PSS stands pat with termination decision

Faced with doubts and varied speculations, Board of Education chair Marylou Ada said the Public School System board is more concerned about nurturing and developing the children of the CNMI.

Ada gave this response when asked about the termination of former Education commissioner Cynthia I. Deleon Guerrero last week, who was let go without an explanation, prompting conjectures and rumors.

“We have an enormous responsibility and we want to make sure we are doing the right job for our kids because we want them to be career-ready, college bound, and productive citizens of the Commonwealth,” Ada said.

She pointed out that PSS has 2,000 employees and 10,000 children to think about.

“We have to be unified. We want to provide them an environment that will make them happy by providing professional development, keep up with the latest developments in curriculum, nurture productivity, creativity, and everything else,” Ada added.

She added it is not the PSS board’s role to please everyone.

“People are entitled to their own opinions. As public figures, we have developed a thick skin for criticism. We come into this position knowing that some of the things that we do might not sit well with the people and we are opening ourselves to criticisms.”

“We just take it and move forward because if we will subject ourselves to other people’s criticisms and you get affected, then you don’t belong in this arena,” she added.

There were conjectures that discrimination may have played a role in Deleon Guerrero’s sudden termination, which Ada was quick to deny.

“Deleon Guerrero was not discriminated on. …During her tenure as commissioner, not any one of us ever looked at her as Carolinian. She sat at board meetings, we listened to her….When we hired her, we didn’t see a woman or a Carolinian. We hired Deleon Guerrero because of her qualifications. She represented what we were looking for in a candidate and she was the best,” Ada added.

Ada said she will only believe talks of a lawsuit when one is actually on the table.

“Until such time, my answer is the board will be ready to face any lawsuit if we have to and we are ready to defend our decision because we have nothing to hide. We are accountable for our decisions that were fact-driven and not founded on hearsay because eventually if something happens, we have to be accountable for that.”

“Our decisions are strictly by the book, and no prior agenda. If there’s a lawsuit, there’s a lawsuit and we cannot stop it,” she added.

According to Ada, Deleon Guerrero was to serve four years as commissioner and an employment evaluation is up every year, as stated in her contract. Nov. 21 marks her first year of employment.

“The contract states that we are supposed to evaluate every year and that should validate whether to keep you or not. Every year, you are [going] to be evaluated to see if the same goals are being met and if objectives and improvements are achieved because we want to make sure we are doing the right job for our kids.”

“What we look for is if we are walking on the same path. The board and commissioner have objectives to meet and are supposed to be walking together. But if we are swaying away from the mission that we agreed on, we have a right to say, ‘okay you are not with us.’ We cannot be saying ‘A’ and the commissioner says ‘B’ because that will never work. We will be conflicting each other and that is not good for the schools, teachers, and the students,” she added.

Ada said the board will not swerve from its mission: “students first.”

“We had a meeting with management to make sure that continuity and stability remains at PSS. We do not want to get distracted because we are running 20 schools, 10,000 kids, 2,000 employees, and seven Head Start centers,” Ada said.

“Deleon Guerrero did her best as a commissioner. She served us all the way through 11 months. Now it’s time to go back to our mission, which is student’s first. Things are normal and nothing has changed,” Ada added.