THE Public School System will receive 28 federal grants amounting to more than $245 million, which will provide PSS financial stability in the next three and a half years, Board of Education Chairman Andrew Orsini said.
“These grants are a tremendous help at a very pressing and needed time when the CNMI economy is down,” he added.
According to Orsini, the federal grants allowed the restoration of the full biweekly 80 work hours of PSS personnel.
They also allowed PSS to reintegrate its over 700 personnel, teachers, teacher aides, school administrative support staff, bus drivers, building maintenance personnel, who were furloughed when the Covid-19 pandemic started, Orsini added.
Through these grants, the BOE in June approved an incentive pay amounting to 10% of the personnel base salary. “This is in addition to another incentive pay approved by the board for this coming Dec. 17,” Orsini said.
“It also provided adjustments and increase of all personnel salaries to an equitable range and level in comparison to national standards,” the BOE chairman added.
In a citizen-centric report submitted to the CNMI Office of the Auditor, PSS highlighted some of the programs funded by federal grants.
PSS said the Education Stabilization Fund parts 1 and 2 provided a total of $84.1 million that allowed the school system “to backfill a big hole in the local budget.”
In FY 2021, PSS said it received $24.1 million only from the CNMI government. PSS needed a minimum of $37.8 million for personnel costs and operational expenses.
The Education Stabilization Fund parts 1 and 2 likewise allowed PSS to prepare schools for hybrid learning — online and in-class learning — and provided support for daily classroom sanitization as well as monitoring students and staff’s temperature.
In addition, PSS received over $160 million in federal American Stabilization Plan Act or ARPA funds.
PSS said ARPA helped address the impact of lost instructional time on schools, staff, and students through the implementation of summer learning or summer enrichment, comprehensive after-school programs, or extended school year programs.
The federal funds provided equitable opportunity for students, especially those most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, PSS said.
“[These] ensure that such interventions respond to students’ academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs and address the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on underrepresented student subgroups,” PSS stated.
As for the consolidated grant from the U.S. Department of Education, it provided the islands’ public and private schools with $17.89 million in “direct funding support,” PSS said.
Of this amount, $6.3 million is allocated to 20 public schools and $2.5 million to 14 private schools.
The consolidated grant provided $1.9 million for 35 class reduction teachers; $1.2 million to support Title 1 tutorials involving retired PSS teachers; $753,830 to support co-op education that leads to jobs for over 400 students; $3.4 million for iPads and carts for student use; over $300,000 for several student competitions; $101,000 for AP programs; and $470,948 for professional development for teachers and school administrators.
The consolidated grant also provided funds for distance education, literacy coaches, Students First publications, among other things.
PSS likewise received $5.3 million worth of grants to provide direct education to 931 special children and 63 teachers under the Special Education Program.
About $16.5 million will be allocated to the Career and Technical Education Center or CTE Center, which will provide classrooms and shops for up to 600 students taking courses in co-op education, HVAC, auto repair, music, choir, theater, speech, digital arts and others.
And once federal grantors approved the design, a two-story building will be constructed at the old Building T site at Marianas High School.
As for other structures, $2.8 million was provided under the Rural Development program for building additional classrooms at Dandan Middle School, Oleai Elementary School, Koblerville Elementary School, and paving the JMR Head Start Center parking lot.
The federally funded new Koblerville cafeteria project, which cost $2.2 million, was completed in December 2020.
The federal government also provided $750,000 for the repair of schools. These projects were initially funded by the Office of Insular Affairs of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
PSS also received the following federal grants:
• Project Restart — a special grant from the U.S. Department of Education amounting to $9.3 million. It provided funds for replacement of instructional materials; paid for PSS utilities; replacement of school buses; retention incentives for teachers and school leaders; repairs for public and private schools.
• $16.5 million in Nutrition Assistance.
• $2.6 million for the Head Start Program.
• $993,700 for the Early Head Start Program
• A five-year grant of $1.7 million for Project Haligi, which provides a mental health network for students and/or staff who have experienced loss or trauma.
• $500,000 for pregnancy prevention programs for students
• $453,678 for the E-Rate Program, which pays 90% of PSS’ telecommunications cost.
• $390,270 in School Emergency Grant to support school safety programs and drills for emergency situations, such as tsunami, fire, earthquake, active shooter, and others.
• $347,480 for JROTC and character education programs at five high schools.
• $380,885 for AmeriCorps, which provides after-school tutorial programs for elementary school students.
• $147,755 for a swimming program for students.
BOE Chairman Orsini said federal grants have also allowed PSS to install energy renewable solar panels for all schools on Rota, Tinian and Saipan; acquire new school buses and vans; construct a building for Da’ok Academy in Koblerville; and fund major repairs at Hopwood Middle School.
