The BOE policy states: Upon receipt of the notice of appeal, the Chairperson shall without unreasonable delay appoint three Board members to sit as the hearing panel. The three members shall appoint of their number to sit as the hearing officer. The main problems with the existing Hearing Panel and governance are as follows:
I. The Hearing Panel is rarely used if it has ever been used at all which is why no one knew about it. The final decisions for complaints have traditionally been rendered by the Commissioner and never get to the Hearing Panel. Solution: The Hearing Panel must be extended to cover all appeals of complaints within PSS. The Commissioner’s decision should always be subject to appeal and review by the Hearing Panel and complaints about the Commissioner should go directly to the Hearing Panel.
II. The Hearing Panel is presently composed of three Board Members. Board members cannot make decisions on complaints about the Board and their own policies. It is really a “conflict of interest” when a Board member or a policy is being contested which is why PSS has so many lawsuits. Solution: The Hearing Panel should be composed of three stakeholders in the education system (parent, teacher and administrator). The chairperson of the Hearing Panel will always be the neutral party on the panel. For example: If the complaint is coming from a teacher about the administrator or policy the chair will be the parent. The Hearing Panel will retain the advice of PSS Legal counsel and the power to dictate a resolution.
III. The Hearing Panel never hears the appeal of a teacher when their contract is not renewed without-cause as the only appeal available to teachers who are terminated under these conditions is a letter to the Commissioner. If you compare students’ rights and protections with teachers’ rights and protections you will find an extreme disparity which offers far more protection to students. Solution: PSS must either remove the terminology of “non-renewed without cause” from teacher contracts or augment the policy to allow for an appeal to the decision of a principal to not renew a teacher’s contract. Teachers have no form of due process under the present contract conditions which has allowed principals to violate their right to due process.
IV. Presently, the reports on schools only come from the principal with no check & balance. There is also the impossible task of one person, the COE, in authenticating these school reports without the aid of a check on the school’s report. Solution: The Parent Teacher Student Association at schools must be empowered to file a monthly school report along with the principal to place a check & balance on the school’s reporting and the principal’s leadership and decisions which the COE can easily authenticate.
The challenging question that needs to be answered is will the State Board of Education implement these changes in existing policy or will it take a law to force the Board to implement these changes? I would like to suggest that the Legislature start by drafting a Resolution for these changes before proceeding with legislation as the problem can be fixed internally. However, the Legislature has fiduciary duty assure that our public school system has an adequate governance system that is functioning fairly, within ethical standards to guarantee employees protection of their rights with impartial decisions. A Resolution by the Legislature will put the BOE on notice of the Legislature’s expectations for improvement in the governance system at PSS. Should the BOE fail to change the policy in a timely fashion the Legislature will have every right to proceed with a law that will dictate the necessary changes in the presently flawed BOE policy.
On another governance issue: I want to offer a special and sincere Kudos to Tina Sablan for winning the Court battle to expose the funding of Governor’s lawsuit because it was indeed his lawsuit and not the people. You have performed a valuable public service on behalf of the people and the Legislature. I’m sure the average citizen can’t wait to find out who funded the lawsuit even though most of us already have a pretty good idea who supplied the money. You have cleared the smoke screen and exposed the devil in the details for all of us to see. I knew you would win because it really didn’t take a judge to recognize the oxymoron that totally defied logic and common sense. Everyone with common sense knew the Governor could not publicly file a lawsuit for the people and against the will of the people and still keep the funding source a secret from the people — duh! Keep up the good work and I pray you will be able to help with the genuine need for education reform to improve the governance system within PSS. One people one direction
AMBROSE M. BENNETT
Former Teacher Rep.
