How I got my job

By CRAIG GARRISON
Special to the Saipan Tribune

When the commissioner position came open several years ago, the then Board of Education chair at that time was the sole person according to the regulations that would decide who gets hired as the commissioner. At the time both David Borja, the acting associate commissioner for administrative services, and Rita Sablan, the associate commissioner for curriculum and instruction, had both applied for the position. However, there was a disagreement. Several board members recommended Rita Sablan; however, the chair never really liked her, so he decided that it would be David Borja in spite of the recommendation, as this was his choice. It should be said here that the regulation has since been changed to a majority vote for the position of commissioner.

When David took the post, Rita resigned her position and filed suit against PSS as she believed she was better qualified for the post, as during that time it was also revealed that David Borja had received his PhD from an online “unaccredited diploma mill” as released that year by the GAO report. Rita went off to Oregon and continued the lawsuit; Dave struggled through being the commissioner for nearly two years. During that time Rita would pursue her own PhD, also online, although reportedly from Phoenix University, which is much more reputable than Dave’s, which was California Coast University, although I would add that even Phoenix can give credit for life experience, so go figure. Currently, California Coast has since had some of their degree programs accredited by the DTEC, which is for online schools and is on the list of accrediting agencies displayed in the USDOE website. However they no longer offer PhD’s.

When the new election came around and a new board chair was elected, the board saw the opportunity to remove David as the majority had not recommended him in the first place and he was already getting flak from his subordinates. Soon after, they would place demands on David that surely he would fail at, and thus giving them a reason to remove him.

Once they did that, they thought that it might be a good idea to put visiting principals in the COE position during the interim until the position could be announced and filled. That worked for about two weeks or so and it was clear that this decision was problematic with all the documents to be signed and reviewed, and legal decisions that needed to be made, so that’s where I come in. I was selected to be the acting commissioner until such a time when the position could be filled, even if it was months. Although offered to apply, I wasn’t up to taking it, partly because I felt I wasn’t ready and partly because I think we were all looking for this highly qualified, educated, and highly skilled superintendent that would lead us into the light. I was indeed happy to take on the task temporarily as I felt the system needed not only stability at the time but also needed a few things cleaned up. Also, because I knew at Saipan Southern we needed that stability at the top to ensure the school stayed on track as it was still a new school. So during the months of July and August in the summer I prepared the Office of the Commissioner for what would be a new hire. I carefully organized the processes and procedures, redirected resources, changed practices that were otherwise repeating and simply making the central office more efficient in its operations. All of which were met with constant praise by the way. I also recognized the need for equity and instructed Finance to inform me how much money was needed to give every support staff in the system a step raise. The total at the time was just over $200,000, which in comparison to the amount of money we spend on travel at the COE level now was nothing…so I then executed the order and gave everyone a raise. I cannot tell you how much of a positive impact this had on staff morale and work output, even when the raise to the check in many cases was a only a few dollars or even cents, but I can tell you that even today, years later, support staff from across the system still approach me with a thank you, usually followed by “when are you going to be commissioner.” I then began to create a comprehensive “exit plan” document that was to be used by the incoming commissioner to ease the transition to the post and ensure not only continuity but equity that could be maintained as they took on the role. That “exit plan” would later be dismissed without even being looked at and filed in the bin by the new COE.

Following the announcement of the COE position, there were several applicants, two of whom were Rita Sablan and Ambrose Bennett, one other that was a former Rota teacher living in the States and two others from off island. Early on, the Rota applicant withdrew her application; the other two off island had incredibly exceptional credentials with one of them being a national superintendent of the year, etc. Unfortunately, even though their files were nearly complete, the final document faxed would come after 4:30 of the closing date and so at that time HRO did not want to be in a position of breaking a rule, so to speak, as they were already under scrutiny for accepting Dave Borja’s unaccredited degree prior and also being sued by Rita Sablan.

So then the dilemma arose. I needed to make a decision, although not without the board. The problem was that first and foremost, we had only two applicants, Ambrose and Rita. At the time Ambrose was always in the news, attacking Herman Guerrero and the board with his views; I think he even sent around an email flipping off Herman during that year, so surely it was to be a tough call having Ambrose. Add to that Ambrose also had an EEOC charge pending with the system about hiring and or advancement discrimination, so here we had two applicants who both had claims against the system regarding hiring and one of them needed to be selected or the decision to re-announce the position would have to be made. In hindsight, I probably should have done that. However, at the time I reviewed both applications and it was pretty clear that Rita had a few more points than Ambrose so I was leaning toward her or the re-announcement as I felt that the process for allowing off island applicants was flawed with the deadlines, etc. After consulting with legal counsel, the conversation was to include that if Rita was to be selected that she would have to agree to drop the lawsuit. And that was my discussion with her. In the interest of the PSS and the desire to resolve pending legal issues the decision was made to offer Rita the position, so I did. So you see, it likely wasn’t so much that Rita was highly qualified or ready for the job, it came more out of a need for the system to move on and to get out from under yet another lawsuit with the hope that she would fare well in her post and that she could learn. Although, once everyone started to see her weaknesses and complain, it was already too late for the board as they surely would not want to lose face and fire her out of fear they themselves would appear biased or unorganized. With Ambrose, he still had a claim and I had a solution for that too, an amicable one which I included in the exit plan. Unfortunately, as I previously mentioned it was disregarded and Ambrose went on with his case and subsequently Rita had to deal with it. And there have been others since then as she seems to attract these violations, and the PSS is good about trying to make them all go away with some hush money and a promise to never say anything bad about PSS, which they wouldn’t have to keep doing if the COE would just play by the rules. It’s much more amicable to find solutions to staffing issues through compromise and mediation instead of manic decisions and medication, which seems to be the SOP.

And so began Rita’s journey into the abyss at the helm of a struggling school system. We all waited for the big moment, when she would suddenly come up with a great plan, a new direction, something, anything inspiring as an effective leader would have, but that never happened. I can’t remember ever going to a monthly meeting where there was a principal or program manager in the house out of 40 or so that didn’t have something negative to say about her, but then of course we all stand up and smile for the cameras when its picture time. With her on board, turbulence was around every corner and even to this day. I’m not sure if the system can survive it without taking a huge step back. We have several schools that are classified as “turn-around schools” by the federal government, although the feds seem to miss that it could very well be that we have a “turn-around” leadership that needs help even more. Some people adapt to “on the job training” very well, others flail around until it’s their time to leave the nest. Usually waiting for the height of their accolades so they can go on to some political aspiration. I wonder when it will be her turn.