PSS: Electrical needs a high-priority

Depending on the availability of funds, the Public School System is set to issue on Oct. 1 a request for proposals for electrical and energy upgrades in its schools in order to meet the goals recommended by the Office of Insular Affairs in its assessment of buildings and classrooms report last year, according to Education Commissioner Dr. Rita Sablan.

OIA, in the report, set a notional five-year window to meet these goals. PSS, according to Sablan, through Board of Education action this year, will focus on electrical improvements first.

“I’d like the Public School System to be the first organization in the CNMI to be [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design]-certified,” Sablan said Thursday.

To be certified, a school district must be in compliance with and sensitive to environmental standards such as in energy, among other things, according to her.

PSS’ LEED campaign started in 2010 with the implementation of energy conservation measures. Now they hope to “take it the next-level” with certification.

Sablan said the board is already reviewing its “year two” under the five-year grant timeline given by OIA and she feels they are most likely to focus on the “structural” needs of schools.

She said the OIA ABC report indicated that electrical needs were one of the high priorities for facility improvements.

Electrical needs include power distribution, wiring, lighting, safety, and communication systems in the school district.

Sablan also noted the increased of use technology in classrooms as one reason the first phase chose to focus on electrical improvements.

OIA, in its assessment of buildings and classrooms, provided a table for “health and safety concerns” for priority attention.

Under the priority need category of “electrical,” PSS was flagged 57 times for “hazardous conditions” in its 18 schools, according to the OIA report.

The second most flagged priority need was “structure,” which was flagged 14 times.

Kagman Elementary School, with 11 flagged hazardous conditions, and the then San Vicente Elementary School, with 10 flagged conditions, led the schools.

OIA found that PSS has $10.5 million worth of deferred maintenance, with electrical costs amounting to $1.4 million of that number.

Sablan said that PSS spends over half a million dollars from the CNMI government in maintenance repairs and renovations every year.

The OIA has instructed all insular governors to make available to each of their school districts not less than $1 million in maintenance monies every year, she said.

“We have such a huge investment in buildings. We have to go in and constantly do some repairs and maintenance,” Sablan said.

She noted the high number of traffic in and out of classrooms and schools every day for a 10-month period.

“Many of these buildings were built back in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, so we have to do something about the electricity,” Sablan said.