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<\/p>\nRep. Marissa Renee Flores (Ind-Saipan) has vocally expressed that she does not believe that the Public School System\u2019s administration (or central office) should be given more funding when teachers and students are not benefitting from the funds.<\/p>\n
Previously, the Office of the Governor appropriated an additional over $5 million to PSS for its fiscal year 2025 budget. At the expense of the additional funding, other agencies have experienced personnel cuts.<\/p>\n
Flores, during PSS\u2019 budget hearing before the House Standing Committee on Way and Means, passionately expressed that she doesn\u2019t believe this is fair if students and teachers are not benefitting from it, instead PSS\u2019 administration is.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that the (additional) $5 million that was allocated under the governor\u2019s budget proposal should be addressed, specifically how that money is going to be distributed. I do not believe that any more money should be given to the central office for directors when money should be given to the students and the teachers at the first level, as they enter the school system because this would be an injustice to continue to give the central office millions of dollars when they only provide direct direction, but the people who actually do the work are in the school with the students,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Flores said legislators should emphasize the importance of focusing on students\u2019 needs and maintaining accountability in all aspects of the administration of the PSS and its funding.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a wide range of topics related to funding PSS, the administration, and accountability in educational organization. It touches upon issues such as the impact on consistent attendance as training sessions, funding for legal settlements and lawsuits, the use and distribution of federal funds, accountability in the use of funds for travel and training, grants, oversite, allocation of salaries, use of ARPA (American Rescue Plan) funds, travel policies, classroom vs. non-classroom expenses, and the intention of professional and educational organizations,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Specifically, Flores expressed PSS should be held accountable for the use of funds in regard to travel for training for 16 directors who are not even tasked with educating students.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is worth considering, whether the same individuals that consistently attend training sessions as this could impact the effectiveness and training and the allocation of services. I feel there is an injustice in terms of how many people travel every single time, every single year and I have no data to tell the public, the students, or the parents if the training attended was effective. It is crucial to understand that the use of federal funds and their explicit use in classroom instruction is addressed. We must hold ourselves accountable to ensure equity in their distribution,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Marissa Renee Flores<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rep. Marissa Renee Flores (Ind-Saipan) has vocally expressed that she does not believe that the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-411281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411281","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411281\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}