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At Riverdale Elementary School on Monday morning, Karuna Skariah sat with special education teacher Joan Lewis in a small room wedged between two music classrooms.

They tuned out the songs playing from the classrooms as they tried to make the most of their 15 minutes of free time by editing a report Lewis had written as part of her certification process to become National Board Certified, the highest level of teaching certification an educator can receive.

It's Skariah's job to recruit, mentor and coach teachers such as Lewis as they undergo the intense, one- to three-year certification program, but state money to pay for teacher coordinators is expected to dry up next year unless a bill before the state Senate is passed.

If approved, Senate Bill 453 would continue to pay for the teacher coordinator program at five schools for another three years, costing $320,000 per year.

Sen. Paul G. Pinsky (D-Dist. 22) of University Park introduced the bill, which also directs the state to include the program as it applies for educational federal stimulus money.

"Many of these schools are in poor communities, and if we have a strategy to improve the schools, we have to go at it," Pinsky said. "We need to not only raise the bar, but we have to close the gap. And if having National Board [Certified] teachers in those schools brings about that change, then I think we have to invest."

The program emphasizes reflecting on and observing students' needs and teaching to them.

Skariah is the teacher coordinator for National Board Certified teachers at Riverdale Elementary. The school has seven certified teachers, the second highest number in the Prince George's County school system, according to the National Board Certified Teacher Leadership Development Office. Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt has the highest, with 10.

Riverdale also has four full candidates and three teachers in the process.

Skariah's position, one of three in the county, is paid for by a state grant that funds such positions at schools with a high number of students living in poverty or schools not making statewide assessment benchmarks. The coordinators' salary and benefits are equivalent to that of a normal teacher.

Skariah also oversees mentors at other schools and sits on Riverdale Elementary's leadership team, where she encourages teachers to focus on student needs.

"I see the transformation," Skariah said. "I'm always saying [in meetings] that it's the students' right to have this education. Teaching is just not a job. You're affecting someone's life. This is someone's child."

Lewis, who is in the first phase of the certification process, called it "one of the most rigorous things I've ever done in my life, but it's satisfying."

"I'm 62 years old, and I was getting ready to retire, but this has energized me," said Lewis, who has taught for 37 years.

National Board passage rate is about 40 percent. Principal Carol Cantu likens getting certified to working on getting a master's or doctorate degree.

Cantu said the program has contributed to high teacher retention rates — teachers who undergo the process and get certified have to agree to stay at the school for at least three years — and that the school would suffer if it lost Skariah.

"It [is] something that affects the culture, and it permeates everything we do," Cantu said. "It does affect those teachers, but what they are learning and what they're doing impacts everybody."