TO ENSURE TEACHERS HAVE A VOICE

Education Commissioner Dr. Rita A. Sablan said the House of Representatives should act on a bill that would institutionalize the selection of a public school teachers’ representative on the Board of Education.

Sablan made the request in a letter to House Education Committee chair Rep. Raymond Palacios (Cov-Saipan), a day before she failed to appear in a House committee hearing on alleged abuses and other issues surrounding the oldest public high school on island.

Sablan, along with Public School System human resource officer Charlie Kenty and of Marianas High School principal Craig Garrison, was invited by Palacios’ panel to testify at Friday’s hearing.

The commissioner suggested in her letter to Palacios that lawmakers should pass a measure that would ensure that teachers are well represented in the policymaking body for public schools.

“I suggest that if you and the members of the Legislature are concerned that teachers lack a voice in the administration of the PSS, that the Legislature should act upon their constitutional mandate to pass legislation that would set up a process to select the teacher representative to the board as mandated by Article XV, Section 1(c) of the CNMI Constitution,” said Sablan.

Sablan also disclosed in her June 2 letter that PSS and the Board of Education did not intervene in the MHS situation since no grievance or complaint had been filed against Garrison.

PSS has three policies governing grievance and complaints: policy 60-30-1-328, which is the grievance procedure for employees regarding promotional opportunities; policy 60-30-2-501, which is the general grievance procedure; and policy 60-3-3-401, the grievance procedure for contractual employment-related grievances.

“These are grievance and complaint procedures that are in place to protect every member of the PSS. Mr. [James] Yangetmai never availed himself of these procedures and has never given the PSS leadership any opportunity to address them,” said Sablan.

The seat for public school teachers’ representative became vacant in January 2008 with the expiration of Ambrose Bennett’s term of office. The delay in appointing public school teachers’ rep was caused by the PSS’ unmet requirements in the CNMI Constitution that mandates the certification of a possible candidate by a collective bargaining agent of public school teachers.

The teacher representative for private schools has also been vacant since October last year when Scott Norman’s tenure ended. The governor has yet to appoint anyone to this post.