BOE, Bennett reaches détente

The Board of Education is imploring teacher representative Ambrose Bennett to cooperate with the rest of the board and to start a new beginning by addressing all his concerns directly to the board through his teacher’s report.

In the board’s response to a letter of complaint that Bennett submitted in July, Board chair Roman C. Benavente said that Bennett should discontinue his “letter-writing campaign” and work directly with the board “in the spirit of cooperation.”

“Most of your letters are bullying, threatening, preachy, demanding, judgmental, condescending and grammatically incorrect,” Benavente said.

If Bennett wants the board to refrain from taking a particular course of action, then he should request the board to do so during the board meeting, Benavente said, reading aloud the board’s prepared response. “Do not write a letter demanding that we ‘reframe’ (sic) from taking action,” he stated.

Benavente explained to Bennett during the meeting that the board takes actions during meetings with the majority vote prevailing. He said Bennett’s role is to make suggestions during meetings for consideration by the full board before action is taken.

He said the board will not communicate further with Bennett through letters, and should not expect the board to respond to any future demands made outside of board meetings.

“You must speak your mind during meetings,” Benavente said, “and not after, in letters to the board and to the media. We do not write accusatory letters back and forth, which has been your chosen method of communication.”

As for Bennett’s push for “collective bargaining” among teachers, the board said it would not enter into such an arrangement “when it would appear that Bennett would want to create a collective bargaining arrangement where he would be an ‘appointed dictator or king.’”

Bennett had also filed a request for the board to address teachers’ tenure while maintaining high quality educators. To this, Benavente said the board had asked Bennett to submit a proposal but he has failed to do so. The board asked Bennett again to submit his proposal for this, said Benavente.

The board praised Bennett’s recognition of PSS’ efforts to arrange and pay for the PRAXIS training of CNMI public schoolteachers. “It is unfortunate that you reserve your praise only for times when money is involved,” Benavente said.

On another issue raised by Bennett, the board said the implementation of the yearly 60-hour professional development requirement for teacher certification is not a new event. Benavente said the change to the regulation was simply a clarification. He said the annual requirement of 60 hours has been the intent of the board since it adopted the revised teacher certification regulations in January 2004.

Bennett reacts

Bennett said yesterday that he was not satisfied with the board’s response to him last week but he respects what it said.

“I fully intend to try and work more cooperatively with the board,” he said, adding that he would deal with the board’s letter in the future board meetings and not in the news.

To assure an end to the negativity, he said he would not respond to the letter itself or say anything in the news regarding the board and him because both have agreed on a “new beginning.”

He said he is more concerned now with the system as he is waiting for the board’s approval of a travel request to attend a workshop that would help him write a “Behavioral Plan for Aggressive Teens” as a means to address vandalism in schools.