But BOE said PSS had already postponed the opening of schools by a month and was ready to deal with the power situation. BOE and PSS then announced that the new school year would begin, as scheduled, on Monday, Sept. 9. On Sunday evening, however, the governor declared a “state of disaster emergency,” forcing three public schools and a Head Start center to shut down due to “contaminated water.” The education commissioner received a copy of the governor’s order at her house at around 9:30 p.m.
She and other PSS officials were up until 2 a.m. to notify school administrators who then had to inform parents and teachers. Not everyone could be alerted about the governor’s order, and many students and faculty members of one of the affected schools, MHS, learned about it when they were already outside the school gate on Monday morning. “All of a sudden, there’s something wrong with the water. Come on now,” a school counselor was quoted as saying. BOE said food vendors were also affected. They needed a 24-hour notice to cancel orders, which the vendors did not receive. PSS ended up paying for student meals that were served to no one.
The shutdown order was yet another example of the governor’s abuse of power, as then-Rep. Tina Sablan pointed out. Tina, who studied conservation science and graduated summa cum laude, worked as a nonpoint source pollution environmental specialist at DEQ. She noted that the water test results “did not warrant an emergency declaration, so none of these schools should have been shut down….” The governor’s order, she added, raised “serious doubts about [his] credibility and judgment.” It “caused significant chaos and upheaval for hundreds of students, teachers, school officials and families. Children actually wept when they were turned away from school. And for what? … I can’t imagine why anyone would knowingly and deliberately do something so reckless — and to children, especially.”
The governor, of course, was merely being true to form. When he became speaker again in 2000, one of the House members, Heinz, told the presiding officer that he, Uncle Ben, was not complying with the rules. “I am the rule,” was the future governor’s immortal reply. So when BOE and PSS defied his “request,” he had to teach them a lesson. He had to show them who’s the boss. PSS is an autonomous entity and BOE members are directly elected by the people, but so what? Anyway, most BOE members and some PSS officials were, and still are, not affiliated with the governor’s party.
Fast-forward to the present time and once again, BOE and PSS are defying the governor — in the first of his five long years in office! BOE and PSS oppose the inclusion of schools in the administration’s work-hour reduction measure. They said the administration signed a grant agreement requiring the CNMI government to at least maintain the school system’s current budget. Otherwise, PSS could lose at least $16 million in federal grants or way more than the supposed savings from the governor’s austerity measure. Meanwhile, PSS has already implemented its own cost-cutting measures, amounting to $2.78 million in total reductions. Compared to the central government, PSS is doing a fine job in managing its finances.
But the governor wants PSS to absorb an additional $2 million cut which, as I’ve pointed out earlier, could jeopardize the school system’s ability to receive federal grants while inflicting hardship on teachers at a time when PSS is struggling to retain highly qualified educators. Close to 68 percent of the proposed PSS wage cut will be imposed on teachers. Should PSS cut the school hours of its 11,000 students then?
Unlike the administration, PSS has been upfront and transparent. It has provided lawmakers and the governor’s office with all the necessary data regarding these matters. Some key legislators in leadership positions heard federal officials explain the consequences of a PSS budget cut. There are, moreover, only a few weeks left in this school year.
BOE and PSS have the facts and they have reason on their side. But the governor has the power and he wants education officials to kowtow before him. And that’s all there is to this sad episode.
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