The Public School System would need about $7.6 million more in yearly appropriations to pay for the 200 or more teachers needed to meet the Board of Education-mandated teacher-student ratio of 25:1\u2014with more of those teachers needed for high schools\u2014according to PSS federal programs officer Tim Thornburg.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat would take us back to fiscal year \u201911,\u201d he said in an interview.<\/p>\n
According to a PSS statement last Friday, the last year PSS met the BOE teacher-student ratio was in school year 2011-2012\u2014with a ratio of 24:1.<\/p>\n
Thornburg got the $7.6 million figure by taking into the account the $38,000 a teacher would earn with benefits during a school year\u2014running that times the 200 teachers PSS needs.<\/p>\n
On the PSS\u2019 budget increase of around $1.1 million\u2014approved by the Legislature in their budget bill last week\u2014Thornburg estimates that it would allow PSS to hire 29 more teachers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019d help,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He noted, however, that recruiting teachers in September or October is not the best time, as he said the best time to do so for preparation for a school year would be from December to March the year prior.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been plenty of studies from the National Center for Education Statistics that state if you\u2019re recruiting between December and March you should be able to get the teachers you need,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said the \u201creally big need\u201d according to PSS data is teachers in language arts, chemistry, and environmental sciences.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s where the real need is,\u201d he said, adding that the need \u201cis much more pronounced\u201d in the islands\u2019 high schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a college here that graduates about 20 in elementary education every year. Many of them are teacher aides that have gone to get a BA, but the college doesn\u2019t graduate anybody, not even one, with a degree in math, in physics,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He noted that students who want to be chemistry teachers have to go off island to get a degree.<\/p>\n
When asked about the strain or added costs it takes PSS to recruit teachers off-island, he noted competitiveness among schools as a factor.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat it is, is your competing with every school district in the United States, and again if they\u2019re out recruiting in December to March [then] that\u2019s when we need to go,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
PSS noted last Friday a 27:1 teacher-student ratio for last school year. Earlier, it was reported that this year\u2019s ratio is estimated at around 30:1, according to Derek Sasamato, PSS director of finance and budget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Public School System would need about $7.6 million more in yearly appropriations to pay…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[39,20,40,57],"class_list":["post-178617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-boe","tag-budget","tag-pss","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178617\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}