Fitial overrules NMHC, cancels school project

Gov. Benigno R. Fitial has rescinded the decision of the Northern Marianas Housing Corp. to approve funding for the renovation of dilapidated buildings at the Gregorio T. Camacho Elementary School.

The Board of Education expressed its disappointment with the chief executive’s move in yesterday’s meeting, describing it as “very disturbing.”

It was found that the $500,000-plus promised by the housing board to GTC was re-appropriated for the building of a soccer field in Koblerville.

The Education Board, in a letter to Fitial, said members were very disheartened to see the governor’s “lack of willingness to put students first” as shown by his override of the board’s decision.

“Your action goes against the actions of NMHC, ignores the efforts of everyone involved, and does not support the needs of students,” the board told Fitial.

While a soccer field does have certain benefits, the board said it cannot fathom how a soccer field is more important than the safety of children sitting in termite-infested classrooms.

“It is not fair to continue to expose our children to such risks when there is an immediate solution readily available,” board chair Lucy Blanco-Maratita said, adding that the termite-infested classrooms continue to deteriorate, putting children’s health and safety in peril.

In the governor’s correspondence to NMHC board members dated Dec. 17, he made reference to the $1.2 million that was earlier reprogrammed for PSS from the capital improvement program funds.

The board said that only $66,000 was dedicated to GTC from these funds; the school actually needs $379,000 for the repairs.

Blanco-Maratita said that PSS intended the funds to keep schools safe and orderly for kids.

Saipan Tribune learned that the parents of GTC school, through its PTA group, took it upon themselves to obtain funding for major renovations through the community development block grant at NMHC.

GTC-PTA applied and requested $540,000 in grant application, which NMHC earlier approved.

The board said that “it’s too bad that all the hard efforts of parents, school staff, [and] PSS central office may have been for naught.”

Like the initiative shown by the GTC family, the board asked the governor to do the same and put students first.

Vice chair Herman T. Guerrero said the governor’s move was a first in the board’s history. “In the history of the program, this is the first time that an NMHC decision on a project was overruled by the governor. It makes me wonder,” he told Saipan Tribune.

Education Commissioner Rita A. Sablan yesterday reported to the board that GTC, including its PTA, will ask a meeting with the governor on his decision to cancel the important project.

Today, a petition campaign to appeal the project’s cancellation will start at GTC campus.

School officials will show the dilapidated buildings to the media and signatures will be forwarded to the governor.

Meantime, PSS said that local permits for the GTC project is to date 90 percent complete.