By Gerardo R. Partido
Variety News Staff

THE Guam Education Policy Board will push for a complete overhaul of the Guam Public School System as soon as an audit of GPSS is completed, board chairman Peter Alecxis Ada said yesterday.
According to Ada, much needed changes in the public school system have not been implemented because they are being blocked by an “entrenched clique” of GPSS officials who are against change.
“There are too many people who are untouchable. These people are building domains and think GPSS is a familial system that they can own as a territory. GPSS is top heavy,” Ada told Variety.
He said the whole board is one with him in seeking an overhaul of GPSS and reorganizing the whole department to make sure that everybody is accountable and that there is responsibility in administration.
“We will work with the superintendent on this. We shall break up the individual turfs and focus on our mission to provide quality education and responsibility in administration. Everyone at GPSS should know that their position is not a lifetime one. Everybody is replaceable, including me,” Ada said.
At the end of the month, Superintendent Luis Reyes is up for evaluation and the board will decide whether he will be retained as the head of GPSS.
It will be recalled that Reyes’s predecessor, Juan Flores, had a stormy relationship with the previous board, which lobbied hard to have him replaced.
Ada would not give details on Reyes’s evaluation, saying that the board has a special evaluation committee—headed by board member Melinda Flores--tasked specifically for this.
“I’ll say this. Speaking for myself, I think Mr. Reyes inherited a lot of problems. It’s unfair to put all the blame on him, he is not a superman,” Ada said, referring to the many challenges faced by GPSS during Reyes’s first six months.
The public school system has been having difficulty making payroll and paying employee deductions, vendor bills, and utility costs.
This week, GPSS is again facing a pay period and may have difficulty making payroll.
GPSS claims that it has not been getting its funding allocations on time and at the full amount. The administration, on the other hand, has blamed GPSS for failing to manage its finances properly.
Reyes has said that he is taking full responsibility for everything that has happened during his tenure, despite inheriting a lot of problems from the previous administration.
The school board is now in the process of preparing another request for proposal for a management audit of GPSS.
A previous RFP worth $150,000 did not attract any bidders although two companies expressed interest and took bidding packets.
Yesterday, Ada said he received a new RFP draft that will be shown to the whole school board and GPSS management for consideration.
To attract more bidders, Ada said the board wants to ask the Legislature to increase the contract amount to up to $500,000.