Embedded Files
11/03/2025 - In a special meeting on Saturday, the CNMI Board of Education voted to approve the proposed Fiscal Year 2026 budget and implementation plan presented by Commissioner of Education Dr. Lawrence Camacho. Board member Andrew Orsini was the lone “no” vote, citing concerns that the worst-case scenario includes furloughs. CNMI PSS would likely have to furlough 76 employees if the revised budget falls below $37 million.
The current budget signed into law gives PSS just over $31 million. However, COE Dr. Camacho informed the board that if the Marianas Public Land Trust loan were to be approved, PSS would see a $37.7 million budget, and without the MPLT loan, it would be $35.1 million. Camacho also noted that there is movement by lawmakers to allow PSS to use $4.9M in identified unrestricted funds.
Dr. Camacho said the “sweet spot” would be a $39 to $40M budget to avoid furloughs and go up to as far as 64-68 hours. “Any million dollars to the right or to the left is a huge situation for us. It impacts either positively or negatively,” he told Marianas Press.
With the legislature still negotiating a revised budget and a loan from the Maianas Public Land Trust, Dr. Camacho’s austerity budget scenarios range from a 64-hour to an 80-hour pay period.
The plan outlines the following details for each scenario:
64 hours with a roughly $39 million budget would mean 155 instructional days and 8 professional development days with a total of 25 austerity days.
An estimated $40.9M budget with 68 hours would mean 171 instructional days and 8 professional development days with a total of 9 austerity days.
70 hours with a $41.5M budget would yield 9 austerity days, 171 instructional days, and 8 professional development days.
Both 72 ($42.4M) and 80-hour ($45.2M) scenarios would result in 180 instructional days and 10 professional development days with no austerity days
The plan also includes a freeze for certification-based pay increases and salary adjustments for higher-level degrees. The COE said that austerity measures are set to begin on Nov. 17 and will include summer austerity, with hours in the new school year depending on the revised budget.
In an interview after the meeting, BOE Teacher Representative Dr. Dora Borja Miura said her colleagues agree that “it is a better plan to reduce our hours and then pay us less…versus cut us and expect us to still work 80 hours.” She added, “I think the term that was thrown around by my colleagues was that it would be insulting to ask anybody to really do that.”
During the board meeting, Dr. Miura also urged the board to consider enforcing the court’s slip opinion about PSS’s constitutionally mandated 25% of the budget before any furloughs. She added, “We need to address that. It has been a long time coming…I do not understand why furlough is a discussion…but the discussion of the 25% seems to be taboo.”
Report by Thomas Manglona II.
Report abuse