Herman Atalig sworn into BOE

From left to right, Education Commissioner Cynthia Deleon Guerrero, former Board of Education Rota representative Denise R. King, and current Board of Education Rota representative Herman M. Atalig after the swearing in of BOE officers yesterday. (Erwin Encinares)

Retired sergeant major Herman Atalig was sworn in as a member of the Board of Education yesterday at the conference room of the Education commissioner.

Atalig won against Dexter Apatang in the BOE race to represent Rota.

Atalig wants equality in curriculum for all CNMI students. He said he wants “every student in the CNMI to receive quality education and have equal opportunity for all three islands. What Saipan is getting, Rota and Tinian must be getting also.”

Atalig also wishes to address the teacher problem of the Public School System. “When you are lacking teachers, it means there is something wrong with the system. We have to concentrate on recruiting and retention, even if we have to spend more money on teacher in Tinian and Rota, because they are very remote places,” said Atalig, stating Tinian and Rota are less likely to be desired because of the lack of incentives to teach.

“A teacher would probably spend only one year before taking off. If we have programs or incentives for them to stay, [it could be prevented],” added Atalig.

Atalig commended Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and Lt. Gov. Victor Hocog for giving PSS more funding.

“With all that money now and all that revenue, we cannot say that funding is an issue,” he said.

Atalig also wants to see upgrades in technology for educational purposes.

“With technology, we could tap into Saipan’s online courses to the other islands if funding is [an issue]. We might have to explore to solve the problem. However, we must have a reliable internet system, which is not there yet,” said Atalig.

Education Commissioner Cynthia Deleon Guerrero expects Atalig to be a great asset to the BOE.

“I feel we can definitely work together as a team and [Atalig] will contribute greatly to BOE discussions,” said Deleon Guerrero.

Deleon Guerrero agreed with Atalig on the problem with teacher retention and recruitment, believing that retention and recruitment would not be as challenging with more incentives and programs available to teachers on Tinian and Rota.

“Those are definitely issues we want to address. It is going to take a lot of discussion as well as research and review to ensure [PSS] provides a salary that is equitable for our teachers and our staff,” said Deleon Guerrero.

“I have already presented a draft compensation plan to the BOE that includes an adjusted salary for both certified and non-certified staff. We have done some research over the past year and we have gathered data to look at market value, our recruitment cost, as well as some of the big challenges in terms of recruitment,” she added.

Deleon Guerrero said PSS was aware of the difficulty in recruiting and retaining individuals to come and teach in the CNMI.

“After about two years, which is our contract period, they go back, forcing [PSS] to go through the whole cycle again. We are looking to really beefing up our retention efforts as well.”