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‘Koblerville Jr. High School will depend on the administration’
A few years after a plan to build a Koblerville Junior High School was approved, hopes remain dim that this will be realized in the near future following disclosure that funding has yet to be committed for the project.
Education Commissioner Dr. Rita A. Sablan told Saipan Tribune that both the Public School System and the Board of Education are still in “wait-and-see mode” as to the plans of the Inos administration.
“I really don’t know the plan of the central government [for this project]. It is the government that has to make available the needed funds to build the Koblerville Junior High School,” said Sablan.
She said that no funds have been identified and committed up to this time.
She estimates that construction of the facility, including collateral equipment and other fixtures, will cost around $15 million. And because PSS is a non-revenue generating agency, it has no capability to obligate such funding requirement.
“Are we still pushing through with this project? Well, it all depends on the central government,” Sablan pointed out.
Beginning this new school year, PSS will reconfigure and transform three elementary schools into middle school campuses in an aim to eliminate overcrowding in many schools.
When the Koblerville Junior High project was approved, it was disclosed that the campus will be patterned after the Chacha Oceanview Middle School design—which can accommodate 600 to 700 students.
During the Fitial administration, a land was identified for the new middle school. However, this land, Sablan said, remains owned by private individuals.
Whether the government plans to acquire it for PSS or have it exchanged for other public lands remains unknown at this time.
When the project was unveiled in 2010, PSS wanted to build 10 buildings: four classroom buildings with 27 classrooms, a cafeteria, a library, a vocational building, a horticulture building, a music building, and a water storage tank. The entire facility is estimated to house up to 700 students.
In 2011, the Northern Marianas Housing Corp., using block grants, provided $1.1 million to acquire the standing “lease” on the property, the location of which is an ideal site to build a junior high school.
