BOE: 5 investors eyeing GES land

The prime location of Garapan Elementary School, which sits smack dab in the middle of Saipan’s business and tourism center, has not gone unnoticed, with several investors expressing an interest in acquiring it.

In their special board meeting last Thursday, the Board of Education said that several investors have approached the board in hopes of acquiring the property. The Public School System owns the land where GES is located.

The board declined to identify the investors.

BOE board chair Marylou Ada said that several investors have approached BOE to ask if it is interested in letting go of the property.

The offers have been attractive enough such that the BOE is seriously considering the matter but the question is, what would happen to the school?

To resolve the issue, the BOE has directed Education Commissioner Cynthia Deleon Guerrero to come up with guidelines to be followed should investors be interested in other schools as well.

“It is very congested down there already,” said Ada referring to the immediate surrounding of GES.

Ada added that GES is practically the middle point of Garapan, where most students reside.

“In return for disposing of our property, what do we want from our investors? Who is going to be responsible for designating the land to where the relocation would be? We have to also keep the parents in the loop [in regards to] where the relocation would be located,” she said. “We want the parents in the community to be involved.”

Ada said that transportation remains key to GES’ location, which could be affected if the school relocates.

BOE also sees this opportunity as a way of upgrading GES into a state-of-the-art facility.

“Do we want them to build a state-of-the-art facility, complete with a baseball field, an auditorium, etc.? We want to have a say on how we want our schools to be designed and built according to our needs and the demographic of our students,” she said.

According to Deleon Guerrero, BOE wants to see the feasibility of letting go of the property, including the best recommendation from the management based on the current economic situation and the current environment of GES.

“Many businesses are coming up around us, so we want to be ready and prepared. Although the school campus is enclosed, the students and their learning would be impacted by their immediate surroundings. The board wants me to look at that and prepare the recommendation and the guidelines for the board to consider,” said Deleon Guerrero.

According to Deleon Guerrero, there are at least five investors interested in the property.

Deleon Guerrero did assure, however, that if an offer is presented to BOE and BOE accepts, it would automatically include plans for a new school.

“The focus here is not just on the environmental impact, but the impact on student learning. What are the environmental concerns, what are some of the things that are going around the school that could possibly affect what is going on in the school campus. We need to be very mindful and cautious of that,” she said.