Dr. Lawrence Camacho marks just over 100 days on the job as the Commissioner of Education for the CNMI public school system. In addition to his campus listening tour, he’s also putting together a 5-year strategic master plan.

Camacho said, “We need to prepare ourselves and we need to to set the stage, shape the operation so that within five years we're ready to leap into the next ten years.”

And amid the government’s fiscal crisis, Camacho shared that there are plans for cost-cutting measures in the next school year.

“While we foresee, you know, areas of challenges that we have when it comes to our finances or our fiscal health going into the next fiscal year, we've done over the last several weeks, months, if you will, put together a team that continues to look into various ways to understand the numbers, to understand the opportunities that in terms of numbers. So all I can say is that we're we're almost ready to announce to the community where we are in terms of numbers. But we've gone back so many times in recent days looking at every opportunity, every nook and cranny to find cost-sharing opportunities. And we've done that,” said Camacho.

The Commissioner of Education was not able to provide further details.

KUAM asked, “So there are going to be cost-cutting measures?”

Camacho replied, “Yes, there is a great deal of cost-cutting measures. And, you know, whether or not it's it's a fiscal challenge and we anticipate it's also good. One of our strategic priorities is effective and efficient operations. Whether we're we're good on the finances, we still have to dig into how best we could, you know, find ways to cut cost.”