3 schools remain closed today

Three public schools on Saipan will remain closed today as they have yet to finalize their respective contingency plans, according to acting education commissioner Glenn Muña.

Administrators of Hopwood Junior High School, Koblerville Elementary School, and Tanapag Elementary School were told to continue working on their contingency plans today so classes can resume on Friday.

For the rest of public schools on Saipan, classes will resume today as scheduled.

Muña said that principals and support staff of affected schools were advised to temporarily transfer their workstations to vacant spaces in their campuses that have power.

“We needed to make sure that support services will continue to happen in classrooms and our students. School principals have tried to work out some plans, including looking at vacant rooms if they have, temporarily using their libraries and other units to facilitate the operation of the school. Other than that, learning will continue to happen because classrooms have power and water,” he told Saipan Tribune.

School administrators and principals met with Muña and Board of Education members yesterday morning at the Marianas High School teachers’ lounge to present their contingency plans.

Later that day, school leaders and education officials trooped to the Legislature on Capital Hill to seek help in paying for unpaid utility bills amounting to $4.1 million. Muña admitted that nothing concrete came out of that meeting but he hopes that lawmakers will continue their efforts to help public schools.

Some public schools’ administrative offices were disconnected from the power grid since Tuesday due to these unpaid bills, resulting in the shutdown of classes in all Saipan schools yesterday. Water, however, is still running and classrooms have not lost their power supply.

Today, top officials from PSS and the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. are scheduled to meet to discuss the unpaid utility obligation.

CUC executive director Abe Utu Malae defended the utility firm yesterday against Rep. Janet Maratita (Ind-Saipan), chairperson of the House Committee on Education and Welfare, who had accused CUC of “arrogance, recklessness, and irresponsibility” for disconnecting power to public schools. Maratita told Malae in a letter Tuesday that the PSS situation could have been averted if CUC had signed the memorandum of agreement relating to schools’ utility arrears.

“The MOA to which you are referring was already signed by me. It is PSS that has not signed the MOU,” Malae told Maratita in a letter yesterday, adding that the MOU, anyway, has nothing to do with CUC’s decision to order the disconnections.

He explained that PSS’ old unpaid account has two parts: one being paid faithfully by the central government and the other by PSS, which has not been paying at all. Malae said the central government, including the Legislature, may not be disconnected because they regularly pay and are catching up on their arrears, compared to PSS and the Commonwealth Health Corp.

Malae reiterated that only certain administrative PSS offices were disconnected and water is still running in these affected areas. The same with the public hospital’s critical services, which will continue to have its power and water despite the unpaid bills of the corporation.