Overall Education Day coordinator Peter Le’au, Saipan Southern High School principal, said this year’s theme is “Join the Band of Education and March to Success.”
“It’s about promoting unity among our schools. And to show a unified family, we will be celebrating and sharing everyone’s success and progress,” Le’au said.
This year, PSS will host lunch for all participants, excluding teachers and staff from Rota and Tinian.
Le’au said due to financial constraint, PSS can only afford to pay for the travel expenses of Rota and Tinian’s principals and nominees for teacher, teacher aide and support staff of the year.
Rota will mark Education Day on Nov. 24 while Tinian has scheduled its celebration for Nov. 25.
Le’au said they have over 60 candidates for the teacher, teacher aide and support staff of the year awards and only one will be selected in each category by the PSS human resources office.
The celebration on Nov. 26 is a whole day event that starts at 8 a.m. A professional development session is slated for the evening of Nov. 25.
“It’s a gathering of the system’s staff, sharing and working toward achieving PSS goals and mission,” Le’au said.
This year, Education Day celebration has been allotted $5,000 which Le’au said will be used mainly for food and preparations for the event.
He said prizes for the awardees will come from solicitations and donations.
This year, each school will give a 10- to 15-minute presentation.
There will also be an essay contest for elementary, junior and high school students.
Last year’s Education Day awardees were Saipan Southern High School’s Andrew Golden as teacher of the year; and Dandan Elementary School’s Kate Borja as teacher aide of the year.
There was a three-way tie for the support staff of the year award: Hopwood’s Mario Banco, GTC’s Ariel Narvaez, and PSS central office’s Liberty Rabauliman.
The awardees received cash and gift items from PSS and sponsors.
