The case of Bennett vs. BOE

Twenty questions is the best way to describe this exercise, even though there are several more points not listed that could stand a little public scrutiny. BOE has given only their side of the story and this is my version because justice can only be determined from the “whole truth and nothing but the truth.” I decided to just let teachers and the people be the jury and executioner because I’m not going to get my hopes up for a hearing and it still won’t solve the problem of power in the hands of poorly qualified and arrogant leadership. The record should also reflect that my predecessor, Mr. Keiper, often referred to the board as a dictatorship, so why should it be any different with me? This list of 20 issues should help teachers and the voters make some determination about who is right or wrong, what needs to be done and who is really the problem. You must also keep in mind there is no real “ethical accountability” for the Board of Education, only the financial accountability by our government and the feds. We have let BOE police themselves and we know what that can and has led to, as you will see in this review of my complaints.

1. BOE refused in 2003 to meet with me so we could establish “ground rules” for the parameters and functions for the BOE teacher rep. It’s been no cooperation from the start.

2. The BOE chair made a verbal agreement with me to apologize to Herman Guerrero when he was ready to apologize to me—a “set up to be sanctioned” as the chair never mentioned the agreement to the board and supported the sanctioning.

3. It took 10 months to get BOE to have a meeting on tenure and when we did meet, BOE’s Marja Lee Taitano promised on the record to meet with the school reps before working on the tenure issue. BOE never contacted the school reps and closed down the ad hoc committee that was supposed to address tenure. The chair gave me a song-and-dance story asking me to wait. I got tired of waiting and called for the union.

4. The BOE teacher rep was “deliberately” left out of the committee meeting that approved PRAXIS. My requests were denied by BOE and the COE to help with the implementation of PRAXIS. Who else is the best person to help the Board and COE with teachers?

5. My request to survey the teachers on several issues was denied. The survey covered PRAXIS, teachers’ support for the BOE teacher rep, to determine if teachers wanted collective bargaining, and to determine if teachers were truly “afraid” to speak out. A search for the truth that was denied by BOE.

6. The refusal of any “formal communications” between the BOE teacher rep and teachers, which includes the use any communication devices of PSS. The BOE teacher rep can’t communicate with the teachers but is accused of not representing teachers. Go figure that.

7. The blackballing of the BOE teacher rep from membership in the committees of the board, which is a gross miscarriage of ethics and defeats the whole purpose of having a BOE teacher rep. Teachers are also being denied their right to provide input in the committees when the BOE teacher rep is not even informed of committee meetings and their agenda.

8.The refusal of BOE to place requests coming from the BOE teacher rep on the agenda of general and committee meetings, which is why I send them to the news.

9.A form of bias or even prejudice is evident in BOE’s behavior when the private school teacher rep, who is really an administrator, can influence BOE policy affecting public school teachers and the public school system as the chair of the Legislative and School Reform Committees. Public school teachers don’t have representation in any committee, even though the BOE teacher rep is the only person on the board with a Masters in Ed. Leadership and a recognized U. S. Constitutional Scholar by the U. S. Congress.

10. The threat, on the record, by Herman Guerrero to kick me off the board in the BOE meeting on April 29 for calling for a union. The threat by Marja Lee Tatiano to “cut my legs if I don’t go along with the board.” It doesn’t take a detective to connect the recent request for my removal to the threats of Mr. Guerrero and Mrs. Taitano.

11. Denying the BOE teacher rep to use the BOE stationary in any formal capacity, which is the silliest and most unprofessional attitude I have ever encountered. I guess they don’t see my name on the letterhead.

12. Trying to “control” the BOE Teacher Rep emphatically demonstrates the contempt BOE has for teachers and their representative. The BOE wants to control the teachers’ representative. Controlling people reminds me of slavery because we only control kids, criminals and the mentally impaired—not board members. Board members are supposed to be free to express opinions with the right to a dissenting vote or opinion. But it is an unwritten rule at BOE you can’t dissent in any way.

13. The harassment of my principal by another principal on two separate occasions, with threats to take actions against me because I visited his campus. BOE members and dignitaries fail to sign-in all the time and his complaints are frivolous nitpicking. As a citizen, I have the right to visit school campuses, not to mention the fact that I am a teacher, parent and BOE member. I was also making a delivery, not visiting any teacher. So we must ask, why would a principal complain and want a BOE member punished for not signing in when I visited his campus, like I’m not a stakeholder? The answer should be obvious and I don’t want to describe the ugliness of his motive and intent.

