Renaming of Hopwood Jr. divides community

A proposal renaming Hopwood Junior High School after one of its pioneer teachers has elicited mixed reactions from the community, throwing the House Committee on Education in an imbroglio that could become a divisive public issue.
Committee chair Rep. Brigida DLG. Ichihara said there is still no clear decision whether to pass the legislation naming the educational facility as Janet S. Tenorio Jr. High School even after conducting a public hearing Tuesday night.
The committee will discuss the measure in the next few weeks and come up with a report by May. “There are still some issues that we must straighten out,” the chairperson told in an interview yesterday.
According to Ms. Ichihara, many have supported the measure, but others also have expressed opposition due to, among the other things, the cost associated with the name change.
Sponsored by Rep. Thomas B. Pangelinan, a former Hopwood principal, House Bill 12-96 seeks to rename the school in honor of Mrs. Tenorio who it said has dedicated most of her life in the field of education in the CNMI.
She started her career as secretary for a year at Hopwood school in September 1961, later served as testing administrator for the Trust Territory and continued on under the CNMI government as school counselor from July 1962 to October 1979 in the same institution.
Mrs. Tenorio went on to become a guidance counselor under the Department of Education until her retirement in 1987.
Renaming Hopwood after her will recognize and honor her 25 years of “dedicated and unselfish public service to the educational welfare and well being” of the children on the island, according to Mr. Pangelinan.

Speechless
The honor has left Mrs. Tenorio, in her own words, speechless.
“I am deeply grateful to you and Rep. Tom Pangelinan… for the recognition and honor inherent in this act,” she wrote in a letter to Ms. Ichihara. “The greatest honor one can have is to ‘live on the lips of men.’ Your remembrance is the real gift.”
She also praised the “excellent” instructors and administrators she had worked with as well as the “amazing” students she had whom she said have become “solid and law-abiding citizens” of the community.
One of her students, Bank of Saipan President and CEO Tomas B. Aldan, fondly remembered Mrs. Tenorio as his dedicated English teacher at Hopwood.
“Throughout my school days here on Saipan, I hold her in the highest regard,” he said in testimony submitted to the House committee. “She imparts to me, as a student, the need to study and excel.”
Making an impassioned appeal in support of the legislation, Mr. Aldan said that this is “a reflection of her student trying to honor her with such distinction.”
Businessman Clarence T. Tenorio hailed Mrs. Tenorio as a pioneer in the local educational system. ” As a living attestation to her contribution to education, most of her former students are now successful businessmen, professional figures, civic leaders and politicians,” he said.
Former Lt. Gov. Pete A. Tenorio, himself a former Hopwood teacher, described her as a classic example of a true educator, saying the proposal is both “appropriate and indeed thoughtful” of the Legislature.
It is a “great honor and respect to this quiet and unassuming person within our midst who has given so much of her life providing us the most important element for success in life: education,” he said.

Bandwagon
Saipan Mayor Jose C. Sablan said the honor is timely and fitting in view of his office’s recent recognition awarded to Mrs. Tenorio for her contribution to education.
“It was then that other elected leaders jumped on the bandwagon and passed resolution honoring” her, he said, adding the mayor’s office has been in the forefront in opening the door for the slew of acclaim given to Mrs. Tenorio.
“Few, if any, will argue that she is perhaps the greatest educator that has ever stepped into a classroom in the Marianas,” said Mr. Sablan.
But perhaps, the Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council, when commenting on the bill, saw the irony of renaming the school.
“It saddens us that we have gotten so accustomed to the name Hopwood Jr. High School [and not Admiral Herbert G. Hopwood Jr. High School], but since nothing is permanent, we are fully endorsing” the bill, the council said in its testimony.
But current Hopwood principal, Lourdes T. Mendiola, conveyed the sentiment of present staff and faculty of the decades-old institution who she said have indicated their desire to retain its name.
Established in the 1950s, the former Saipan Intermediate School was renamed as Hopwood Junior High School in honor of the admiral who served as U.S. Navy commanding officer in the Marianas.
“Let it be resolved that the honor of our forefathers have bestowed by dedicating the school to Admiral Herbert G. Hopwood be respected,” said Ms. Mendiola in her testimony.
She, however, urged the House to name the proposed new junior high school to be built in Kagman after Mrs. Tenorio who she said “deserves the honor of dedicating a school in her name.”