{"id":273463,"date":"2018-04-06T06:06:20","date_gmt":"2018-04-05T20:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=273463"},"modified":"2018-04-06T06:06:20","modified_gmt":"2018-04-05T20:06:20","slug":"mcs-welcomes-merfalen-as-new-vice-principal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/mcs-welcomes-merfalen-as-new-vice-principal\/","title":{"rendered":"MCS welcomes Merfalen as new vice principal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mount Carmel School\u2019s new vice principal, Barbara Merfalen, left, works with principal Frances Taimanao in preparing upcoming professional development for school faculty. (Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mount Carmel School announced this week that it had hired Barbara Merfalen as its new vice principal.<\/p>\n

Merfalen comes to the school with degrees in education and about three decades of experience in K-12 and higher education as both an instructor and an administrator. Merfalen holds a Bachelors of Arts degree in Elementary Education from the University of Guam, a graduate studies in Administration and Supervision from the University of Guam, and a Masters of Education in International Studies from Framingham University. In the 1990s and early 2000s, she taught in the CNMI Public School system, where she was eventually appointed to lead Kagman Elementary School as its vice principal. In 2006, Merfalen was hired as an instructor at Northern Marianas College\u2019s School of Education. While at the college, she rose to serve as director for the School of Education and eventually as the college\u2019s dean of academic programs and services.<\/p>\n

Upon leaving Northern Marianas College, Merfalen was sought after by many organizations on island, but she decided to come to Mount Carmel School. When asked why she made that decision, Merfalen said, \u201cI felt guided by God to return to my roots as an educator in early childhood and elementary education, but especially in a Catholic school.\u201d In addition to her experience in education, Merfalen has been very active in her parish as a minister and as a Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) teacher.<\/p>\n

Since coming to the school, Merfalen has been very happy. As she put it, \u201cI don\u2019t know how to put it in words, but it feels good being here. I feel respected, appreciated, and welcomed. It feels like home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking forward, Merfalen plans to improve instructional quality by helping faculty grow professionally. \u201cEvery student can learn, but I also believe that every teacher and staff can learn, including myself.\u201d In particular, Merfalen intends to use and share research-based strategies for best practices in teaching and learning. <\/p>\n

Merfalen also noted, \u201cJust as the school\u2019s mission is to educate the whole person to see with Christ\u2019s eyes, I hope to also lead by example in how I treat my colleagues.\u201d <\/p>\n

School principal Frances Taimanao has worked with Merfalen before in the CNMI Public School System. \u201cShe accomplished a lot in starting our school community in Kagman, and she knows many of the other PSS veterans that are here at Mount Carmel School,\u201d said Taimanao. <\/p>\n

She added, \u201cWe all respect and love her and are so excited that she is joining our family!\u201d<\/p>\n

School president Galvin Deleon Guerrero is also very happy that Merfalen agreed to join the school\u2019s leadership team. He said, \u201cMrs. Merfalen is an accomplished educator and leader who is respected by virtually everyone in our community.\u201d He added, \u201cShe brings a wealth of skill, expertise, and experience that will undoubtedly help our teachers and students, and she does everything with a big heart and a warm smile.\u201d (PR)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mount Carmel School announced this week that it had hired Barbara Merfalen as its new…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":273465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[11796,1181,1111,262],"class_list":["post-273463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-elementary-education","tag-mcs","tag-mount-carmel-school","tag-northern-marianas-college"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273463","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\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}