First 2 months of FY ’14 a challenge for PSS

The CNMI Public School System described the first two months of the fiscal year as a challenge following admission that schools have to hold back some of its immediate needs as a result of delayed allotment from the government.

PSS was appropriated a $33-million budget for the fiscal year 2014. The bulk of this amount—$28.6 million—is earmarked for personnel cost.

PSS finance director Derek Sasamoto disclosed to Saipan Tribune that the system was supposed to get its allotment from the government in a weekly basis amounting to a little over $600,000. However, he admitted that this didn’t come in a timely manner, which has affected the operational needs in schools as well as obligation to vendors.

“We are supposed to receive the allotment in a weekly basis and based on the approved budget, PSS should be getting per weekly a little bit more than $600,000. Unfortunately, we’re not receiving it on time. Of course we cannot ignore the collection situation of the government, but we’re hoping that allotments continue and in a timely fashion for PSS,” he admitted to Saipan Tribune.

Sasamoto said that PSS, due to the delayed allotment, is putting the system’s 30-day payables to vendors a priority while deferred school needs until delayed allotment is released.

“We’re trying to pay our receivables first and we’re holding back on [school] expenditures. I appreciate the schools’ efforts as they communicated with me to find out if we receive the funding or not. We all try to work together and I made sure that everyone is aware of our financial situation,” said Sasamoto, adding that the leadership team is being informed weekly on this matter.

The finance director said that PSS has more than 900 employees funded by the local budget. Saipan Tribune learned that over 400 of these personnel are classroom teachers. But despite having an increased budget this FY 2014 from FY 2013’s $30 million appropriation, Sasamoto admitted that the amount remains inadequate to achieve the desired students-to-teacher ratio in public schools which is 20:1 in elementary level and 25:1 in secondary level.

“As is stands now, it’s way above the desired 20:1 or 25:1 ratio. In fact, we have a handful of schools with 40:1 students-to-teacher ratio but I know they’re coping with it. Yes, the $33 million we got is an improvement from last fiscal year, but it’s still a very challenging budget for public schools,” he added.

Saipan Tribune learned that besides inadequate funding to fill critical gaps in PSS’ operations, there remains a big number of teaching positions that remain vacant at the schools due to difficulty in getting the qualified candidates. These are classified as hard-to-fill positions mostly in the secondary level, which require some specialties particularly in the area of English, chemistry, geometry, mathematics, science, and others.