PSS revises Compact funding allocations
The Board of Education of the Public School System has approved the revisions on how PSS will use the Compact Impact funds allocated to the education system in the CNMI.
In the BOE special board meeting held Friday morning at the BOE Conference Room on Capitol Hill, the board voted unanimously and favorably for the revised budget proposal in its use of the Compact Impact money.
In a letter transmitted by Education Commissioner Rita H. Inos to the board, she provided the board members copies of the “revised ‘06 and proposed ‘07 Compact Assistance Program narrative and budget.”
Inos said the combined two-year funding proposal would enable the PSS to make long overdue repairs with the 20 public schools in the CNMI.
The commissioner, who is due to retire soon, said the repairs would include but would not be limited to electrical upgrades at all 20 schools, air conditioning system repairs and replacements, classroom lighting repairs and replacements, termite treatment and building repairs.
The full two-year proposal for the Compact funding will be a combination of $10.3 million, said Inos, that would also allow the PSS to address some “critical systemic” needs of the local school system.
She said some of the funds would go to merit increases for the public school teachers who meet the High Quality Teacher criteria and for finishing graduate studies. It would also allow the PSS to provide performance-based compensation for teachers and school administrators.
The revised proposal would also fund the schools’ interscholastic sports programs. Additional computers, laptops, and LCD projectors would also be acquired with the Compact money.
“The PSS wishes to close the gap in the public investment in the education of our children. Dedicating Compact assistance for ’06 and ’07 exclusively to the public education of our children will help close the gap,” reads part of the proposal.
The PSS, according to the proposal, will prepare and submit a new set of budget proposal for Compact assistance for 2008 and 2009 that would enable the CNMI to start a new trend in reversing the nine-year trend of declining investments in the education sector in the Commonwealth.
