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PSS seeks flexibility to secure $2M fed grant
The expansion of Early Head Start and Head Start programs of the Public School System requires a certain amount of flexibility in reprogramming funding allocated by Public Law 19-75, a flexibility that the law does not provide.
According to Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee chair Sen. Jude Hofschneider (R-Tinian), his office received a letter from Education Commissioner Cynthia Deleon Guerrero dated May 19, 2017, asking that she be allowed to reprogram $188,005 and $436,983 from PL 19-75, to be used as a local match to $2 million in federal funding received by PSS for the expansion of the Head Start and Early Head Start programs.
PL 19-75 appropriated $1 million for the purchase of school buses and $5.5 million for instructional materials. According to Deleon Guerrero, the $188,005 will be taken from the bus appropriation, while $436,983 will come from funding for instructional materials and school repairs. Currently, PL 19-75 does not allow the commissioner to reprogram funding.
“They were requesting the Legislature to relax that provision so that they can use the money to match the requirement of the grant,” said Hofschneider.
A combined $624,988 would serve as a local match of the local government, allowing PSS to secure the $2 million federal grant by the end of July 2017.
According to the letter, the $2 million would be used for facility expansions in Kagman, Dandan, and Chalan Kanoa’s Early Head Start Centers as well as to fund new Head Start Centers at Tanapag and Marianas High School.
Hofschneider clarified that his committee was “poised to originate legislation from the Senate, but because it is an appropriation bill, it must come from the House of Representatives.”
“I am going to reach out to House Speaker Ralph Demapan (R-Saipan) along with this letter and see if they can initiate an appropriation rather quickly because this has a timeline. It is a time-sensitive need and it is important for us to back it as quickly as possible,” he said.
