Previous Story
BOE confirms new Hopwood campus
The Board of Education confirmed yesterday that they have decided to move the Admiral Herbert G. Hopwood Middle School campus from its Afetnas campus to a lot in As Perdido.
BOE chair Marylou Ada said in an interview that the BOE’s first Capital Improvement Project would be the construction of a new Hopwood Middle School campus from the ground up.
“We need a new middle school, but we first have to designate a new public land for that purpose,” she said, adding that the new campus is expected to be built within three to four years. “It’s going to be a big building because we have to house about 1,000 students and we would have a library and cafeteria. We are starting from scratch, so it would take some time.”
A possible area for consideration is a Parks & Recreation lot in As Perdido, but Ada noted that it was still tentative.
“[Land is limited] now, and we need enough space for physical education and wellness programs for our students, along with enough space to build an auditorium,” she noted.
For financing, Ada hopes the Federal Emergency Management Agency would assist, along with a co-sharing agreement with the Gov. Ralph DLG Torres’ office.
However, the lack of architectural plans for the building, along with the lack of a plot of land that satisfies those needs, is hindering further discussions for the new campus.
Hopwood principal Dr. Rizalina Liwag told Saipan Tribune in a previous interview that all of its 10 buildings on campus sustained “major damage,” affecting about 70 rooms in all.
Right now, Hopwood is holding classes in the morning at the Marianas High School campus, but Education Commissioner Glenn Muña noted that they would soon be moving to a new temporary campus near the Koblerville Elementary School once the 42 temporary classrooms are completed.
According to Muña, subcontractors for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are working 24 hours a day to complete the temporary structures before February.
“We are expecting to move the students of Hopwood to their new temporary campus…in the first or second week of February [2019],” he told the Board of Education’s Fiscal, Personnel, and Administrative Committee during a meeting Jan. 8, 2019.
