BY restoring the 80-hour work period, ensuring fairness, providing health services and conducting leadership training sessions, the Public School System and the Board of Education are working to boost the morale of PSS teachers and support staff, education officials told the House Committee on Education and other lawmakers in a meeting on Friday.
It was House Floor Leader Ralph N. Yumul who asked Education Commissioner Alfred Ada and the BOE members, “How’s the morale of teachers?”
The education officials said that with the help of the federal Education Stabilization Fund, PSS is back on an 80-hour work schedule.
House Committee on Education members and other lawmakers meet with Public School System officials and Board of Education members on Friday in the House chamber.
Photo by Emmanuel T. Erediano
Like other government agencies, PSS had to implement austerity measures in response to the impact of Super Typhoon Yutu and the Covid-19 pandemic on the local economy.
But Ada told lawmakers that teacher morale “is not just tied to salaries.”
“Our goal is to give our teachers some assurance of certainty and stability,” he said.
The Covid-19 pandemic, he said, required teachers to take on additional responsibilities.
“Safety is the priority now,” he said. “So…we are also…having health outreach monitoring and…more leadership and professional training for teachers.”
Asked by Speaker Edmund Villagomez how long PSS can afford an 80-hour work schedule, Ada said: “Our projection is for two years and beyond, so we do have a spending plan for that.”
For his part, BOE Chairman Andrew Orsini said it was “imperative” for PSS to restore the 80-hour work schedule because “we have lost quite a number of teachers, and it will impact the students.”
He added, “I know it is not enough to just do that. It is important that when we decide on expenditures we make sure there is money in the bank that could sustain us all the way. So I’ve asked to have an independent party to look at all our existing positions and salaries…so we can have some kind of fairness and equity for everyone — something that is very reasonable.”
Orsini said the BOE is “very mindful” when spending money. “I don’t like taking things for granted — we are very cautious moving forward,” he added.
For her part, teacher representative Phyllis Ain said: “I don’t know if most…legislators are aware that PSS teachers and administrators suffered a…pay cut [even] before the implementation of the austerity measures. These people made plans, and had house and car loans. Then austerity came and their salaries were reduced further.”
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, she said teachers were furloughed and lost many benefits.
“So the teachers are struggling financially and emotionally,” she said. “And it’s not just teachers. The principals, too are paid relatively little and they have been at schools doing all this incredible work.”
Ain said she is really pleased that the BOE is looking at the PSS employees’ work-hour schedule.
“I am so happy to be able to say we will have income for two years at least, but we have to look at what was taken and explore whether we can use local funding to pay people so they would stay,” Ain said.
She said there are other opportunities “out there” for PSS employees as federal grants are coming in that allow other government agencies to offer higher salaries.
Ain said job opportunities offered by other government agencies are coming at a time when PSS employees are aware that they are not getting “financial recognition.”
“No one is blaming anyone — it is just the reality and I am glad that we are addressing that,” Ain said.
The House Committee on Education is chaired by former PSS educator and principal, Rep. Leila Staffler.
