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‘Proposed PSS budget not enough for salaries’
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Posted on Jan 23 2009
Without a redistribution of money allotted to the Public School System in the fiscal year 2009 budget, PSS will be unable to pay for its personnel, Education Commissioner Rita Sablan wrote Senate President Pete Reyes.
In the fiscal year 2009 budget recently passed by the Legislature, PSS is allotted $28.3 million for personnel and $6.156 million in non-personnel, for a total of $34.46 million. PSS is also allotted $2 million in Compact-impact funding. The bill is now with the governor.
Sablan said PSS requires a minimum of $29.8 million for personnel. In the letter she requests the non-personnel budget be reduced in order to correct the personnel amount, or a lump sum budget be given to PSS.
“The impact of the current language would force PSS to reduce its personnel that would significantly affect students in the classroom,” she said.
During a session earlier this week, House Speaker Arnold Palacios instructed Rep. Ray Yumul, the chairman of the House Ways and Means committee, to meet with Sablan.
Meanwhile, Teresa Kim-Tenorio, president of the Marianas High School Community Council, and Karen Borja, acting MHS principal, have written Rep. Stanley Torres requesting materials and or picnic tables so all of MHS’ 1,100 students will have a place to eat their lunches. Currently, the cafeteria can only hold 150 students, so the rest must pick up their lunches and eat elsewhere, the two wrote.
For fiscal year 2008, MHS was granted $70,600 in local funds, an amount that has made it impossible to pay for necessary items, Kim-Tenorio and Borja said.
“We are in a crisis in regards to our total educational budget…due to the lack of funding, we are limited in our ability to purchase new textbooks or to pay for basic repairs and maintenance, such as painting, air conditioner repair, desk replacement, and light bulbs,” they said.
