Governor to name Education secretary next week
During an inspection of Abraham Lincoln Elementary School in Old San Juan on Friday with interim Education Secretary Jesús Rivera, Fortuño said the new secretary would start the job next week “with a full work team,” but declined to name potential appointees.
The Education Department is facing a host of perennial challenges to get ready for classes, including repair works at schools, empty teaching and principal positions and angry workers unions.
Fortuño said 1,481 public schools would be ready for the return of roughly 500,000 students in the middle of next week. He said 99 percent of principal posts would be filled by then.
The Education Department has been helmed by Rivera, a former undersecretary of academic affairs, since former Education Secretary Odette Piñeiro was forced out of the post in late May due to “differences in criteria.” Piñeiro was the second public school system chief to resign from the Fortuño administration, having been tapped by the governor to fill the Cabinet post in December following the resignation of former Education Secretary Carlos Chardón.
Piñeiro took over the troubled school system while the local government was negotiating with federal officials a state rescue plan aimed at keeping Puerto Rico off a list of high-risk districts that could jeopardize future federal funding. The plan created an interagency task force to undertake an “administrative takeover” of the Education Department, with the aim of resolving all the big administrative problems at the department within 12 to 18 months. The group is comprised of officials from the Government Development Bank, the Office of Management & Budget and the Treasury Department. The initiative was aimed at fixing the legendary problems at the local Education Department, which has 69,500 employees, a budget of $4.2 billion and some 500,000 students spread over roughly 1,500 schools.
Delegates from the Teachers Federation and Teachers Association, the two main unions at the Education Department, were scheduled to meet separately Friday afternoon on agendas that included potential strike votes over a range of issues.
“Any teacher that doesn’t come for work is letting the students down and won’t be paid for that day,” Fortuño said.
The governor said his administration is carrying out the “most sweeping” school remodeling plan in decades.
Bidding has already opened on the administration’s $756 million “Schools for the 21st Century” project, which consists of five new schools and the modernization of another 95 across the island. Construction on the ambitious undertaking, which will be financed through an American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA)-related program that offers the money at near interest-free rates, is expected to get underway by August.
Enrollment at the island’s public schools is expected to fall by 18,000 students this academic year, adding to a trend dating back 15 years that has seen the student rolls drop by 200,000 children.
The governor called for understanding regarding ongoing roofing, painting and other efforts to get schools ready for classes, blaming the delays in part on weeks of rainy weather that hobbled renovation work. Students and teachers at some campuses are being relocated as work will stretch past the back-to-school date next Wednesday.
Fortuño stressed the importance of “establishing alliances between various sectors for a common goal, with benefits that will impact future generations.”
Under a new adopt-a-school program, public agencies and private enterprises can sponsor schools.
Abraham Lincoln Elementary, which serves youngsters from the Old San Juan, La Perla and Puerta de Tierra areas, is the five institution adopted by first lady Lucé Vela, who accompanied the governor during the inspection.
“It is time to give our schools and their students the respect and attention they deserve,” Fortuño said.
