Retirees eyed as teachers in schools

Senate vice president Pete Reyes recently called on his contemporaries in the upper chamber to support his proposed bill to allow retirees to have the opportunity to teach in public schools.

The senator sought the support of his fellow senators during last week’s confirmation hearing of Department of Community and Cultural Affairs Secretary Daisy Villagomez-Bier.

Reyes told the Senate Committee on Executive Appointments and Government Investigation about his proposed bill when concerns and issues were raised regarding ways of preserving the CNMI’s culture through retention of its languages.

Reyes said during the question-and-answer portion that his bill, Senate Legislative Initiative No. 15-01, which he had introduced in January, fosters “a constitutional amendment to explicitly state that qualified retirees may be re-employed as classroom teachers.”

During the discussion, it was argued that the CNMI’s elderly have the most capacity to teach Chamorro, Carolinian, and other indigenous languages in the Commonwealth.

Moreover, the senator’s bill includes re-hiring of doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals who have already retired—without loss of retirement benefits.

He said his bill also aims to eliminate some confusion on the eligibility for re-employment without the loss of retirement benefits.

“Some have construed the constitutional amendment and statute narrowly to state that individuals may only be re-employed in occupations in which they were employed prior to retirement and to exclude medical and dental technicians and others from eligibility for such re-employment,” part of the proposed bill reads.

Such was never the intent of the legislative initiative or the legislation, said Reyes, which is why he proposed the bill so that it would amend and eliminate the uncertainty and “misapplication” by stating even more explicitly that the constitutional provision is intended to apply broadly to help the CNMI meet its human resources needs in the general fields stated.

The proposed bill also tries to clarify the term “medical professionals” to include dentists, dental lab technicians, dental assistants, medical lab technicians, medical assistants, therapists, veterinarians, and animal health officer or its equivalent.