Northern Marianas Housing Corp. and Garapan Elementary School have renewed a lease agreement allowing GES to use at least 10 government housing units as classrooms.
In an interview, acting GES Principal Deikola Olikong said the lease agreement allows the school to use the buildings as extended classrooms until June 2005.
“We will continue to have enough classrooms,” Olikong said. “The NMHC board of directors gave us another three years to use the 10 units that we currently have.”
GES will pay $300 per housing unit every year for fire insurance coverage.
The school has been using the housing units as extended classrooms for the past six years now.
GES serves more than 900 students every school year. At the end of classes last June 10, over 950 students were promoted to various grade levels.
For school year 2002-2003, Olikong anticipates the same number of enrollees.
Garapan is among the few public elementary schools providing summer classes to students who need extra assistance in reading and math but were still promoted to the next grade level.
“The ones that are in the summer program are students whose grades meet the minimum requirement to be promoted to the next grade level but still need more help in reading and math,” Olikong said.
About 27 percent or 260 students are enrolled in the school’s summer program which is handled by 26 teachers.
Olikong said students who were retained in their grade levels are no longer required to attend summer classes since they will undergo the same lessons next school year.
Summer classes at GES started last June 17 and will end on July 8.
