“This requirement pertains to the collective bargaining agent [of teachers] who need to certify their chosen candidate…and that requirement hasn’t been met [by the Public School System],” Reyes told Variety.
BOE has been functioning without a teacher representative since Ambrose Bennett’s term expired in January.
The Association of Commonwealth Teachers has recommended its president, Betty Miller, to the position, but Reyes said until PSS meets the constitutional requirement, the governor will not appoint a new teacher representative.
“PSS has to go through this procedure and once they certified it, the governor can sanction it,” he said, adding that Fitial’s special adviser on education, Dan Nielsen, is now communicating with PSS and BOE.
“The governor asked him to respond to the board as to the needed requirements for the appointment,” Reyes said.
In a recent board meeting, BOE Chairwoman Lucy Blanco-Maratita discussed the important role played by the teacher representative who, she added, serves as the information link between the board and the PSS educators.
Early this year, Bennett and former BOE Chairman Roman Benavente asked the Supreme Court to clarify the constitutional provision regarding the appointment of the teacher representative.
The high court, however, said Benavente and Bennett “failed to satisfy the constitutional prerequisites for certifying legal questions to the court.”
Bennett also believed that Miller, a school administrator, should not be the teacher representative.
