Drop in public high school graduates expected this year

Administrators and school officials in at least three public high schools in the Commonwealth expect a decline in this year’s potential graduates because of the exodus of families and their children and the changes in graduation requirements.

Graduation requirements this year went up from 21 to 28 credits for all senior students. Many residents and nonresident have left the island because of the economic crisis.

At Saipan Southern High School, the number of graduates are expected to fall from last year’s 147 to only 107 this year.

SSHS vice principal Craig Garrison said the figure is the lowest graduation number in the school’s history. “This is the smallest batch of graduating class in the six-year history of SSHS,” he told Saipan Tribune yesterday.

He attributed the significant decline to the exodus of local families due to economic hardship. “Many students moved off-island this school year and that’s part of the main reason. Also, we have some students who do not have enough credits because of the challenging schedules to meet the new English and math credit requirements,” he said.

Four years ago, the Board of Education adopted a policy changing the requirements for English from 6 to 8 credit units and in math from 3 to 6 credit units for graduating seniors.

This year’s batch is the first group affected by the policy change.

“Normally, if we see a significant drop in our graduation, it would probably be attributed to a large number of kids who are retained. But we don’t have a lot of kids retained this school year,” he said, adding that this was also a direct result of low enrollment of seniors since the beginning of the school year.

SSHS, one of the five biggest high schools on Saipan, has an enrollment of 740.

At Marianas High School, potential graduates seem to be stable at present as all 215 seniors are expected to march.

MHS principal Karen Borja revealed that last SY 2007-2008, they had 213 graduates.

This year’s number, she said, still depends on students if they continue to show good performances until their finals.

She believes there are few students who are also affected by the new credit requirements. “We have a few students who do not make it even with the 21 credits,” she said.

Borja added that some other factors include the lack of preparation of students. Some also find difficulty in making progress in English.

The unstable economy on island, Borja said, also contributed to the failure of some students because it’s hard for them to complete the required hours of instruction while working for their families.

MHS is home to 1,209 students.

At Rota High School, only 36 students are expected to graduate this school year. It has a total enrollment of 177.