The previous law allowed the governor to appoint a public school student selected by Rota, Tinian and Saipan on a rotating basis, to join the three non-voting members of the Board of Education.
The “rotating basis” was to ensure all public schools are alternately represented but Rep. Raymond D. Palacios, Covenant-Saipan, noted that when the law was enacted in 1988, all the senatorial districts had only one public high school each.
This meant that Saipan which now has three public high schools — Marianas High School, Kagman High School and Southern Saipan High School — had to pick its student representative from any of these schools.
According to Palacios’ House Bill 17-192, which is now Public 17-50, instead of being appointed on a rotating basis by the senatorial districts, the student representative will be selected “on a rotating basis by each respective public high school.”
This, Palacios said, will ensure that students from all public schools are represented on the education board.
