Today marks our 27th year in public education as an autonomous agency. Over the years, we have seen the public school system advance in so many ways and this would not have been possible without the leadership and commitment of all key management school principals and vice principals, counselors, faculty and staff. We are most grateful for the partnership of our State Board of Education for their vision and leadership as well in making our school district an accomplished public education.
We do the work that we do because of our vision, our mission, our guiding principles and clear institutional goals of the school district. In the forefront of the messages you find in these statements are our children. Their future is now and we must ensure that they are equipped to address their needs every day. As our Pacific Education Conference theme says – Every child, Every single day.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your great contribution and participation in making the public school system the best public education in the CNMI and Pacific region.
Over the years, we have seen…
- …strides in student performance, we have seen a high percentage of early graduates and a high percentage of student graduation rates, including a high percentage of students entering colleges and universities and the workforce.
- …efficiency and effectiveness in our school and central office operations, most especially a successful single audit report with an unmodified opinion, wherein, the school district has strictly enforced internal controls, procurement and travel regulations, and requirements and expectations for employment within the school district.
- …improvement in our safe and orderly school campus administrative policies and standard operating procedures. These include non-violent crisis intervention procedures, counseling, emergency operations and management procedures and policies, internet usage, health and sanitation standards in all classrooms and buildings, mitigation projects to support safety and building structures and disciplinary policies and procedures.
- …engagement of parents and community in many different ways that touches the educational dreams of our children. From in-kind donations to cash contributions, Education Tax Credits and volunteerism. Our many partners in the career and cooperative education projects have enabled our students to participate in the workforce as interns. Our many partners with external agencies from the private and public sector has been far-reaching and we are most grateful for their engagement. The parent involvement tracking record has indicated an increase in parent participation in school meetings, conferences, and volunteerism.
- …the recruitment, renewal and retention of faculty and staff have been a challenged, but nonetheless, we have been able to ensure that we build local capacity by providing mentoring programs for new and aspiring school principals and vice principals, and in the making is the new and aspiring teacher assistants, instructor and teacher program which took off this summer and will be nurtured throughout, and the collaboration with various post-secondary education institutions to recruit hard-to-fill positions.
- …the school district’s endeavor to become a high performing school district with reliable systems in place. An accountability plan that tracks school wide improvement plans, an accreditation system that promotes system-wide and systemic and systematic plans, policies and procedures, research based instructional strategies and practices that support system-wide standards of learning and teaching, and an assessment system that tracks college readiness and career readiness of all children in the school district.
Our work is endless and your support and assistance has been a true investment. The recent passage of HLI18-12 by the general public in itself is an overwhelming public support to public education. The return of your investment is in every child that exits the school district. We ask one more time of all of you to give our children the greatest opportunity that they can receive while they are in school and after they leave the Public School System.
Please take your precious time out to thank your faculty and staff, your stakeholders and many, many more that have impacted public education but most importantly those that have been a part of your school.
Again, thank you for your undivided support, care and hope as we continue on in our journey to ensure the very best for our commonwealth’s children’s public education.
Happy Education Day to ALL.
RITA A. SABLAN, ED.D.
COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION