The Northern Mariana Islands’ (CNMI) public school system is struggling to retain teachers as a worsening budget crunch forces it to leave vacancies unfilled and educators look elsewhere for more secure employment.
The Public School System (PSS) has lost 137 employees since January, including 47 teachers, and did not replace the departed teachers before schools reopened. The PSS, instead, shifted existing teachers between campuses and reassigned central office personnel to schools to fill critical positions.
The staffing problem has been brought into sharper focus by educator Tatiana Hunter-Talalemotu, who returned to the CNMI after earning a master’s degree but is now preparing to leave for a teaching position in Hawaii after being offered another substitute teaching contract locally.
“It’s just very sad that those of us who went on to pursue further education to bring skills back home are having difficulty finding permanent positions here,” Hunter-Talalemotu said.
Hunter-Talalemotu said a school principal had contacted her directly about working during the new school year, but when she went to PSS to sign a contract, she was offered another substitute position.
She said PSS human resources personnel told her the reason was financial.
“What I’m being told is that it’s a financial issue within PSS,” she said.
Her experience illustrates the difficult position confronting both educators and PSS as the school system tries to operate with fewer employees and limited funding.
The CNMI’s Public School System has lost 137 employees since January, including 47 teachers.
Mark Rabago
Acting education commissioner Jackie Che told the House Ways and Means Committee on 19 August that PSS had lost 47 teachers since January and deliberately did not replace them before the new school year.
“We have lost so many staff. We are very limited in our current pool even within our maintenance and our facilities, and we’ve lost a lot of people,” Che said.
“Between January and today, we have lost 47 teachers. We did not hire for the reopening.”
PSS estimated the salaries and benefits associated with the 47 departed teachers at about US$2.5 million, while the estimated personnel cost associated with all of its vacant positions was about $3.8m.
The Commonwealth’s deteriorating finances are at the heart of the problem.
PSS is seeking about $45m for the 2027 financial year, which it says would allow employees to return to 80-hour fortnightly pay periods and students to attend five regular instructional days each week.
At $41m, employees would remain on 72-hour pay periods, with every other Monday designated as an austerity day.
At about $37m – which Che described as PSS’ baseline – employees would remain at 64 hours, work four days a week, and Mondays would continue as austerity days.
Anything below that baseline could bring deeper cuts, including fewer school days, furloughs, reductions in force, and possible school consolidation.
Students have already lost significant classroom time.
The PSS said 53 instructional days were lost during the previous school year-40 because of Super Typhoon Sinlaku and 13 because of austerity. It projects another 17 austerity days if employees remain at 72 hours, rising to 35 days under the 64-hour schedule.
The staffing losses have also raised concerns among parents.
Parent Advisory Council acting president Grace Naputi told lawmakers that the departure of teachers represents more than simply unfilled positions.
“Every teacher who leaves represents more than a vacant position. It represents lost experience, disrupted relationships, increased workload, and fewer opportunities for students to thrive,” Naputi said.
Hunter-Talalemotu’s impending departure for Hawaii provides a personal example of that wider challenge.
Her mother, Tamara Hunter, said her daughter returned home with a master’s degree in education hoping to contribute to the CNMI but was offered substitute positions during both the previous and current school years.
“So now she will leave at the end of this month for a teaching position in Hawaii,” Hunter wrote in response to the Marianas Press report.
Meanwhile, PSS has frozen general salary increases and management-level scale raises, suspended certification-based pay increases and salary adjustments for higher degrees, largely halted employee travel, and ordered schools to reduce energy use as part of its cost-cutting measures.
The school system is also considering restructuring its central office, right-sizing schools, and possible school consolidation or closures as enrolment continues to decline.
Che has warned that a separate government proposal to reduce PSS’ constitutional funding earmark from 25 percent to 15 percent would have far more serious consequences.
Using a hypothetical $100m government revenue projection, she said the change would leave PSS with $15m.
“That would be a severe devastation that we will not be able to open up any schools. That would be complete shutdown,” Che said.
