THE Carolinian Affairs Office has expressed concern about the “unequal” number of Chamorro and Carolinian language teachers in the Public School System.
PSS, for its part, said it is already addressing the lack of qualified Chamorro and Carolinian Language and Heritage Studies teachers.
According to CAO Executive Assistant Felix Nogis, PSS has 46 teachers conducting Chamorro language classes but only five Refaluwasch or Carolinian language teachers.
He added that public schools have up to four Chamorro bilingual teachers each, but only a “very few” schools have instructors who teach Refaluwasch.
He said the schools with Refaluwasch teachers are Garapan Elementary School, Tanapag Middle School, Hopwood Middle School, Francisco M. Sablan Middle School and Kagman Elementary School.
Nogis said is “very important” to preserve the Refaluwasch language.
He said the younger generation can speak the language but are having difficulties writing it.
In his letter to PSS Curriculum and Instruction Senior Director Jackie Quitugua, M. Ed., Nogis said, “We are not requesting for any exception to the norm, but to be an integral part of the norm.”
He added, “Given the negative ramification and significant impact whereby Carolinian students are being denied the opportunity to learn their language, it is critical that the situation be resolved as soon as possible.”
“This is of utmost importance to the Refaluwasch community, which is vital to our existence as a people. In perspective, I remain optimistic and hopeful that coming together we can overcome these challenges,” Nogis said.
In a meeting with Quitugua last week, Nogis said he stressed the need to hire Refaluwasch language teachers with the same privilege afforded to PSS regular employees.
He noted that whenever PSS hires Refaluwasch language teachers, it has to issue a request for proposals or RFP, which Nogis said “is futile in meeting our goals.”
To address the difficulties in hiring Refaluwasch language teachers, Nogis suggested that the hiring requirement for 24 college credits be suspended. He said the CAO can also help recruit Refaluwasch language teachers by conducting a community outreach.
Lack of applicants
In response, PSS said it shares the CAO’s concerns, but added that there is a lack of interested qualified applicants.
PSS said it has reached out to the CAO to assist in “recruiting and or conducting an outreach.”
According to PSS, it has been “aggressive in recruiting local teachers, but some individuals lack the minimum hiring requirements such as employment application, police clearances, résumés, high school diploma and official transcripts. These basic requirements stall the process.”
In 2017, PSS said its Human Resources Office and the Board of Education initiated a “review and assessment of how to provide alternative flexibility to ease the hiring difficulty/challenges.”
PSS said it created alternative pathways for interested individuals to obtain “adjusted certification,” which will allow them to be eligible classroom instructors.
In 2013, PSS said close to 200 of its teachers left the school system due to the stringent requirements in hiring classroom instructors and teachers mandated by local and federal statutes, in particular, the No Child Left Behind Act or NCLB.
The NCLB requirements were maintained when the law was reauthorized in 2015 as the Every Student Succeeds Act or ESSA, which granted the nation’s school districts, including PSS, greater “flexibility to make adjustments in the requirements in hiring classroom instructors and teachers.”
On Oct. 6, 2017, PSS said, the Board of Education, following the Office of the Commissioner’s review and recommendation, approved the creation of alternative processes when hiring instructors and classroom teachers.
In the same year, PSS said it signed a memorandum that allows public schools “to recruit individuals who have not met the minimum qualification and certification requirements.”
PSS said it also created certification courses through its Instructional Technology and Distance Education Program to support the teacher-training requirement of PSS.
“Essentially, these two actions aim to address the lack of an available, qualified teaching pool,” PSS said.
Federal response
PSS said it also asked a waiver from the U.S. Department of Education that will remove the requirement of “post-secondary education and/or 24 credits for paraprofessionals (teacher aides) hire.”
PSS said it has yet to receive a response from the USDOE.
Currently, PSS said it has issued a request for proposals designed to attract Chamorros and Carolinians to apply as instructors based on the rules created by PSS for them.
Meanwhile, PSS said it will work with the Workforce Investment Agency Office of the Apprenticeship Program of the CNMI Department of Labor and the CNMI Indigenous Affairs Office, “to create a pathway that will enable high school graduates to earn a certification that will allow them to enter the teaching workforce at an entry-level instructor’s position.”
