BOE approves work hour increase for Headstart TAs
The State Board of Education has approved the CNMI Headstart Program’s requested time extension for its teacher assistants from four to six working hours per day.
BOE Vice Chair Roman Benavente said there is currently a pressing demand for teacher aides to spend more time in the classroom and assist teachers on the students’ learning.
In addition, the board has also agreed to extend teacher assistants’ working days from four to five school days per week.
Though Education Commissioner Dr. Rita Inos has expressed preference to shelve the time extension until such time that teacher aides can be fully certified in their field, the board still opted to push for the implementation.
During a BOE meeting, Dr. Inos said she had wanted the implementation the working hours increase to include elementary school level teacher aides, according to the BOE vice chair.
“And I support the Commissioner on this. At the same time, the board has also decided to address the immediate needs of the Headstart program,” said Mr. Benavente.
He added the Public School System, according to Dr. Inos, needs to develop a proper mechanism to certify teacher assistants to add to the improvement in the quality of public education.
The time extension is targeted to take effect next school year. In an earlier interview, Headstart Program Director Dino Taitano raised concerns that teacher assistants tend to use up their maximum work hours before the school year’s end.
The program currently has close to 40 teacher assistants spread throughout the 15 Headstart centers in the CNMI.
Each center consists of one certified teacher (with BA degree) paired with a teacher aide.
“As far as manning our classrooms, we’re fine because of the nature of the working contract of our teacher assistants. Some of them had to leave the program early before the school year ended. We did not foresee that they would use up all of their hours before today,” said Mr. Taitano.
“There were some who have used up their allotted hours since the beginning of May. So this served as a lesson for us,” he added.
In its Fiscal Year 2000 budget request, the Headstart Program is batting for more funding which would provide for the additional working hours.
CNMI has over 800 three to five year-olds eligible for the Headstart Program.
The program hopes that all children share certain needs, and that children from low-income families in particular benefit from a comprehensive development program.
It is based on the philosophy that a child can benefit most from a comprehensive, inter-disciplinary program to foster development and remedy problems of a child.
The overall goal of the program is to enhance each child’s effectiveness in dealing with both the present environment and later responsibilities in education and social life. (MM)
