In helping Hopwood, Dela Cruz doesn’t want precedence

Not that Rep. Francisco Dela Cruz (R-Saipan) doesn’t want to help Hopwood Junior High School. He does. It’s just that he is hesitant about creating precedence in assisting it. He’d prefer school officials to inform the Public School System first about the situation of one of its facilities.

Rep. Edwin K. Propst (Ind-Saipan), in last Wednesday’s Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation’s organizational session, informed his colleagues that Hopwood’s Special Education classroom’s kitchen is a safety issue and needs repair.

Dela Cruz hopes his colleagues and the community won’t misinterpret him as he is willing to help solve Hopwood’s problem. “I hope people won’t get me wrong. I’m more than willing to assist them and appropriate funds from the Legislature’s operational budget since these are also our children.”

“But for example, there’s another school that comes to the Legislature and asks for assistance that they too also have a safety issue. Do we again go to that school and say how much do you need when these should be addressed at the PSS level? I don’t mean to sound hard, but we would like to communicate with PSS.”

He said he doesn’t want the Legislature to be repetitive and help schools when PSS is tasked for that job. “We would be repeating ourselves in trying to assist everyone out there, when we know that there is an entity that would take care of this. Our job now is to call PSS’ attention and ask them if they are aware of the situation and if they already have a plan in place.”

Propst said that Hopwood had already informed PSS but the central office has yet to act on the situation. “Yes, the teachers are aware of [the situation] and the principal is aware of it. It has also been brought up to PSS for a few years now. It is very sad that it hasn’t been fixed, that’s why we’re thinking of other options like putting together a fundraiser.”

“We often use our office account and make sure that it serves the public purpose. I can’t think of any other purpose than to serve the SPED students. They are close to our hearts. They have needs. We acknowledge that and try to give them whatever they need,” added Propst.

Dela Cruz said that SPED teacher Tracy Del Rosario and Hopwood principal Jonas Barcinas had also written a letter, dated Dec. 7, where they already had obtained a quotation for $2,350 from a construction company but he doesn’t see any indication that PSS was provided a copy.

“From my understanding, PSS has been made aware of this for the last year and there has been no action yet. This issue should be addressed. But I don’t see anything in the letter that a copy was given to PSS. So how is PSS going to know what the issues are?”

Dela Cruz is surprised why PSS has not yet acted on it despite being allocated more than 25 percent of the CNMI’s total budget. PSS was appropriated $36 million in the fiscal year 2017 budget.

“Hopwood has been asking for the repairs for years now but the issue has not yet been addressed by PSS. We should communicate with PSS since this is a safety issue that they are facing, have PSS appropriate funds and get it fixed. PSS is aware of it for the last year.”

He also asked SNILD chair Rep. John Paul Sablan (R-Saipan) that whoever is appointed to head the delegation’s Education Committee be asked to act on the issue right away. “We want to clarify the matter with PSS. They could fix the problem and we need to have an audience with them. PSS might have a plan that we don’t know yet until we sit down with them.”