Fitial earlier asked the Public School System to reschedule the first day of classes due to the island’s power crisis.
The Board of Education and PSS turned down the governor’s “request.”
But to address the power outage, PSS bought new generators for the schools’ water pumps.
According to the office of Commissioner of Education Rita A. Sablan, the “declaration of emergency indicated that the water is contaminated due to the unplanned outages of Commonwealth Utilities Corp.’s electrical system and the loss of electric service it caused to the pumps and chlorination equipment necessary to keep the domestic water supply safe and uncontaminated.”
In a statement to principals who are affected by the E.O., Sablan said although PSS has taken precaution upon the notification from the Division of Environmental Quality and the Department of Public Health, the testing of the water at the affected schools was not repeated to determine whether the contamination was cleared.
Sablan said PSS will continue to work closely with the agencies to resolve the water situation at these schools.
As of 4:18 p.m. yesterday, no new schedule was announced for the schools’ opening and no clearance was issued from DEQ, Public Health or the governor’s office.
The governor’s cancellation notice affected 1,205 students at Marianas High School; 620, Kagman Elementary School; 441, Koblerville Elementary School; and 60, Oleai Head Start Center.
MHS principal Karen Borja said they learned about the E.O. early yesterday morning.
She said last week, DEQ tested the schools’ water supplies.
School personnel cleaned the water tanks as recommended by DEQ.
“This cancellation is not our decision,” Borja said. “We’re going to make up for this day on another day.”
She added that MHS had yet to receive any report from DEQ on the result of its testing.
KagES principal Ignacia Demapan said that as early as 6:30 a.m. yesterday, they reported for work to make sure that no student would be dropped off on campus.
“This cancellation creates some confusion…and many of our kids are disappointed as they are very excited to attend classes,” she said.
Demapan said DEQ informed her that the result of the water testing will be available after 16 hours.
DEQ personnel were at the school at 9 a.m. yesterday.
Demapan said the makeup day may take place before the students’ Christmas vacation.
“They could have just opened our school because all the things that they requested for us to address have been addressed since Saturday….We have a very clean water tank that contains 38,000 gallons of water and we even put screen on top of it,” Demapan said, adding that the school purchased 1,000 gallons of water to fill its tank because CUC water was not available.
“I was really surprised by this cancellation and it was really unexpected,” she added. “I believe that we shouldn’t be closed because the water they tested does not go into our system. The tank is for our reserve supply and we still have water directly from CUC and there’s no contamination.”
Demapan noted that “some individuals” do not fully understand how schools “really operate.”
“This is a mistake…but there’s nothing we can do about it,” she added.
Koblerville principal Rizzalina Purugganan said the information regarding the cancellation of classes was posted at the gate of the school to inform the parents about the situation.
Like other schools, Koblerville has already filled and cleaned up its four tanks, two of which are for emergency situations.
The school’s make-up day is scheduled for June 17.
Oleai Head Start teacher Elaine Tudela said they cleaned and drained their two water tanks on Friday as recommended by DEQ.
As of yesterday, however, the school had yet to receive the result of DEQ’s test.
‘Late night E.O.’
Board of Education Chairwoman Lucy Blanco-Maratita said PSS received the governor’s E.O. at 9:30 p.m. on Sunday.
Because of this “unusual issuance of a directive,” she added, PSS and BOE had a hard time mobilizing their staff and addressing the governor’s concerns.
“It was really hard to contact people in the middle of the night,” Blanco-Maratita said.
She described the governor’s E.O. as “very disappointing.”
“I wish the governor informed us earlier that day,” she said. “I believe PSS has done its job by cleaning and refilling the tanks and treating the water.”
The late night E.O. hampered the school system’s ability to inform its food vendors who were all set for yesterday’s delivery of services, she added.
Cancellation of school breakfast and lunches require a 24-hour notice.
PSS may have to pay the vendors for yesterday’s undelivered food, Blanco-Maratita said.
The other public schools that held classes yesterday reported a “smooth” first day.
Buses punctually transported the students to and from schools while the food vendors delivered their services on time, Variety learned.
At Kagman High School, 847 students attended their classes.
At San Vicente Elementary, principal Joaquina Salas said their first instructional day on campus “went well as expected.”
“It went smoothly — we have uninterrupted power today, the weather is also cooperating,” she said.
As of yesterday, the school had 746 students.
“We still have some parents inquiring about the enrollment requirements so we may still have new students,” Salas said.
At Saipan Southern High School, 741 students attended the first day of the new school year.
