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PSS: No date for school yet; will apply for federal disaster aid
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Posted on Aug 20 2015
The Public School System is focused on applying for federal relief aid, as the heavy damage to classrooms left in the wake of Typhoon Soudelor has pushed back the start of the school year indefinitely, education officials said yesterday.
Cost-estimates for damage were not available yesterday. This information would be put in the Public Assistance application with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to Education Commissioner Dr. Rita Sablan.
PSS has 30 days from the declaration of state of disaster two weeks ago to finalize its request.
She said are there no set dates for the start of schools on Saipan yet. But they are targeting sometime in September.
“We are working very hard to get the damage assessed. We do have some heavy damage at a few schools so we want to make sure that they are taken cared of as priorities. Meaning that there are classrooms that will not be ready…when students return back next school year,” Sablan told Saipan Tribune.
She said they have hired professional engineers to help with the assessment.
“We want to ensure safety when students return and we want to make sure that the damage assessed is something that will help us to develop our scope of work.”
In a separate interview, Board of Education chair Herman Guerrero said they have met with Gov. Eloy S. Inos to inform him of the status of schools.
The need for running water and generators are some of the “concerns that are being raised,” he said.
Guerrero noted that at Garapan Elementary School, there are about 14 classes that are “non-useable.”
San Vicente Elementary School also has some problems in terms of which classes are useable after sustaining damage from Typhoon Soudelor.
“Those are the two biggest elementary schools in the Commonwealth,” Guerrero said.
He called the Marianas High School Gym “basically destroyed” as a good portion of its roof has been torn out.
“Classrooms are being used [at the gym] so that is an additional challenge for us,” he said.
