Previous Story
All is well for school opening
|
Posted on Aug 10 1999
Except for “minor glitches,” the opening of classes went smooth in public schools yesterday, according to administrators.
Public schools do not have to deal with teacher shortage and overcrowding in classrooms, problems which worried the Public School System in the past school years.
Education officials said the job fair held by PSS last June provided enough teachers to fill 76 positions left vacant by those who resigned and retired late last year.
The new school in Dandan and the new classrooms in other public schools have eased the problem of overcrowding, administrators said.
“All went well. We’re looking forward to a successful year. We have a motivated excellent staff,” said James Denight, principal of Marianas High School.
Denight said the only problem that MHS has to address this school year are the broken roofs of a few buildings in the campus.
He said MHS will repair these roofs using the remaining $90,000 “leftover” from the school’s funds for its air-conditioning project.
MHS, the only public high school on Saipan, has 1,800 students.
San Vicente Elementary School, meanwhile, is back on the single track calendar starting this school year.
SVES, one of the most populated public schools on Saipan, has been relieved of more than 250 students who were transferred to the new Dandan Elementary School.
Principal Martha Habberman said she expected about 890 students to show up yesterday, but at least 50 were absent.
Habberman urged parents to advise the school administration if their children would continue their enrollment in SVES.
“These students might have moved to other schools; or are either sick or off-island. We hope parents would call and advise us if their children are coming,” Habberman said, adding that names of students who don’t show up in three days would be dropped from the roll.
Habberman said SVES is in need of a librarian and a teacher for second grade.
The school’s librarian Sheryl Richardson has resigned and has gone back to the mainland.
At William S. Reyes Elementary School, the administrators only had to deal with “a little problem about lunch,” according to principal Paz Younis.
“Everything else is great,” Younis said. (MCM)
