The CNMI’s loss is Florida’s gain

Former CNMI teacher John Raulerson continues his winning ways at Florida’s Oak Ridge High. The headlines read: “High school teacher gets results with engineering, design team championship” “Oak Ridge High School team prepares to represent state in design challenge.”

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 “fired without cause.”

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’t learned that it is wrong to fire people for no reason; their mistakes are coming back to haunt them.

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.  Raulerson, who was spotlighted on the local news as “This week›s getting results award winner,” as Raulerson and his team were announced as Florida’s state champions of the Real World Design Challenge earlier this year. The competition challenges public and private high school students to use core STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) principles and apply them to workplace problems.

Raulerson›s classroom is an after-school gathering place for team members nearly obsessed with the idea of perfecting their project.

Raulerson said: «We 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.»

Just to show readers the importance of his work, Raulerson said: «We›re coming up with an aircraft system that is going to be very, very economic. It›s going to help farmers spray and take care of their fields.»

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’m writing this in hopes that it will never ever happen again, especially when PSS continues to have a teacher shortage and each member of the winning national team will receive $50,000 in scholarship money.

The Oak Ridge Real World Design Challenge team competes in Washington, D.C. next month but the CNMI no longer even has a team! It 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.

The problem of race
Race 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’ Teacher of the Year stated that “it should have been Raulerson” but that’s 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.

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 “assaulted” a student at Garapan Elementary but it was hushed up and she was not terminated and may still be a Title 1 teacher today.

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.

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’s accomplishments have done.

Ambrose M. Bennett
Kagman, Saipan