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Despite challenges, SIS starts classes
Saipan International School forged ahead with their school year on Monday, beginning classes a little over two weeks after Typhoon Soudelor hit the island.
“We’ve made it work,” SIS headmaster Tim Bray said, adding that they avoided extending school into summer.
Bray said the school suffered some water damage to ceiling tiles. Part of the tile roof over their lunch eating area was torn off. Trees on campus took a pounding, leaving a lot of debris.
Bray said they bought two generators powering water to their elementary and middle school buildings. They are currently working on another generator to bring water to the high school.
The new generator may also provide power to fans in classrooms.
Since Typhoon Soudelor hit two weeks ago, Bray said there have been a lot of cleanup efforts at the school. About 70 volunteers showed up one day to assist.
“We had a ton of students and parents come in one day and really put in a full effort,” Bray said. “It has been a team effort. The whole community has pulled together and said… ‘Yeah, we want to have school, we want to make this work.’”
“This is good for everybody. It establishes a routine. It’s sort of life getting back to normal,” Bray said.
“You’ve got to move forward. Is it an ideal, optimum learning situation? Probably not. But it’s the best that it’s going to be on island for a while… The idea is to move forward, be a community, be responsive to each, and know when something is not working, try to change it,” the headmaster said.
SIS has 199 students attending this school semester.
Typhoon Soudelor has left Saipan in an islandwide power outage. With the exception of the hospital, business and residences have been almost entirely dependent on temporary power generation for their facilities.
Other private schools like Saipan Community School and Eucon International College also opened school year 2015-2016. Public school opening in September is expected to be delayed because of Typhoon Soudelor.
