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PSS in the hunt for JROTC instructors
The Dr. Rita Hocog Inos Junior Senior High School team of Rota competes in the CNMI Public School System Multiple School Unit JROTC Drill Meet at the Marianas High School grounds last February. (Jon Perez)
CNMI State Public School System acting commissioner Yvonne R. Pangelinan is optimistic that they would fill all vacant instructors of the JROTC program within the year particularly in Rota’s Dr. Rita Hocog Inos Junior-Senior High School, which lost their program instructor.
Pangelinan, in last Tuesday’s Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee hearing, said filling the vacancies of JROTC instructors has been one of the issues that bother her. “The program has been an issue that is weighing heavily in my heart now but we have been actively recruiting.”
The U.S. Army Cadet Command’s 8th Brigade at Joint Base LewisMcChord in Washington State is the one in charge of the Army JROTC programs.
“They set the regulations for the program and the instructors that come in and teach in PSS. There are some vacancies but we’re going to fill them soon, Pangelinan told Saipan Tribune after the budget hearing.
Rota’s JROTC team represented the CNMI in the Unarmed Category in the Golden Bear West Coast Nationals Drill meet in Torrance, California this year. A total of 45 schools representing the Air Force, Army, Marine Corp, and Navy JROTC programs from the West Coast competed.
The RHI team earned the right to represent the CNMI in the nationals after winning the overall title in the Unarmed Category last February. They went back to the CNMI with one first place trophy, three runners-up, and third and fourth finishes.
They placed first in the Unarmed Varsity Regulation and second each in the Overall Unarmed Sweepstakes, Unarmed Varsity Color Guard Drill, and Tapout. They also came in third in the Unarmed Varsity Exhibition and fourth in the Unarmed Varsity Commander.
Pangelinan said Saipan Southern High School’s lead JROTC instructor is currently assigned to supervise the program on Rota. “He will be there for a month and if we don’t get another instructor on board [in September], then we will be rotating the responsibilities with our instructors on Saipan.”
An officer in the Army and must be retired for no longer than five years are some of the requirements for a JROTC instructor. “So you can imagine, it is not a very easy task of finding instructors,” said Pangelinan, who assumed the acting commissioner role two weeks ago.
“We have vacancies on Rota, Tinian, and a couple on Saipan. We finished interviews for District Army instructor for Saipan and we have several applicants on the list for Tinian and Rota as well.”
She added that they would do more interviews before filling all vacant positions in the JROTC program. However, they must still wait for 120 days for the JROTC instructor to get certified from the 8th Brigade even if they have completed the interviews.
