Teachers’ comments sought in tenure proposal

Public school teachers in the CNMI are being reminded to take time to comment on the tenure proposal of teacher representative Ambrose Bennett.

The tenure proposal and the PSS Focus Group analysis of the tenure proposal are available online at the PSS website under the BOE heading entitled ‘Tenure Proposal.’ The PSS website is at http://www.pss.cnmi.mp.

The Board of Education Committee on Fiscal, Personnel and Administration had earlier asked Education Commissioner Rita H. Inos and the Public School System Focus Group to submit an analysis of Bennett’s proposal.

Board member Herman T. Guerrero said the BOE aims to gather feedback from the teachers themselves since Bennett’s proposal and report have not shown plausible data that the proposal has the backing of public school teachers.

Guerrero added that such proposal should be aligned with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and the teacher certification requirements by the federal government.

All comments from all 612 public school teachers should be in no later than April 21. Teachers can post their comments through e-mail to the BOE officers and staff: tenoriop@pss.cnmi.mp, guerreroh@pss.cnmi.mp or htgpan@gmail.com.

Teachers can also fax their comments to 664-3711 or drop it off at the BOE office located at the 2nd floor of the NMI Retirement Fun Building in Capitol Hill. For further details, contact BOE special assistant Perry Tenorio at 237-3027.

Bennett reacts

Bennett himself said the solicitation for comments is really needed.

In February, Inos had submitted a letter to the BOE informing them of the tenure proposal being made available through the PSS website.

The letter rejected Bennett’s tenure proposal, saying it runs contrary to current BOE policies. Inos said that, based on latest studies on how to recruit, retain, and reward highly qualified teachers, Bennett’s proposal would create more problems in the future rather than solve them.

Instead, the commissioner has proposed a system of teacher certification that aligns the contract length with the type of certificate earned for two, three, and five years and a system that offers mentoring, focused professional development, and performance-based compensation.

Bennett said the articles presented by PSS on the website served as “no real proof of anything,” adding that the sources of PSS are just newspaper articles and editorials and not pure research.

“It is also disappointing to see that PSS has asserted the lack of an existing policy as an excuse in their report when the whole purpose of this exercise is to address policy or lack of policy that supports the tenure system,” said Bennett.

Moreover, Bennett said the website does not provide teachers plans, only a choice between “yes” or “no” answers to the proposal.

“I can’t put in words how insulting it was as the BOE teacher rep to find out that PSS only have newspaper articles and editorials to support their arguments against tenure,” he added.

Guerrero described Bennett’s statements as inaccurate and said that PSS and the BOE have done research and they have been meeting to come up with a valid resolution to address the tenure system for the sake of teachers who have shown excellence and dedication in their work.