HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — The Guahan Academy Charter School board has a few vacant teacher positions that it has found hard to fill as a result of the nationwide teacher shortage, but the board’s chair believes that sourcing abroad could help fill the school’s teacher vacancies.
According to the GACS board’s Human Resources Committee, as of Feb. 19, the charter school needed to fill one elementary school teacher, one middle school teacher, a counselor and on-call substitute positions.
Teacher and substitute interviews are an ongoing process, but the pool for teachers is dry, Guahan Academy Charter School board Chair Fe Ovalles said on Tuesday.
Ovalles suggested that the school look into the H-1B visa program to recruit teachers in the Philippines.
“Again, I go back to the petition of the H-1, we’re really short, the whole island (is) really short. Go back to the H-1 petition. … I think we should really look at that. You don’t have to hire (an) attorney to do that. For positions that are really short, you can bring in your H-1. And the H-1 program you can just have for three years – maximum six years,” Ovalles said.
The H-1B status is available to a person who has been offered a temporary professional position by a U.S. employer. The vacant position must require the applicant have a bachelor’s degree at minimum to qualify for H-1B status.
“The mainland is getting all their teachers from (the) Philippines,” Ovalles said.
With Guam being just a “skip and a hop” away from the Philippines, Ovalles said, it’s something to consider.
“We have a point of contact there, and … you don’t have to spend money except for the transportation of that person you interview. Look at the caliber of the person that you interview, that’s it,” Ovalles said.
She said it would take roughly 90 days to have the H-1B teachers on the island and noted that “you don’t have to house them. That’s the beauty of the H-1B program. You don’t have to house these people.”
“We want to look into that because the market is really bad for even new teachers,” Ovalles said.
Fe Valencia-Ovalles
