Construction of new high schools to start in May

Education officials hope to begin construction of two new high schools on Saipan by May next year as their architectural and engineering design will be drawn up immediately after the proposal is approved this week.

The committee on capital improvement projects of the Board of Education yesterday approved two resolutions to be presented in a meeting on Thursday that will outline the plan to build each of the school in Koblerville and Kagman.

BOE member Tony Pellegrino, chair of the CIP committee, said the board will meet within the next few days with an engineering firm to start the design work for the schools.

“We’ll draft the design immediately and we hope to break ground by May 2000,” he said in an interview.

Estimated to cost $19 million, the project is intended to relieve overcrowding at the Marianas High School as well as at the Hopwood Junior High School and accommodate the anticipated increase in the student population on the island.

Under the proposal approved by the CIP committee, the Koblerville facility will be built on a property owned by the Public School System at a cost of $7.5 million.

The two Kagman facilities, one of which is the proposed junior high school, will cost $11.5 million and will be erected on the 15.7-hectare lot where the new elementary school is now under construction.

According to Mr. Pellegrino, each of the school will have a capacity of about 600 students — enough to address the projected 3 percent annual growth in student population on Saipan for the next 10 years.

To make sure that funds are sufficient, the BOE member pointed out that he would favor a “good, clean and functional” schoolbuilding, instead of a fancy one.

“We are going to try to live within the budget,” Mr. Pellegrino explained. “We will do with what we have,” referring to the infrastructure that are already in place in both sites.

He said that the board also has welcomed the proposal to share the sports facilities and gymnasium in Kagman with the residential neighborhood in a public park adjacent to the site.

Mr. Pellegrino also expressed gratitude for the assistance extended by various government agencies, such as the Division of Public Lands and the Coastal Resources Management, to fast-track the project.

While board has been trying to pinpoint a site for Saipan’s second high school for the last few months, it was only last week that a recommendation to split the project into two smaller schools was broached.

Proponents say the plan will alleviate the traffic congestion and the operational problems in the southern part of the island, while at the same time providing the growing residential community in Kagman the services they need.