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Benavente remains the BOE chairman
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Posted on Jan 09 2006
Roman C. Benavente remains chairman of the Board of Education, winning by two votes during the board’s general election yesterday morning.
Re-elected board member Herman T. Guerrero also vied for the BOE chairmanship but lost out to the incumbent.
Benavente said he is elated with the result of the board election and appreciates the confidence showed by the board for his leadership—his third time on the post.
“Now we have to work with the new administration,” said Benavente.
The board chair said he is grateful to Gov. Benigno R. Fitial and Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez for attending the board meeting yesterday.
“I am thankful that they attended our meeting. We feel that we are gaining support from them for the benefit of the Commonwealth’s kids,” he said.
Guerrero said that it was the first time that a governor and a lieutenant governor attended a BOE event.
Fitial and Villagomez also witnessed the oath-taking of re-elected board member Guerrero and newly elected member Lucy Maratita-Blanco. Blanco, who replaced Frances Diaz, is represents Tinian.
Benavente said he could work with anybody, despite the rumor that the governor had favored Guerrero to sit on the top post of the BOE. He added that he works in a fair manner and that he doesn’t hold back whenever the education of the islands’ children is at risk.
“We have two priorities for the education sector in the CNMI, that is, the vision of making sure that our children are taken care of and the educational process would always adhere to standards of excellence despite the challenging times,” Benavente said.
Guerrero, however, said he would keep an eye on the re-elected board chair. He said he would not hesitate to chide Benavente should he ever commit mistakes again that would compromise the CNMI children’s education.
