CUC disconnects 6 public schools

Shock and dismay reverberated across much of Saipan and the rest of the CNMI yesterday in the wake of the Public School System’s decision to suspend classes today after the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. cut off power to the administrative offices of at least six public schools that have not paid their bills.

Board of Education chair Marylou S. Ada confirmed that the administrative offices of the William S. Reyes, San Antonio, Oleai, Koblerville, and Tanapag elementary schools as well as Hopwood Junior High School were cut off from the CUC power grid as soon as their students were dismissed at 2pm.

“The situation is very disappointing, very unthinkable that anybody would do such a thing to shut power to the mainline of PSS, which is responsible for the education of 11,000 kids-kids who are winning in regional, national events, and will compete and bear the name of the CNMI in national competitions. This is very unbecoming, very troublesome, and disappointing,” she told Saipan Tribune.

The power disconnection alarmed teachers, students, and parents alike who were all taken aback at the seeming suddenness of CUC’s decision. Text messages were flying back and forth across much of the island yesterday to relay the news. Facebook was atwitter with the news and the situation was compounded by reports that CUC also cut power to some sections of the local hospital, also for failing to pay its bills.

Upon receiving the news, Ada immediately rounded up school principals and administrators for an emergency meeting at the Board of Education office inside the Marianas High School compound in Susupe.

After almost two hours of talks, which also saw the attendance of Education Commissioner Rita A. Sablan via videoconference from Washington, D.C., Ada gave the order to shut down classes today so that school administrators and managers could get together and create a standard operating policy for emergency situations such as yesterday’s.

The shutdown does not affect schools on Rota and Tinian and administrative personnel in the PSS central offices.

‘Troublesome’

Power was cut off at the central offices around 4pm. Outside the education board’s office, Ada was seen pleading with a CUC line crew to give the board more time to finish the emergency meeting and teleconference. In the end, CUC gave the BOE office up to 5:30pm to finish the meeting and the power was cut off soon after that.

Ada told Saipan Tribune that the PSS central office will be business as usual today as employees have been asked to work manually and use their charged laptops to continue their work.
She said classes in all Saipan schools will resume Thursday, with or without power at their administrative offices. Ada said that principals will finalize a “contingency plan” that will allow schools to carry on in times when power is off. She hinted at plans of possibly conducting classes under the shade of trees, for example.

She explained that without the administrative offices, schools cannot operate because everything is sourced from the main office-supplies, servers, telephones, printers, and other materials.
Ada described yesterday as a “very disappointing and troublesome” situation that could have been averted if PSS had received a notice of disconnection or a courtesy call from CUC.

“We were caught off guard. We never received a disconnection notice. Today is totally a surprise for all of us. We [the BOE] just had a meeting last Thursday discussing about CUC and we try in good faith to pay CUC. If anything was to happen today, we could have discussed that in last week’s meeting. Nothing has been discussed because we’re not aware [of any disconnection plans].not even the management and the board level,” said Ada.
She tried to call Gov. Benigno R. Fitial, Lt. Gov. Eloy Inos, and some CUC officials, to no avail. Ada was informed that these officials were all in separate meetings yesterday.

When asked how PSS intends to settle its delinquent accounts with CUC, Ada pointed out the need for the central government to pay what is owed PSS-about $11 million in unremitted maintenance-of-effort funds for 2010 and 2011 as mandated by the U.S. Department of Education.

“We would like the administration to give us the money it owes us so we can pay our CUC bill. We need to sit down with the governor and the lieutenant governor [and go back] to the drawing board and plan for an MOA or MOU so we can receive a definite plan on how much they plan to pay us,” Ada said.

$4.1M unpaid obligation

CUC’s chief financial and administrative officer, Charles Warren, disclosed yesterday that PSS owes CUC $4.134 million as of Feb. 29, representing arrears of about 16 months.

Although PSS has been making monthly payments, Warren described these amounts as “small payments.”

Contrary to Ada’s claims, Warren said that PSS-like other CUC customers-was issued a proper disconnection notice and the commissioner, he claimed, was even informed by CUC executive director Abe Utu Malae in a personal email about the disconnection efforts of CUC.

“That’s is not true. We issue the same disconnection notices that all customers receive. In addition, our executive director also sent a personal email to the commissioner of education last week informing her that CUC will begin disconnections today,” said Warren.

He described CUC’s decision as “difficult but necessary” to the critical operation of the utilities firm, which is facing its own emergency needs.

“This is a very difficult decision for CUC. We try to minimize the impact on the public and we’re actually surprised and disappointed that PSS decided to shut down classes [today]. We hope that they can work their financial issues and start paying their utility bills like our other customers,” Warren said.

In a separate interview, Malae emphasized that the areas disconnected yesterday did not include classrooms.
“We will not disconnect any critical loads including classrooms-just administrative offices or other support offices, but not the classrooms. In addition, water will not be disconnected at all,” he said.

Malae disclosed that PSS’ old accounts are paid under an agreement brokered between the CNMI government, PSS, and CUC.
The central government, he said, has been making payments on one part and PSS has been paying the other. However, no payments have been made for fiscal year 2012 invoices. “The total owed to CUC exceeds $4 million and is growing,” he added.

Affected areas

Among the first schools that lost their power to their administrative offices yesterday was Koblerville Elementary School. Its principal, Rizalina Purunganan, said the school has 450 students preparing for their final exams scheduled this month. Students and teachers are also preparing for their SAT and SBA tests slated for next month and May. Today, the school is supposed to hold a meeting with its PTSA but this was cancelled.

Hopwood Junior High School principal Jonas Barcinas lamented CUC’s decision, citing its impact on his 1,154 students.

A parent from Koblerville village, Eric Borja, also expressed frustration. He was on campus to pick up his two daughters when he witnessed the cutting off of power to the school.

“I think this is a wakeup call for all stakeholders to really think about education. Is it really a priority here?” he asked.