![\"McPhetres\"](\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/agnes_mcphetres.jpg\")
<\/a>She sold NMTI as one of the legs to complete the current educational system in the CNMI, noting the Public School System and NMC as the other parts of this \u201ctable\u201d as she put it.<\/p>\n
She said the CNMI has good elementary, secondary, and college in place but there is no institution that addresses the needs of the workforce directly, stressing that NMTI will be the one to do so as a charter school.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can see an opportunity that we can really expand the human resource development in the CNMI that all of us has been yearning for,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The charter school, according to her, is a combination of both public and private concepts, as it will become a \u201cquasi-public school\u201d with opportunities for federal funds.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe concept of the charter school is a community school,\u201d she said, adding that in this case the community has more say.<\/p>\n
\u2018Misunderstood\u2019
\nMcPhetres also clarified perceptions that NMTI is out to siphon funds that are intended for PSS and NMC.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not here to sell a program. I\u2019m here to say here\u2019s an opportunity for us here that will address what is lacking in our educational system. The major thing that I\u2019ve been hearing is, \u2018Here comes McPhetres again to take money from us,\u2019 she said, denying this.<\/p>\n
She pointed to CW funds as a hopeful source of funding.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we are trying to do is, we have a mission to fulfill and there\u2019s money, CW money, coming here that is not supposed to be used for the operations of the public schools system nor the college but will be used for a purpose. I am just asking for a little of that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In an interview, Vic Cepeda, education director of NMTI, clarified that\u2014as he and NMTI understand\u2014CW funds were originally intended to be used to train the local U.S. workforce.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat money is supposed to be for people that [have] no jobs. \u2026Just like those people in the NAP program, we can train them and we can put them to work,\u201d he said, noting that NMTI has over 150 students who have gone into the workforce.<\/p>\n
He said NMTI wants a \u201cgood portion\u201d of the CW money for its services but is not asking for all of it.<\/p>\n
McPhetres also stressed that the Higher Education Commission as a governing body will add accountability, and expects NMTI to be assessed on how it is meeting its mission.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will also ask NMC, \u2018Are you producing what you said you\u2019re going to produce?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
On NMTI becoming a charter school, she said it might not be popular for many traditional educators because it challenges the status quo. However, she urged the crowd to \u201cface the challenge\u201d of meeting workforce needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo not kill the goose that may lay the golden eggs that will solve our problem,\u201d she said, noting that NMTI\u2019s promised output of more electricians, plumbers, and carpenters for the workforce.<\/p>\n
\u201cWill this school solve all our needs? No. It will solve a lot of the problems we are facing now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Agnes McPhetres, CEO of the Northern Marianas Technical Institute, solicited support for House Bill 18-204…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":178379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[118,37,69,479],"class_list":["post-178377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cw","tag-education-2","tag-nmc","tag-nmti"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}