HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Cross-leveling to ensure that every public school classroom has a certified teacher continues and the superintendent of education aims to have all assigned teachers in place by mid-January.
“As part of the process, Human Resources and leadership has identified principal-declared vacancies that were not supported by enrollment and master schedule needs. These were eliminated so that certified teachers are assigned to classes that were not appropriately staffed,” Superintendent Kenneth Erik Swanson reported to the Guam Education Board on Tuesday.
Having a certified teacher in each classroom is one of the 14 points in the Adequate Education Act. It is also part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement signed with the Guam Federation of Teachers. The CBA sets forth teacher-student ratios that the Guam Department of Education must abide by to remain in compliance with the agreement.
“We’ve been (in) ongoing meetings with the superintendent with regard to the cross-leveling and I think that it’s both agreed upon the process for Human Resources to cross-level and the principals to cross-level. I am seeing the results of that already,” GFT President Tim Fedenko said.
Fedenko, who also works at Capt. H.B. Price Elementary School in Mangilao, shared the results he’s seen due to cross-leveling.
“We have a new teacher at our school, … we are still, however, without another teacher, a Level 3 grievance already. The answer is, they are looking for teachers, so (I) hope the process can speed up a little bit,” Fedenko said.
Swanson, meanwhile, noted, “(The) teachers’ cross-leveling process continues and (I) look forward to start the second semester Jan. 16 with all assigned teachers in place.”
According to Swanson, the cross-leveling process has not been welcomed by all.
“There’s been some resistance in the process, but the deputy and HR personnel doing the face-to-face work with principals and teachers have been effective in accomplishing the task,” Swanson said.
He also noted that although the process is helping to identify “surplus teachers,” it may not result in every classroom being staffed per the CBA.
“While the process has identified some teachers as surplus, they may not be able to be placed in another school if their area certification does not match the need. This is especially true of high school and middle school and special education,” Swanson said.
“The established teacher transfer process will run in the March-April time frame to identify opportunities for further leveling and … recruiting needs,” Swanson concluded.
However, teaching slots aren’t the only positions that need to be filled, according to Fedenko. Teacher assistants, clerks and long-term substitutes are also needed to comply with the CBA.
Capt. H.B. Price Elementary School in Mangilao is shown July 24, 2023. Price is one the public schools subject to cross-leveling of teachers.