14. The harassment of my principal by BOE member Herman Guerrero, who threatened to take action against me for putting the GFT newspaper on teachers’ cars at Kagman Elementary. Mr. Guerrero was at KE but instead of coming out to talk to me, he called my school to pressure my principal to do something to me. She had to say, “What do you want me to do to him, its his lunch hour” just to get him to stop pressuring her to take action.

15. The BOE teacher rep has every right to raise the “informal” expectations for BOE members to have a college degree without being threatened and slandered in the news. The recent request for my removal was directly related to my statement about the high school BOE qualifications. I never mentioned a name because it was about the position, not the person. It was Maja Lee who made sure everyone in the CNMI knew it was the chair but she didn’t mention the other person and I wonder why. Now they know how PRAXIS tasted when it was shoved down teachers’ throats because I’m sure the people won’t be electing any more BOE members who don’t have a degree.

16. The chair’s refusal to carry out my request for all BOE travel to be followed by a summary report or presentation so all the BOE members can benefit from the travel experience. This request is almost a year old and BOE members are still traveling and the only way to “reconcile” the benefits of this travel is through a report or presentation. You would also think that if one BOE member learned something that was so vital we had to send them halfway around the world that the information would at the very least be shared. No accountability and it appears we can’t depend on the BOE chair to police BOE.

17. I found out that the unclaimed lottery money had never been appropriated and I asked for teachers to get the money. I proposed that a “teacher panel” will determine how the money will be spent and I will give the final approval, to be concurred in by the BOE chair. The chair told a lie when he said I wanted the money for my own account. The chair’s failure to support this bill is a refusal to help PSS teachers and shows the extremes he will go to just to stop anything I propose for teachers.

18. The BOE meeting that I left and was accused of lying. I had something else to attend to nor did I want to discuss myself when I wasn’t on the official agenda. Yes, the official agenda that was published in the news DID NOT have the BOE teacher rep on it, meaning a board member(s) “manipulated” the BOE secretary into violating Public Law 8-41. Any changes to the agenda published had to be voted on in the general meeting, which never took place, making the vote for my removal nothing more than an “ambush,” given the fact I was never informed or contacted when my removal was in committee.

19. The idea that BOE is going to circumvent the power of teachers by holding its own election stinks and could set teachers back forever. BOE can’t remove me and the governor cannot remove me on the grounds BOE have presented. I’m sure the governor won’t go against his own removal policy just to help the board. But again it shows you how much contempt the BOE has for teachers and their representative. BOE wants to arbitrarily and capriciously decide to have an election without any “concrete” support or input from teachers, ignoring the need for my removal and by their own made-up rules as we go.

20. My final complaint is malicious public prosecution without due process. The governor already proved BOE was maliciously prosecuting me when he did not find grounds to remove me. There is also the fact that BOE sanctioned me and asked the governor to remove me for the same offense—a double punishment that BOE voted on in secret, both times. In neither one of these cases has the board given me the opportunity to present my side of the argument nor did they try to create a working solution to our differences. The BOE has made accusations in the news about me, but I never had my day for a fair judgment. There is no grievance procedure for acting against the board except with a lawsuit and you can’t even sue if you are an employee! The BOE can virtually do and say anything and there is no recourse. The BOE complaints are for the most part a bunch of frivolous charges.

I’m sure these 20 issues provide a completely different version of BOE’s story. You must also consider the fact that BOE had the power to set the proper conditions for teamwork and a good working relationship with the BOE teacher rep—not me. I hope people can now see why I’m holding our BOE accountable just like BOE holds teachers, the Legislature and even the governor accountable—but they can’t take what they dish out. For the first time, the BOE is being held “publicly accountable” to teachers and the general public by the BOE teacher representative and we can see BOE clearly chose to “slaughter” the messenger rather than do the right thing and be accountable. Someone must hold the guardians of our education system accountable. The future is at stake while BOE is playing childish power games, when we should be concentrating on our students and the future of the system, not getting rid of Ambrose. The problem and the resolution should be obvious now and justice is really up to teachers and the voters if BOE doesn’t have the fortitude to correct their own poor decisions. I rest my case.

Ambrose M. Bennett
Kagman High School