This year’s theme is “Education: Shaping Our Life, Our World, and Our Future.”
The program at Hopwood started at 8:45 a.m. with students and teachers assembling by teams and homerooms in front of the stage.
The seven nominees were then presented: Barcinas as principal of the year; John Pialur, vice principal of the year; Ruby Hocog, support staff of the year; Josiah Kyonka, counselor of the year; Nelia Crisostomo, teacher aide of the year; Michael Berbes, instructor of the year; Purisimo Raganot maintenance of the year; and Carmelita Ada, teacher of the year.
The nominees were given gift baskets by their designated cohorts and the Parent-Teacher-Student Association whose president, Rabby Syed, also attended the event.
The CNMI teacher of the year award was already announced yesterday — Jonathan Cabrera of Saipan Southern High School — the rest of the awards will be known next week.
During the presentation, information about the nominees were shared with the students and faculty.
Barcinas wants to run for office one day or build a tutorial company for students not meeting standards.
Pialur has been employed with PSS for over 23 years. He served as a teacher aide and a physical education instructor before becoming the vice principal for discipline.
Crisostomo has been with Hopwood for two years now. As a teacher aide, she has shown extreme passion as she cares for children with disabilities.
Raganot, 73, has been with the PSS for over 19 years and has been working at Hopwood since 2005. He is responsible for keeping the campus clean and germ-free.
Kyonka has been with Hopwood for almost three years now. He has a background in psychology and theology.
Hocog has been with PSS for 11 years. It is her fifth time to get an award.
Ada has a wide range of academic accomplishments, including being in-charge of doing lesson plans for all teachers from 2007 to the present. She served as advisor in the Math Olympiad and Mathcourt/Mathcounts coach.
During the program at Hopwood, winners for the various inter-school contests also received their prizes.
Patrick Agustin got second place for his Education Day logo entry while Hannah Hofschneider topped the Education Day essay writing contest. She read her winning piece during the program.
