Tenorio is new BOE chair

New Board of Education chair Janice Tenorio, second left, poses with the 16th BOE members after their special session yesterday. (Erwin Encinares)

The Board of Education unanimously voted yesterday to elect Janice Tenorio as its new board chairwoman.

Without meeting opposition, BOE members Herman Atalig, Marylou Ada, and Andrew Orsini voted in support of assigning Tenorio as the 16th BOE chairwoman.

They voted Atalig as BOE vice chair while Ada was voted as BOE secretary/treasurer. It’s Tenorio’s first time to be elected chairwoman of BOE.

“This is my last two years [in the BOE] and my colleagues believe that I should lead the BOE [for the last two years],” Tenorio said in an interview.

“I expect full cooperation,” said Tenorio. “I believe I work well with everybody, empowering them, meeting with them, and just updating with them. Communication, I believe, is a strong key,” she added.

Tenorio’s projects include the pay raise scheme for highly qualified teachers in the Public School System. She also spearheaded the reconstruction of several bus shelters throughout the island.

“My biggest [goal] is to really work together with the board and to make a difference in my last two years and I hope they would support me,” she said. In terms of future projects, Tenorio noted that she has yet to decide on a specific project the board should pursue but is all ears for ideas.

“The commissioner has a lot of ideas in regards to [new] projects. We have faith in him in regards to programs, projects, and ideas, and we want to support that because he is in the frontline,” she said.

Ada nominated Tenorio for the position, while Orsini expressed concern over the representation of Tinian prior to selecting a chairwoman for the board. Orsini attempted to dive the board into executive session before they discussed Tenorio’s nomination for BOE chairwoman, however none of the board members seconded his motion, while Atalig seconded Ada’s motion to nominate Tenorio.

Orsini was concerned that the BOE currently is lacking one representative at the board for Tinian due to the fact that former BOE Tinian representative Florine Hofschneider’s decided not to seek reelection. Currently, only Saipan and Rota are represented on the BOE.

“…Doing the selection [of BOE chair] now and then having somebody come in [for Tinian representation] I am thinking that for all fairness we would like to have that board member [in the board] before we continue with the selection of officers,” he told BOE chair pro tem and legal counsel Tiberius Mocanu in a statement after Ada nominated Tenorio.

“…I stand clear that I believe we should…wait until we get the member in from Tinian,” he said.

Mocanu explained to the BOE that Gov. Ralph DLG Torres has the authority to appoint a Tinian resident into the BOE once a slot has been opened. He opines that the slot had only been open since yesterday, since the 16th BOE officially came into existence after the oath-taking of Orsini.

“We do not have officers right now for the BOE and there are documents that needs to signed by the BOE chair,” Ada said, addressing Mocanu. She noted that the established quorum of four voting members out of five was sufficient to select the chair since there were important documents that needed signing by the BOE chair.

Ultimately, the BOE did not go into executive session yesterday and proceeded to select their officers.