PSS gives PIO ‘Pinocchio Award’

By MARCONI CALINDAS
REPORTER

The Public School System is ready to award the “2005 Pinocchio Award” to Peter A. Callaghan after Gov. Juan N. Babauta’s press secretary made critical statements against education officials last week.

“We are amazed that the governor’s PIO accuses the PSS of starting a panic,” education commissioner Rita Hocog Inos said.

Inos was reacting to Callaghan’s statement Friday that accused PSS of unnecessarily alarming schoolchildren and their parents by threatening to shutdown schools on Jan. 11.

“Mr. Callaghan needs to do his homework,” said Inos declaring that it was the administration that failed to perform its responsibility to the teachers, educational support staff, and to the 11,630 children enrolled in the Commonwealth’s public schools.

She also said they were not threatening the administration when the Board of Education voted to implement a shutdown when 1,263 of teachers and education support staff were not paid Friday for work they had already rendered.

Inos said the situation was forced on them when the Department of Finance failed to remit payroll funds for the last two pay periods and operations funds for the last nine months.

Board of Education chair Roman C. Benavente also came to the defense of PSS.

“I just like to say to Peter—‘better get your message straight.’ I understand the government commitment on closing other agencies rather than close PSS, but for Callaghan to say we are not doing anything to try resolve this problem, is a big mistake,” he said.

Benavente also clarified that he was never invited for a meeting Friday morning. He said he was busy attending a morning tete-a-tete with the principals at the Marianas High School.

“I was never called by the governor to attend such a meeting,” said Benavente. Callaghan putting us down on the news like we were the ones that caused the problem when the cause was the money wasn’t there.”

The board also refuted Callaghan’s statement that “Even in the darkest days, the government has never had a payless payday.” The board said this was true only for the Executive Branch, but not for the PSS.

When Callaghan stated that, “some people would rather sit around to curse darkness than to lift finger to light a candle,” he must be referring to his colleagues in the administration, the board said.