cnmi ACT now

A motley crew of PSS teachers gathered Wednesday night at the STaRpo Parent-Teacher Center at Chalan Kanoa to jump-start the dormant Association of Commonwealth Teachers transitionally being led by James Yangetmai of the Marianas High School. The last president of ACT on record was Mr. Sapporo Rayphand, now retired but who wrote not too long ago to the editor of this paper urging teachers to sign a petition asking the governor to hold another election for his Teachers’ Representative appointee to the Board of Education.

This column intimated earlier that the Governor’s Office was poised to hold a special election in September. Press secretary Peter Callaghan later clarified that the option was one among many seriously considered but that there was nothing definite on the drawing board. We recall that the governor first asked the Board of Education to hold another election when the furor over Mr. A. Bennett’s questionable style of representation was at its height. The BoE declined, and rightly so, since they had nothing to do with Mr. Bennett’s appointment. This matter sits squarely on the governor’s lap.

With the confusion attendant to the imposition of the PRAXIS requirements on teachers, and the accompanying griping and complaining that followed, it became obvious that the matter of effective teacher representation in the policymaking board has become critical. Legitimate questions were raised as to why meeting certification requirements in a force that is no more than 500-strong cannot be done on a one-on-one basis. There are veterans previously certified by accredited national bodies and who are nearing retirement age. Grandfathering qualified teachers into the system, especially if their supervisors certify their competency, is not a difficult thing to do.

Mr. Bennett brought one such case to the BoE’s attention on behalf of a high school teacher, but which elicited no response from the board. Given the state of collegial relationships between Mr. Bennett and the rest of the members of the board, we can only surmise that extraneous luggage previously strewn on the hallways of the deliberative process in the board has made listening between contending parties a lost cause. Besides, traffic on the educational pipeline seems to run a one-way street. BoE writes to the governor and is ignored; teachers write to the board, and they do not get a response. We’re par for the course!

While there are national standards set to gauge the “qualified teachers” requirement of the No Child Left Behind Act, local decisions as to their own standards, when clearly and rationally presented, are just as equally valid. The redundancy of PRAXIS I for teachers already in the classrooms, or have already completed an accredited bachelor’s degree is an obvious example. Federal programs and support have long been mistakenly viewed as Big Brother wielding huge inflexible compliance hammers. Having lived within the Beltway with a spouse who worked for the feds, the support toward local autonomy in policy, program and projects by federal offices is grossly underrated. To be sure, the integrity of local decisions can only be claimed from the bottom. It cannot be served on a silver platter from the top.

Thus, we see the need for BoE to become a more proactive body given its reliance on federal support, and for ACT to get its act together again, if teachers are going to be effectively represented. Mr. Rayphand’s advice that teachers seriously consider the petition for a special election is relevant. The letter to the Governor, which has a hundred signatures so far, reads:

“We, the undersigned, view with concern the state of our representation in the Board of Education, particularly the continuing acrimony between our Teachers’ Representative, Mr. Ambrose Bennett, and some members of the body.

We recognize that Mr. Bennett has remained steadfast in his conviction that the members of the Board had not welcomed his participation in the body. His frequent pronouncements in the Media lead us to think that the animosity he is receiving, though perhaps not justifiable, is nevertheless, understandable. In any case, we, as teachers, are shorn of an effective representative to mirror effectively our views and concerns in the Board and in public.

In this regard, since the Teachers Representative serves as an appointee of your office, we urge that teachers be given another chance to advise you of their choice on who should represent their interests. You called for an election that resulted in Mr. Bennett’s appointment. We urge that you call for another election to determine whether we still want him to represent us.

Student Learning is the focus of our Public School System. We would like to see that this remains a sharp focus of the Board in its deliberations. Extraneous issues appear to us to have intervened. There are some amongst us who believe Mr. Bennett has contributed immensely to this sordid state of affairs. We want to gauge the pulse of our colleagues to determine whether Mr. Bennett still retains our trust and confidence.

For our common cause of effective educational structures, we remain respectfully yours …”

Teachers particularly in Tinian and Rota may e-mail their consent or dissent to the petition letter at cnmiACTnow@aol.com, or call James Yangetmai, 286-8849, or Joe Roberto, 484 1301, or Jaime Vergara, 288 4118, for further information.

Instead of the frequent droning whine that accompanies teachers’ gatherings, ACT would rather strategize effective action and devise winning maneuvers to further teachers’ professional interest. The Teachers’ Representative Panel, a feature of ACT’s organizational design, pre-empted by Mr. Bennett’s run to the BoE seat, may be reclaimed and returned to its rightful venue.

A special election can mean two things. It will serve as a referendum to Mr. Bennett’s mandate to represent teachers to the school board. Should his re-election be affirmed, assuming that he runs again, then we’d be first in line in zipping the lip and de-inking the printer, be on the forefront in shoring up his support. It will also serve to activate teachers’ voices and choices, should a new representative be chosen.

Jeffersonian fellow Mr. Bennett respects the constitutional “consent and dissent of the governed.” We trust he welcomes this referendum call.

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Vergara is a Social Studies 6th grade teacher at San Vicente Elementary School