Although all the people involved faced off for the first time since lawmakers stepped into the issue, the House Committee on Education did not get the answers to the allegations against MHS principal Craig Garrison, Rep. Raymond D. Palacios said.
MHS teacher James Yangetmai and Garrison showed up but Palacios, who chairs the committee, said the only person who talked to them was Education Commissioner Rita Sablan who did not really answer the questions about the allegations against the principal.
Garrison has been accused of arrogance, vindictiveness and other “character and attitude issues.”
Palacios, Covenant-Saipan, noted that Garrison just sat silently in the gallery so the “hailstorm of information” the principal earlier promised to “unleash” did not happen.
Sablan, during the hearing, reminded lawmakers of the Public School System’s procedures in addressing personnel matters.
She told Palacios that his committee is welcome to subpoena Garrison and she is willing to testify for PSS.
Palacios explained that it is his committee’s responsibility to address issues that affect “our children’s education,” and that is why he called for such a hearing which Garrison earlier described as “pure micro-management” and a “clear waste of public money.”
Yangetmai, in an interview after the hearing, said: “I don’t think we will resolve anything right now.”
But he said he is really grateful that the House Committee on Education is concerned about the children’s education.
He said he commends the lawmakers for stepping in while PSS “just decided to be on the side and waited for this thing to blow up.”
He said PSS has questioned his grievances against Garrison. “It’s just a veil of curtain that I think PSS is trying to hide behind,” he added.
Most of the allegations against Garrison, he said, are from teachers, many of whom are afraid to come out.
“I don’t think it is appropriate for me to file a grievance on behalf of other teachers. I am speaking on their behalf but legally, I don’t think I can file it for them unless they are willing to step up to the plate and file the grievance themselves,” he said.
Garrison said he heard what he expected to hear and that is the school system’s position not to discuss personnel.
However, he added, the lawmakers seemed insistent to know personnel matters.
The hearing, he said, was “hugely repetitive.”
“I heard the same questions and answers like dozens of times in different context but it was clear what they are really trying to do is rephrase those questions to get the answers, but they just could not get the answer they want it to,” he said.
Moronic
Yangetmai said prior to the hearing he had a chance to meet with Garrison.
He said the principal told him that he, Yangetmai, was no longer Garrison’s employee.
Yangetmai could not tell if Garrison was verbally firing him.
When asked if he fired Yangetmai, Garrison said: “I never fired anybody. Why do you ask that moronic question you imbecile?”
Garrison said what he told Yangetmai was that as of June 17, when the school year ended, the teacher is no longer the principal’s employee but he still works for PSS.
