A TEACHER is unhappy with the recent decision of the Board of Education to raise Education Commissioner Alfred B. Ada’s salary to $125,000 from $90,000 plus a car stipend of $800 a month.
Alfred Ada
The teacher said there are highly qualified teachers who currently make less than $28,000 a year due to pay cuts implemented in 2019 and 2020.
According to the BOE, which recently decided to retain Ada, the education commissioner’s salary must be consistent with the pay scale that has been put in place for many years now “by virtue of the compensation policy approved…by the CNMI Board of Education.”
The commissioner’s salary and benefits are offered and announced in the beginning of the hiring process, the BOE stated, adding that each of Ada’s predecessors received $125,000 immediately during the probationary period of their appointment.
“It should be noted that during his first year of appointment — the first full year that was the subject of the board’s recent evaluation — Dr. Ada opted to receive a much lesser pay, which was $90,000,” the board said.
The commissioner’s pay scale is based on the Public School System standard compensation plan for holders of post-graduate degrees, such as doctors of education, along with other required/credited number of years of education experience, training and other skills, the BOE stated.
“To be perfectly clear the Commissioner of Education (Dr. Ada) never requested this salary [hike]. The BOE made this recommendation based on his performance — that’s why we raised his salary,” the board added.
The BOE also noted that the current salary of the commissioner of education is 65% federally funded. The 65% represents the required indirect cost that is allowed by federal grantors for superintendents of education.
“The CNMI BOE believes that Dr. Ada has performed above and beyond what was expected of him during his first year in office. Among others, he helped the school district receive unprecedented federal grant awards that mitigated the impact of the financial challenges facing the CNMI PSS as a result of the twin natural disasters and today’s Covid-19 pandemic,” the BOE said.
“With the Covid-19 and with the overall economic challenges impacting PSS, no commissioner of education had to navigate this most challenging time. Dr. Ada remained positive, determined, and vigilant during the most difficult time in PSS history. He remained focused on providing the best for all students despite the CNMI financial crisis and Covid-19 pandemic,” the BOE added.
The BOE said its priority now is to see “further improvements in the school district’s best practices in managing its human resources, and to ensure equity by addressing principal salary in the administration of the Junior ROTC and Special Education programs.”
The BOE noted that the average school superintendent salary in the U.S. was $164,000 as of November 2020. This amount increases depending on many other important factors such as education, certifications, additional skills and years of experience, the BOE stated.
BOE member Andrew Orsini said the education commissioner is the only direct employee of the BOE. All the other Public School System personnel fall under the commissioner of education. He said it is the education commissioner who addresses the concerns of his subordinates and present them to the BOE.
The education commissioner, Orsini added, “is probably one of the lowest paid administrators within the autonomous agencies of the CNMI government considering the magnitude of his office’s responsibility in the lives of students, parents, and PSS personnel.”
Orsini added, “The required responsibility and administration of an organization like PSS is enormous, in its day to day and year-round operation.”
He said, one has to know what the position of commissioner of education entails. “It is difficult to understand and view it just by the salary alone. The duties and responsibilities of the position call for more than what the position actually requires.”
He said the board at the same time must review the classification of all positions within PSS and their salaries.
“We will have to get an outside consultant firm or assessor group to do a comparative study to determine and recommend what the CNMI PSS should be at [in terms of salaries] and their suitability/affordability. If the BOE does not move towards that, we will be short of teachers wanting to teach and the quality of education may be compromised,” Orsini added.
