NORTHERN Marianas Technical Institute Chief Executive Officer Agnes M. McPhetres is “very happy” to learn that NMTI is receiving $10.3 million from the federal government.
Northern Marianas Technical Institute Chief Executive Officer Agnes M. McPhetres speaks during a meeting with House Committee on Education members in an NMITI classroom in Lower Base on Wednesday last week.
Photo by Emmanuel T. Erediano
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration announced that it is funding the construction of a new facility to house the NMTI trades program.
This EDA grant is expected to create 410 jobs, retain 385 jobs, and generate $2 million in private investment, the U.S. Department of Commerce said.
“I am happy that before I leave the institution the federal grant assistance came,” McPhetres said on Friday, adding that when she became NMTI CEO in 2014, “there was nothing and I lived with that.”
At that time, NMTI, which was founded in 2008 by local businessman Tony Pellegrino, was a private nonprofit trade school. It became a government entity with the enactment of Public Law 20-92 in February 2019.
On Wednesday, in a meeting with House Committee on Education members at NMTI, McPhetres said due to a “lack of smooth transition,” she and the rest of the staff, including the instructors, were basically jobless.
But Variety learned that the instructors will be retained by the new board.
