MHS Teacher Academy closes its doors

As school year 1999-2000 concludes in less than three weeks, one class at Marianas High School will remain closed forever.

The decade old Teacher Academy, a unique program which has nurtured students into becoming successful teaching professionals as early as the high school level will cease to be offered at the public high school starting next school year.

No one is sadder of this fact than the very individual who has pioneered the program since 1989. Retired Teacher Academy Instructor and Coordinator Joan Kani laments having to see the program taken away from the high school.

“I was surprised upon learning that it was going to be abolished. I guess it was simply the powers at PSS and NMC that have decided not to have a program anymore,” said a teary-eyed Mrs. Kani.

The retired teacher left the Public School System in December last year due to health problems. Since then, the program was passed on to another teacher Ann Quick, who now administers what’s left of the academy.

“Teacher Academy was a program and a class but more than that, it was long-term relationship,” Mrs. Kani explained, reflecting on the past ten years she has served under the program.

“We did a lot more than just simply have classes. The parents were really involved and we had a lot of activities where we left the campus and worked in the schools,” she added.

The academy was designed in a such a way that it allowed its graduates to take up five years of education in mainland universities under the close supervision of Mrs. Kani and her faithful aide, Velma Del Rosario.

“When the students went to college, I tracked them down. I followed them through their college careers,” Mrs. Kani explained.
Ms. Del Rosario, a product of the Teacher Academy, was instrumental in arranging the students’ college paperworks which included their monthly stipends until the MHS discontinued the allowance in recent years.

MHS under this program has sent close to a hundred students off-island to schools such as the University of Hawaii and Manoa, University of Hawaii, Hilo, University of Oregon, Chico State University, University of Guam, and many other mainland colleges.

Every year, eight to 10 students come home to the CNMI to start a teaching a career in PSS.

“This program has been successful. This means some 10 additional local teachers schooled in the mainland who are familiar with the culture of the islands,” said Mrs. Kani.

Sixty students are still out in the universities finishing up their degrees, excluding the 10 outgoing students who are targeted to leave the island for the same purpose.

“And this makes me feel good, this is my satisfaction. That’s why I am sad that it seems to be working and yet they’re closing it down,” she added.

A Teacher Academy alumna, Ms. Del Rosario also expressed disappointment over the system’s decision to remove the program from the high school.

“I am very disappointed, there’s no other word that could best describe how I feel right now. It’s like taking a baby from it’s natural mother,” she said.

Ms. Del Rosario graduated from the Teacher’s Academy in 1993 and came back to the islands as a teacher aide to the program in 1995.

The academy’s alumni also include public school teachers such as Eric Evangelista of San Antonio Elementary School, Art Borja of Koblerville Elementary, Rep. Brigida Ichihara’s daughter Belinda, Maggi Olopai of William S. Reyes Elementary, and many others.

PSS and Northern Marianas College officials disclosed that the program will not be abolished but will only be transferred to NMC.

An understanding has recently been reached by NMC, PSS, and the Legislature to create improvements on the program and relocate it to NMC.

Mrs. Kani fears that if the program is placed elsewhere, it may not turn out to be the success it has been for the last decade.

“There will be drastic changes. I think what they’re planning is someone from the college would come down and will teach one class in education for the students that are interested in having teaching as a profession. I don’t think they would even call it Teacher Academy,” she said.

“But I am a very positive person and that’s part of our philosophy in academy. I have instead promised to work with the alumni to see if there’s anything I can assist them with,” she added. (MM)