Former CNMI teacher John Raulerson continues his winning ways at Florida\u2019s Oak Ridge High. The headlines read: \u201cHigh school teacher gets results with engineering, design team championship\u201d \u201cOak Ridge High School team prepares to represent state in design challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raulerson has now won seven straight state level competitions and two national titles with his students in engineering designs. Yes, this is the former teacher at MHS who was \u201cfired without cause.\u201d <\/p>\n
I tried to correct this obvious flaw in the way we treat employees of our school system but the former ACT group sided with the Board of Education to fight me. I guess PSS still hasn\u2019t learned that it is wrong to fire people for no reason; their mistakes are coming back to haunt them. <\/p>\n
It was really a crime against our students for Raulerson to have been fired for no reason. The CNMI, especially PSS, really needs to take note of Mr.\u00a0 Raulerson,\u00a0who was spotlighted on the local news as \u201cThis week\u203as getting results award winner,\u201d as Raulerson\u00a0and his team were announced as Florida\u2019s state champions of the Real World Design Challenge earlier this year.\u00a0The competition challenges public and private high school students to use core STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) principles and apply them to workplace problems.<\/p>\n
Raulerson\u203as\u00a0classroom is an after-school gathering place for team members nearly obsessed with the idea of perfecting their project.<\/p>\n
Raulerson said: \u00abWe get a problem and we solve it. Then we move on to the next one. The kids worked hard. I just call this a team a think tank.\u00bb <\/p>\n
Just to show readers the importance of his work, Raulerson said: \u00abWe\u203are coming up with an aircraft system that is going to be very, very economic. It\u203as going to help farmers spray and take care of their fields.\u00bb <\/p>\n
There is no teacher in PSS who is teaching engineering and inspiring students to become astronauts. The CNMI really lost a great one in Raulerson and I\u2019m writing this in hopes that it will never ever happen again, especially when\u00a0PSS continues to have a teacher shortage and each member of the winning national team will receive\u00a0$50,000 in\u00a0scholarship money. <\/p>\n
The Oak Ridge Real World Design Challenge team competes in Washington, D.C. next month but the CNMI no longer even has a team!\u00a0It should also be noted that Raulerson will be teaching engineering next year when PSS has yet to even have an engineering program. I guess PSS thinks we will keep getting CW engineers and never mind our own children.<\/p>\n
The problem of race<\/strong> I have also witnessed this prejudice by PSS. A board member said I could not write a textbook because I was not local! Heck, I was told that I am not qualified anymore to be a Title 1 teacher simply because I complained about a payment process of the program. But a former Board Member who was and still may be a Title 1 teacher literally \u201cassaulted\u201d a student at Garapan Elementary but it was hushed up and she was not terminated and may still be a Title 1 teacher today. <\/p>\n The problem at PSS is old and deeply rooted in the behavior of the leadership as the board even fought against my textbook that received great reviews and a resolution from both houses of the Legislature. <\/p>\n The CNMI has a real problem when it comes to letting non-locals be leaders, especially blacks as PSS seldom ever recruits a black person unless they are a specialist. People like Raulerson and myself are small in numbers, so we are treated very much like we are the enemy by the power brokers when we are only trying to help. But it will surely come back to haunt PSS and the CNMI, just like Raulerson\u2019s accomplishments have done.<\/p>\n Ambrose M. Bennett<\/strong> Former CNMI teacher John Raulerson continues his winning ways at Florida\u2019s Oak Ridge High. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[26,118,67,40],"class_list":["post-272212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters-to-the-editor","tag-cnmi","tag-cw","tag-people","tag-pss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272212","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\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nRace is still a real issue in the CNMI as all Raulerson ever wanted was respect and the opportunity to compete for the Teacher of the Year, which he made known to his principal but he was always overlooked and even cheated out of being in the competition. I know that one teacher who was MHS\u2019 Teacher of the Year stated that \u201cit should have been Raulerson\u201d but that\u2019s just how it is in the CNMI when you are not local and you speak up. You get blackballed like I have been for years by PSS and some government officials. Raulerson was replaced to only teach math, which speaks volumes of the problem. <\/p>\n
\nKagman, Saipan<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"