By Moneth G. Deposa
Variety News Staff

THE Public School System, through the Board of Education, is asking the Legislature to introduce and pass a bill that would allow PSS to hire nonresident workers for its “hard-to-fill” positions.
But Vice Speaker Justo S. Quitugua said the proposal will only create “more conflicts.”
“This is not the best time to allow PSS to hire nonresident workers even for hard-to-fill positions because the U.S. Congress is hitting us already in the head about the number of nonresident workers we have,” he said.
PSS should instead consider tapping more of its teacher aides, said Quitugua, D-Saipan.
“What the teacher aides need is assistance from PSS for them to become qualified for these vacant positions,” he added.
In a letter to Speaker Oscar Babauta, Covenant-Saipan, BOE Chairman Roman C. Benavente said PSS should be allowed to hire qualified nonresident professionals.
“PSS must attract and keep teachers and therapists to provide services in compliance with the individualized education programs of its special education students or PSS may face costly lawsuits filed by parents under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act if we are unable to hire qualified personnel,” Benavente said.
He said that teachers particularly for mathematics and science are in great demand nationwide.
The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires PSS to employ highly qualified teachers.
According to Benavente, “PSS is struggling to find highly qualified teachers in the areas of math, science, language arts, foreign language and special education.”
BOE wants PSS to “employ skilled professionals in the hard-to-fill areas of math, science, language arts, special education and related services, Head Start and foreign language instruction — provided, however, that such professionals meet all applicable certification and testing requirements and be graduates of U.S. accredited colleges or universities or the certified equivalent by agencies approved by PSS in accordance with PSS regulations.”
BOE also wants the education commissioner, instead of the Office of Personnel Management, to certify to the Legislature the positions that are hard-to-fill and that no resident is available to fill the posts.
PSS wants to hire nonresident workers until June 30, 2012.
According to PSS, since the inception of its special education program, the system “has had difficulty maintaining a full staff of qualified professionals to meet the needs of special education students including speech pathologists, psychologists, occupational therapists and special education teachers.”
BOE said the local labor pool is presently incapable of supplying a sufficient number of professionals in critical educational areas such as math, science, teaching English as a second language, and foreign languages, including Japanese.
“Extensive recruitment efforts made to fill these positions locally have resulted in a lack of professionals for PSS, which compromises the educational needs and opportunities of students as well as the system’s ability to meet the highly qualified teacher requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act,” BOE said.
Benavente’s letter was referred by the speaker to the House Committee on Education.
BOE, in a separate request to the Legislature, also wants to have its own compensation rules, saying the application of a uniform rate for all boards and commissions will “hamper” its ability to conduct business.
PSS used to hire nonresident teachers, but the CNMI government later had to pay a $2.1 million settlement after the U.S. Department of Justice filed a complaint of human rights violations against the local school system and required it to have an equal opportunity attorney on its staff.