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5 new classrooms at GES to be ready next school year
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Posted on Mar 30 2012
By Moneth Deposa
Reporter
Reporter
Despite the expected completion of five new classrooms next month, Garapan Elementary School students won’t be able to use the new rooms until next school year or in September 2012, according to principal Paulette Sablan.
Estimated to accommodate up to 28 students per classroom, Sablan said upper graders were chosen to occupy the newly built classrooms.
For many years, GES’ kindergarten students have been holding classes in the vacant MIHA housing units at the back of the school-a setup that has been criticized because of security concerns for students. Just last Monday, one of the kindergarten rooms was burglarized and valuable school materials and equipment were stolen.
Sablan told Saipan Tribune that everyone is looking forward to the next school year as GES will finally experience “one school, one campus” for all its students. The new facility will also help then find a suitable place for the school’s bilingual programs.
Sablan said the five new classrooms were built atop an existing building on campus. Once completed, upper graders occupying the first floor classrooms would be moved to the new rooms on the second floor, while kindergarten students will take over the building’s first floor.
The cost of the project is estimated at over $800,000, which came from two funding sources: legislative appropriation and interest income from the $15-million general obligation bond issued in 1998.
GES is PSS’ largest elementary school and has experienced perennial overcrowding. Sablan believes that having five more classrooms will help solve this problem.
The five new rooms will boost GES’ classroom count to 37. It has over 800 enrollees every year.
