Education Day and the Teacher of the Year

Eight more Wednesdays and close to 600 public school teachers with administrators and special programs personnel within the PSS will convene at picturesque Kagman Elementary School for the annual Education Day gathering in November. Part carnival with lots of intentional and accidental hilarity, part troop convention with lots of admonishments and exhortations, part soapy sales talks and syrupy inspirational marketing, the main feature of the day is the announcement of the Teacher of the Year award.

Kagman’s panoramic view of the Pacific Ocean, with the occasional gust and gale in the early morn or late afternoon, provides an idyllic background for a gathering that has been known to occasion sobriety and silliness, sobriety and fatuousness (cannot use the other S-word!). Vaudevillian and vertudinuous (don’t look this word up, I just coined it!) in character and style, the day allows teacher to be their collegial selves among their peers in jest and in joy.

Lavena Babauta of Tanapag Elementary School is the Teacher of the Year awardee for 2004-05. Since last year, we had not had much chance to interact with her. We assumed she attended the annual convention involving similar awardees from across the nation sometime last year somewhere in the continental U.S. We trust that she judiciously utilized the monetary prize of her award, and that not all of it went to educational equipment and supplies as some of us are wont to do when a fallout of unbudgeted disposable income graciously lands in our pocketbooks. We would not know. There really is no mechanism, system or structure, nor is there perhaps a need for her to account to other teachers, or for us to get back to her to inquire how she was faring. The TOY designation is pretty much like a beauty queen selection. One wears the sash physically or imaginatively on occasion, with great honor but devoid of any accountable functions.

Perhaps, we should change that. For the last two years, it had been booted and banded about that given the imprecision of the process and role definition of the BoE Teachers’ Representative position, that the annual Teacher of the Year awardee should serve in what is commonly regarded as an honorary and advisory position.

The Teachers Rep position in the Board of Education has been a source of controversy because of the peculiar wording of the Constitutional provision that created it. BoE consists of five elected members. It also provides for non-voting members. ARTICLE XV, Section 1c of the Constitution reads in part: “… The governor shall appoint three nonvoting ex-officio members to the board of education: one member shall be a student attending a public school; one member shall be a representative of nonpublic schools; and one member selected by an exclusive bargaining representative of the teachers within the Department of Education.” (italics added).

We do not have an “an exclusive bargaining representative of the teachers within the Department of Education.” That was what our current Teachers Rep went out to create with the TRC, the Teachers Representative Committee. Unfortunately, he seemed to have gotten the cart before the horse!

Term of office for the BoE elected members in the Constitution is specified; those of non-voting members are not, but are covered in the by-laws under Article IV, to wit: “…The non-voting members are appointed by the governor and shall serve their terms as specified by law.” The practice has been four years per term. However, I have yet to determine what “specified by law” refers to in this instance.

Late January 2004, the Governor’s Office announced the election of Mr. Ambrose Bennett as the Teachers Representative in a balloting conducted under the aegis of the administration. It was not, however, clear whether the election should be treated in the same way as one commonly treats a representative chosen by a constituency. Given that the position is an appointive non-voting ex-officio one, primarily honorary and advisory in nature, and serving at the pleasure of the Governor’s Office, the election result would thereby be best treated as guiding the governor’s choice rather than as an elective position in the ordinary sense.

Now comes the question of whether Mr. AB’s term is a full one, or simply to replace his predecessor, Mr. Franklin Keiper, who resigned the position. Section 4 of the by-laws states: “A vacancy on the Board because of death, resignation or removal shall be filled as provided by law.” Again, as ‘provided by law’ is unspecific!

We are not here trying to flog an expiring workhorse. We’d rather thank Mr. Bennett for personifying the deep cleavage between varied understandings regarding the office he currently occupies. We do not begrudge his efforts as a Teachers’ Rep; we do take exception to his tactics and many of his public pronouncements. We grade him “A” for effort; for effectivity, he headed South, way south of Fiji!

Our intent in this rumination is to promote the position of the Teacher of the Year awardee. At SVES, our Teacher of the Year awardee is also our Teachers Representative for whatever occasion or body requires that representation. We think the same can hold true with the PSS Teacher of the Year awardee with regards to BoE.

We also highlight the need to clarify or amend the constitutional provision on the Teachers’ Rep being “selected by an exclusive bargaining representative of the teachers within the Department of Education.” With the possible holding of a Constitutional Convention after the November election, teachers need to chew on that one widely and fast before someone else unilaterally does it on their behalf.

But here’s the meat for education day that demands some heady cogitating. The PSS Commissioner wonders why there is this image that supervisors and administrators seem distant and unapproachable. There is even some fear afloat, expressed when we were asking colleagues to sign the petition enjoing the Governor to hold another TR election, that job security rests not on merit but on whim.A feudalistic set-up headed by indeterminate principals is asking for a Magna Carta. AB and I, at least, agree on the centrality of this issue of tenure. That’s why we need to get our A.C.T. together!

Let’s get some models out. Get your thoughts in print. Our two island papers are partial to education issues. Let the reflecting begin.