yesterday morning. He first checked the Oleai Elementary School before proceeding to William S. Reyes Elementary School, Koblerville Elementary School, San Antonio Elementary School, and lastly, MHS.

He showed Saipan Tribune the J-Building that has been damaged by termites. The J-Building houses nine classrooms: four for Special Education classes, two for Reserve Officer Training Corp classes, and three for regular classes.

Borja said the classrooms are also used for the Advanced Development Institute classes at night.

The S-Building contains three classrooms and an office space for the ROTC. She said the T-Building only has one classroom with auto-mechanic workshop areas.

Borja said there are column bars at the auto-mechanic building that are corroded. “We’re afraid that the bars would fall down because of the rust,” she said.

Borja said Gov. Juan N. Babauta visited the school and saw for himself the sad state of its buildings. The governor held his ocular inspection of MHS last January.

“He’s very much aware of the condition of the buildings,” she said.

Guerrero said the buildings pose a danger to school children including SPED students. He said the walls are now wobbly and hollow due to termite infestation.

The PSS budget narratives for fiscal year 2006 proposes a $50-million budget that allocates $2.55 million for deferred maintenance for all schools. The $50-million budget proposal represents a $12-million increase over this fiscal year’s approved budget of only $37.2 million.

Borja said that, based on the previous fiscal year’s budget, they only received $60,000 for the school’s “all others” budget to run the school.

She said the amount is insufficient to repair the school buildings because the amount given to them also goes to the payment of security service, minor maintenance, and the school’s “bare minimums.”

Based on the PSS budget request for FY 2006, the increased budget also includes a $484,448 allocation for hiring new bus drivers, diesel mechanics and repairs and maintenance of newly acquired buses; $2.5 million for utilities of all public schools; $1 million for anticipated retirement costs, accrued leave and military leaves which are for PSS employees who have been recalled to active duty; and $1.5 million for salary increase for PSS employees.

The $50-million budget proposal has passed first reading at the House and earlier reports said it would take awhile to be forwarded to the Senate due to budget allocation concerns.