But cutting overgrown trees on campus is good as students will now clearly see the road, Josh Humio said.
For Joaquin Lizama, a parent, cutting the trees is good if done for the safety of the children but he believes the trees should have just been “trimmed” so they could have continued to provide shade
When school principal Jonas Barcinas was transferred from Dandan Elementary School to Hopwood he developed a plan for the development of the junior high school.
The removal of the trees along the school fence is part of the development process, Barcinas told Variety.
More shades
He said his project includes a spacious parking lot in the area where trees are being cut down.
“Those trees are very unsafe,” he added.
But he said the school still has sufficient and safe shaded areas.
Before the decision to cut the trees was made, he said parents and teachers were informed about the school’s development plan.
He said he also talked with the Public School System officials and the Board of Education.
Nobody opposed the plan to cut the trees down, he added.
With the assistance of the Department of Public Works and the Saipan mayor’s office, the front area of the school was cleared of “overgrown trees,” Barcinas said.
The school also obtained a permit from the Division of Environmental Quality to cut the trees, he added.
Safety first
Education Commissioner Rita A. Sablan commended the effort of Barcinas in implementing a development program and ensuring the safety of the students.
“Every school principal is given the responsibility to ensure safety on campus,” she told Variety.
“What you are seeing at Marianas High School and Hopwood is something that I commended these schools’ leadership for because they are concerned about the safety of the students and other members of the community,” she said.
Like Barcinas, MHS principal Craig Garrison said he has not received any complaint regarding the trees on campus that were cut down recently.
“The fact is there is a serious danger to students who are parking in the middle of campus and who are forced to walk between moving cars just to get to class,” he said.
Campus safety was behind his decision to cut trees, he added.
“You would be hard pressed to find a school anywhere in America which has a parking lot right in the middle of the campus. This parking lot is a remnant of the past and now the future is upon us,” he said.
He said parking in front of the school campus will ease access and increase safety for school buses picking up or dropping off students.
The new parking lot, he added, will feature colorful plants, trees, and shrubs “while at the same time allowing the school to be on display for the community to see.”
“It will be a welcome sight for visitors and the school community alike,” he added.
Power lines
He said the trees in front of the school were dangerously tall and required trimming annually as they surrounded power lines.
Garrison said people know that a major power line can be severed due to a tree falling over.
“Trimming these trees each year away from those power lines places the [Commonwealth Utilities Corp.] linemen and the general public at great risk to injury or even death,” he said.
He said the trees also produced hundreds of pounds of pine needles each year that lay and rot, providing homes for rats and other vermin that infest the school campus.
“It was only prudent that these trees be cut down and that a new design which is safer and more aesthetically valued be built in place,” he added.
