{"id":404879,"date":"2024-01-08T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-08T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=404879"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Donna-Flores-steered-PSS-competently-with-her-steady-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Donna-Flores-steered-PSS-competently-with-her-steady-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Donna Flores steered PSS competently with her steady leadership\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

With Dr. Lawrence Camacho taking over today as the new Education commissioner of the Public Schools System, CNMI education leaders and policymakers are united in praising and thanking Donna M. Flores for ensuring that there was continuous and stable school district leadership in the last five months as interim PSS chief.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very fortunate that we live and work in a community where education is important, and this has continued on uninterrupted in the last five months when our current Special Education Program director, Donna Flores, has led, guided, and gave her heartfelt commitment and leadership to [PSS]\u2026,\u201d said Board of Education chair Antonio L. Borja.<\/p>\n

Borja thanked Flores for stepping into the interim role following Dr. Alfred B. Ada\u2019s resignation for health reasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlong with our public education stakeholders, I am grateful to\u2026Flores for stepping up at a time when we need a leader who can continue to steer PSS with its initiatives and programs, work with all our schools, with our parents and community. Quite frankly, her service to our school district couldn\u2019t be more emphasized by how she displayed a remarkably high level of professionalism, respect, and steady leadership that hears and listens to her peers,\u201d Borja said.<\/p>\n

BOE secretary\/treasurer Gregory Pat Borja, who also chairs the BOE Fiscal, Personnel and Administration Committee, described Flores as \u201cvery competent\u201d who took her additional responsibility \u201cvery seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Ms. Flores was very competent at what she did. She took her responsibility very seriously. She helped look at the system from a very big picture point-of-view, to see what changes are needed to help [PSS] run more efficiently, and I think she covered that,\u201d Borja said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought that she did a great job. I\u2019m really thankful to her for stepping into that position: I know it was a challenge\u2026coming into a position\u2026when things or some uncertainty is on the line. But again, she basically filled her own shoes. I think she\u2019s going to be leaving those shoes for someone else to fill now,\u201d Borja added. \u201cWe\u2019re sad to see her go. However, to me personally, I\u2019m happy to see her return to the Special Education Program because she is needed there because she has wealth of experience and expertise in that field as well. All in all, I want to thank her because she did a great job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Expertise<\/p>\n

School leaders recognized Flores for her ability to communicate with all stakeholders because of her breadth of experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer biggest strength is her willingness to listen to people and not to judge immediately. To listen is to let the schools run schools, and let the principals run the program,\u201d said Vince Dela Cruz, the high schools\u2019 principal representative and current Saipan Southern High School principal.<\/p>\n

Dela Cruz describes Flores as \u201ca down-to-earth person who understands the schools\u2019 situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe knows her role\u2026 as a support system. Although she is the leader of the system, she understands that she is there to support the programs and the schools,\u201d adds Dela Cruz.<\/p>\n

Middle Schools principals representative James A. Sablan, who has worked with Flores for many years now, describes her as having a \u201chigh level of professionalism\u201d and as a \u201cstrong leader.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was able to steady the ship. There was no chaos during her time, nothing had changed. She succeeded in continuing the current trend,\u201d said Sablan, who is also the principal of Dandan Middle School. Her \u201ccalmness and willingness to listen\u201d ensured that schools operate continuously without interruptions. \u201cShe held it up very well because of her strong sense of professionalism and work ethic. She has worked with us [for the past five months] to make it easier for us to run our public schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elementary Schools principal representative Paulette Tomokane said, \u201cMrs. Donna Flores is well-recognized for her unwavering support throughout her term as interim commissioner of Education. She played a crucial role in supporting our educational system to move forward with the least disruption. Her leadership, expertise, and collaboration inspired trust and confidence among the school and central office leaders. Her collaboration and trust-building efforts ensured that all stakeholders felt valued and included, leading to improved outcomes. Her willingness to listen and approachable demeanor are qualities I truly appreciate as a principal and elementary school principal representative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tomokane is also the principal of San Vicente Elementary School.<\/p>\n

Respect<\/p>\n

In her last key management meeting last Friday, Flores thanked the school system leadership and the BOE.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for all your support, for giving me respect and respect for this office. We are all here to serve our children and the community. I couldn\u2019t have done it without respect for the job that I do, and for what we do, as a PSS community. I would have done it for you.\u201d Flores told PSS\u2019 key management.<\/p>\n

She added, \u201cLet\u2019s welcome Dr. Camacho. He is excited and is looking forward to working with all of you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The BOE is the policymaking and governing body of PSS. The BOE hires and has the supervisory authority over the commissioner of education.<\/p>\n

Camacho will formally assume his post today as Education commissioner.<\/p>\n

Flores currently serves as the PSS-SPED director. The BOE unanimously selected her as interim Education commissioner last Sept. 3, 2023.<\/p>\n

She did not apply for the position when the BOE announced the application process for the commissioner of education, who also serves as the chief state school superintendent.<\/p>\n

The SPED Program is the single largest program under PSS, with its stakeholders accounting for about 11 % of the overall PSS student population. Its employees, for their part, represent 21% of PSS\u2019 total workforce. (PR)<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Donna M. Flores, center, the Special Program director of the Public School System, who has been the interim Education commissioner in the last five months, thanked her colleagues and the Board of Education during her last key management meeting last Friday. Flores will return to her current position since the new Education commissioner assumes today.<\/p>\n

-PSS
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With Dr. Lawrence Camacho taking over today as the new Education commissioner of the Public…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-404879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404879","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404879\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}