On Monday, the board terminated the contract of NMC President Carmen Fernandez, a former senator of Guam, who was hired in April 2007.
Fernandez was fired exactly three months after she was placed on paid suspension.
Torres’ House Bill 17-39 will amend the Postsecondary Education Act of 1984 through the insertion of a new clause that reads: “The officers, faculty employees and staff of the college, excluding the president, shall only be terminated through an adopted grievance proceeding and only ‘with cause.’ There also shall be developed, adopted and administered a merit personnel system. The president shall be removed at any time by a majority vote of the board of regents.”
Torres, Ind.-Saipan, said his measure should remove any job insecurity NMC personnel may have.
The contracts of more than a dozen top personnel were terminated or they were forced to resign due to “politics,” he said.
“This repetitive turnover, including needless and pointless terminations like the case of long-time resident and educator Sam McPhetres and other dedicated staff members, causes extra expenditures being spent on new recruiting, hiring and training of new staff,” said Torres.
“It is also a tremendous strain on staff morale and causes the teaching staff to be guarded and intimidated in their classrooms, preventing students from receiving a full view of the world around them, which they need to protect themselves from the sometimes adverse challenges that await them,” he added.
