EDUCATION FORUM

(The Saipan Tribune invited its readers to submit questions that will be posed to all Board of Education candidates. Today, we feature the response of John B. Joyner.)

Q. What new ideas do you have to help the board change and improve the Public School System?

A. One new idea is consideration of a procedure to measure annually how each school incorporates performance standards to help students meet and exceed reading, writing, math, and science proficiency goals. A second idea is to introduce a form of student-based budgeting that gives a means to distribute funds fairly to individual schools based on educational needs specific to that school. Included in this idea are powers for individual school communities to have flexibility and decision-making input to say how to use those funds.

Q. What do you think is PSS’ biggest challenge for the next four years and how will your membership on the board help to address this challenge?

A. The biggest challenge is accountability, how progress is measured, and how to determine what and how well students learn. My membership on the board provides a fresh approach and the expertise for getting and utilizing reliable educational assessment information. Accountability and assessment work hand-in-hand.

Q. Should teachers be granted a status that protects them from summary dismissal? Why or why not?

A. Yes. While PSS administration must retain final authority for determining the make-up of PSS personnel, a procedure must be in place to adjudicate employee grievances. Unlike the private sector, PSS employment relationships are not “at-will,” meaning that either the employee or employer my terminate the employment relationship at any time, for any reason, or for no reason at all. Any risk of arbitrary or capricious hiring or summary dismissal by PSS should be lessened. There must be policies for appeal hearings and review. The question is about fairness as well as equity.

Q. What is the responsibility of the board in helping preserve the CNMI’s indigenous cultures?

A. This is a fundamental responsibility in the mission of the boards, to have an educational system that reinvigorates and reflects the values and way of life of our indigenous cultures. Board policies must encourage every level of the system to vigorously participate daily to renew and honor the dynamics of these cultures and to help keep alive the cultural spirit and spontaneity necessary to maintain a sense of self, self pride, and self respect.

Q. How will you work with other board members to ensure harmony, consensus, and cooperation in board deliberations?

A. I will recognize that each of us on the board brings a different perspective to each matter of deliberation. I will value that difference. I will respect our individuality and keep focused on student learning and how best to effect that. I will show trust for and confidence in other members and I will remember that peace can be maintained only as I am peaceful. I will be aware of how the board can reduce its own costs through teleconferencing and how it can utilize its funding more effectively through designating parents or teachers to attend training conferences. I will serve on the board in the belief that each member honestly wants to do a good job, a creative job, and I will honor that.

Q. What qualifications will you look for in a candidate when the Board seeks to fill the soon-to-be vacant position of Commission of Education?

A. I will look for qualifications very similar to those being used by the voters to fill the present vacancies on the board. A candidate committed to excellence; one competent with “personnel,” “budget,” “assessment,” and other PSS matters, but who keeps each area focused in the context of student learning. A person who gives others pride in what they do; highly capable and innovative; engenders enthusiasm, and exudes respect for students, teachers, parents, administrators, staff, and CNMI communities. A person whose base in education philosophy is solid, yet flexible enough to intelligently experiment and try things out. One who questions the how and what of everything PSS presently does. A person who, if they are from off-island, is sure enough of their own credentials and qualifications and is committed enough to our unique needs that they would accept the Commissioner’s position on a 3-months to 9-months probation period.

Q. What contribution will you make to the board to help CNMI students, as a whole, to equal or surpass the academic achievement of students in the mainland?

A. PSS can be on the leading edge of educational innovation in the world. Already the mainland recognizes us for our homegrown academic achievements and procedures and how we flourish with so little in resources. We could be a model for the world. My contribution is to foster self-esteem and encourage the development of a “Chamolinian Intelligence Test of Cultural Homogeneity” (CITCH), an intelligence test specific to Chamolinian cultures. What mainland student would correctly answer a test item asking for the meaning of “finadeni” or “saliyali?” It’s time to broaden the definition of learning in all its aspects and to embrace the validity of the contributions from island standards. We must realize that we are participants in a two-way global education market. With our passion for and joy of learning and living, and with competent teachers, construction of new school facilities, repair and maintenance, and greater control of federal and grant monies, we can exceed mainland proficiency standards.

Q. Students in the CNMI often receive little or no practical training in fields where employment is available. There is little opportunity for student laboratory experience and training in sciences, because basic laboratory equipment has not been supplied for courses such as biology, chemistry and physics. How do you propose to help students prepare for careers in medicine, nursing and other technical fields where laboratory training is important?

A. The wording of this question focuses on lack, what we don’t have. But, for marine biology we have the vast ocean; we have medicinal plants that don’t exist anywhere else on the planet; so with a bird species; active volcanoes and sea-life galore; unique flora and fauna; the deepest point on Earth. We are an incredible laboratory of biology, chemistry, physics and other sciences, and of human relations, if we but determine new ways to harness and utilize the resource that we are—naturally. Careers are born by following that about which one is most passionate. I propose to help the board help PSS become passionate about our natural endowments.