IT sure is nice to see the photo of our recent CNMI Close Up students grace a page of your newspaper, which I strongly believe is a true testament of the efforts many of our students are putting into the off-island programs. Perhaps most of your readers know very little about the program so I will try to briefly describe the purpose and the efforts that our hardworking students are putting into it.
The Close Up Foundation was established in 1970 to promote responsible and informed participation in the democratic process through a variety of educational programs. For years the program has brought hundreds of students from all over the nation, including many from the Pacific region, to the national capital to witness first hand the daily functions of our democratic form of government. When the program became available to our CNMI students in the 1980s, when Mr. Joe Mafnas (who has long been retired and no longer associates with PSS) was the PSS social studies coordinator, the foundation was generous enough to shoulder all the expenses and our students did not have to contribute a penny toward their off island excursion. However, in the past few years the foundation has been slapped with the realities of economic difficulties, and has not been able to fund everyone’s expenses on these annual trips. Instead it had been providing limited numbers of grants to qualified students, which could be shared among all participants from each school. But that is at the discretionary of each school’s program. In most cases the participating high schools are given only one or two grants each year. What that means is that they must find other ways to raise the additional funds they need to meet the $5,000 plus total each student needs.
PSS does not and will not pay for any Close Up participants. The chaperones were up until this year teachers from each participating school, and the Close Up Foundation always paid for their expenses. That includes plane fare, lodging, and stipend, which also totals in excess of five thousand dollars. The foundation has a formula of a five to one ratio, which means that it will pay the expenses for a chaperon for every five students.
For the past two years the current PSS social studies coordinator has shortchanged the schools by taking away a grant and used it for his own to accompany the students on these trips. The grants, which total in excess of $11,000 for the past two years, were granted on the basis of fundraising efforts by the schools. The PSS social studies coordinator was never a part of these fundraising activities and deserves not even a fraction of a penny from the Close Up grants. It is a junket that he and perhaps PSS allowed at the expense of our hardworking students, which I believe need to be stopped. PSS must not argue that one of its own deserve the grant because it was made possible through the efforts of our students. The only role that the current PSS social studies coordinator had in this program was to ensure that a line of communication with the foundation was in place, but that role was usurped since he got onboard. In the past prior to his hiring, the schools had had that responsibility. Even if PSS argues that there is a grant set aside for the coordinator, that grant must never be used by him or anyone else at PSS central office and must be given to the schools. Our children are the ones to be rewarded, not an administrator who sits on his okole waiting to reap the benefits that belongs rightly to our hardworking students.
I challenge the PSS administration and BOE to put a halt to these personal gains and ensure that all benefits go directly to the schools and the students. I firmly believe that our local Close Up program deserves a refund of the two grants that were used in the last two years and the money be divided equally among the schools. I thank all the students who have participated in the Close Up program and their parents for their efforts to ensure that a full participation was achieved. Additionally, I encourage those that have not joined the program to sign on and become an active member.

RON AQUERY
Kagman, Saipan