PSS: 2019 graduations pushed back a week; RHI status quo

The Board of Education’s Committee on Fiscal, Personnel, and Administration convene Tuesday on Capital Hill. (Erwin Encinares)

High school graduation on Rota remain as is, but the rest of public schools in the CNMI will have their high school graduations pushed back by a week.

This was learned during the Public School System’s Board of Education committee meeting last Tuesday, with many high schools forced to play catch up in the wake of the widespread devastation of Super Typhoon Yutu.

Education Commissioner Glenn Muña reported to the board’s Committee on Fiscal, Personnel, and Administration that the graduation for the Dr. Rita H. Inos High School on Rota is on status quo, while that of high schools and middle schools on Tinian and Saipan would be delayed a week to allow the classes to catch up.

In a follow-up interview Tuesday, Muña noted that no seniors withdrew from PSS and that they continue to expect about 900 students to graduate in early to mid-June 2019.

Soon after Super Typhoon Yutu swept through the CNMI, PSS announced that it is ready to process students who wish to withdraw from PSS.

“To my knowledge, most of the withdrawals are at the elementary level,” Muña said. “We are expecting pretty much the same number of students [to graduate].”

He assured that PSS exerted all efforts to make sure that the tertiary education of graduating seniors would not be delayed. “We are only pushing [some graduations] back a week,” he added.

The new schedules for graduation start as early as June 7 for the Dr. Rita H. Inos Jr. High School’s promotion and graduation date. Tinian High School’s promotion and graduation dates follow on June 10, 2019.

Dandan Middle School, Francisco M. Sablan Middle School, and the Marianas High School would be having their graduation and promotion ceremonies on June 11, 2019. Kagman High School, Chacha Oceanview Middle School, and Tanapag Middle School would be conducting their promotion and graduation ceremonies on June 12, 2019, while Hopwood Middle School, Da’ok Academy, and the Saipan Southern High School would be having their promotion and graduations ceremonies on June 13, 2019.

Muña noted in his report that RHI’s graduation dates were unaffected by the delays brought by Super Typhoon Yutu. However, Typhoon Mangkhut’s destruction on Rota required the schools to extend classes by a few minutes per day to catch up.

Ultimately, the new graduation schedule was passed at the committee level and now heads to the board for discussion.