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Bill for PSS teacher rep selection process prefiled
Sen. Justo Quitugua (Ind-Saipan) has prefiled a bill that would provide for the selection process for the vacant position of teacher representative for the Public School System.
Senate Bill 19-03 states that the education commissioner would submit the name of the PSS Teacher of the Year to the governor to be appointed as the CNMI State Board of Education teacher representative.
The teacher representative appointed by the governor would serve a term of one year or until the next PSS Teacher of the Year is selected and appointed by the governor.
The bill also gives a successor to the teacher representative in any event he or she is not able to continue his or her term.
“In the event that the appointed Public School System teacher representative is not able to serve the complete term for whatever reason, the governor shall appoint the Teacher of the Year candidate in the last overall selection who received the next highest number of votes from the PSS Teacher of the Year selection panel and is willing to serve the remainder of the term,” it read.
Under the CNMI Constitution, the teacher representative serves as a nonvoting ex-officio member to the BOE who is selected by the teachers within PSS. It also provides that the selection process of the teacher representative be provided by law.
For the longest time, BOE and PSS have pushed that the CNMI Teacher of the Year be appointed teacher representative. However, the Legislature has recommended that an election be held among teachers to determine their representative on the board. The BOE has rejected this recommendation. Earlier, it drafted an executive order for the governor that would create a system where the governor would appoint the teacher selected by his or her colleagues as ‘Teacher of the Year” as the non-voting teacher representative on the board.
Erstwhile attorney general Gilbert Birnbrich found that the CNMI Constitution requires that law provide the process. Because of this, the appointment of the public school teacher representative “is not self-executing,” and the governor cannot validly appoint a teacher representative.
Quitugua’s bill, which was prefiled last Jan. 13, hopes to remedy that.
