The proposal, which is being considered by the Board of Education, will affect the teachers’ contracts which require 190 instructional days of teaching, she said in an interview.
Although principals understand the financial situation of the Public School System, she said they believe that the proposal is not the best option to take.
“Yes, it can be done,” Demapan added. “But PSS needs to amend all of the teachers’ contracts and that’s a long and tedious process. We’re not even sure if teachers are amenable to change their contracts.”
The measure has already been adopted by some school districts in the U.S., she said, but added that it will create more “concerns” for the secondary level in the CNMI.
Demapan did not elaborate.
The Kagman Elementary School principal noted that when the government implemented austerity Fridays in 2007, public school teachers were exempted.
“The teachers’ contract was the reason why they didn’t touch us,” she said.
Demapan admitted, however, that it will be up to board whether to implement the proposal.
KagES, she said, may be able to reduce its instructional days from five to four weekly.
“We have 360 minutes per day of instruction,” she added. “We only need to make up 360 minutes per week if we’re going to implement the measure. But probably the extended hours should be placed in the content areas such as reading, math, language arts.”
She said the instructional day of teachers may be extended by half-an-hour.
The reduction of instructional days is being considered by BOE due to the limited operational funding provided by the cash-strapped CNMI government.
For FY 2009, the Legislature proposed a $36.4 million budget for PSS.
But the governor vetoed the budget measure, saying that the government’s projected revenue has to be reduced by close to $9 million.
