He said Chacha is still looking for an English teacher for its seventh grade and a reading resource specialist.
Classes will open on Sept. 8.
“It’s always difficult to find teachers for secondary schools especially in the content areas,” he said. “We need personnel who are specialized in each subject and hiring these personnel remain a challenge for all secondary schools.”
The lack of a university on island contributes to this continuous problem, he added.
Chacha lost five classroom teachers last school year to resignations and transfers.
The school has 22 classroom teachers: six for the sixth grade; five for the 7th grade; five for the 8th grade; four for elective classes; and two for the special education program.
Dela Cruz said they have enough teachers for their anticipated 470 students, almost the same figure as last year.
“We intend to keep our smallest student to teacher ratio at 20:1 for our sixth grade classes,” he said. “We want to focus and invest a lot in our sixth graders because we believe that once we settle them in their first year here, they’ll be OK in the next grades.”
The seventh to eight grade classes are expected to accommodate a maximum of 22 students per teacher.
Chacha is not anticipating overcrowding in its classrooms as it has enough space for each grade levels.
It has 28 classrooms including rooms for the bilingual program and the reading resource center.
However, Dela Cruz believes that enrollment will significantly increase in the next three years as a result of pending projects in the area such as the Laolao Golf Resort.
The school received over $20,000 in operations budget last year, an amount that Dela Cruz described was not enough to cover their expenses.
Almost half of the amount was spent on the repairs of their air-conditioning units.
Two of their 35 air-conditioning units have broken down and cannot be repaired until the school gets a new budget on Oct. 1.
Dela Cruz said the repairs will amount to $4,000 for each unit, but Chacha has only $6,000 left in its operations budget.
For fiscal year 2009, Dela Cruz requested $50,000 in operations budget.
Besides the repairs of the air-conditioning units, the school also has to fix its leaking roofs.
Dela Cruz said despite these challenges, they are ready to welcome the students when the new school year begins in September.
