HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Stakeholders who attended the Guam Department of Education’s informational briefing and input session on the plan to shut down operations at some public schools cautioned education officials to take their time in coming to a decision.
The briefing held at Wettengel Elementary School is the third planned briefing with parents, teachers and other stakeholders. Among them was a man who also attended the past two public briefings earlier in the week who expressed continued confusion about why decommissioning was being considered ahead of the military buildup.
“I don’t expect you to answer these questions now, but I am asking you to put this into your equation. There’s obviously a history of making very bad, poor decisions and obviously this might be another poor decision,” the attendee said.
The need to decommission schools comes as a result of several factors. Among them is a reduced student population, as well as population projections. Ten years ago, there were over 31,000 students. The current student population is 24,322.
But while GDOE sees a reduction in student populations, Dededo Mayor Melissa Savares, who is also the mayoral representative to the Guam Education Board, asked them to take into account community development projects and families moving from one village to another.
“Just want to keep in mind, I did see that list you were talking about and that last column, schools that are considered for closure, I don’t have problems for the northern schools because everything was recommended for repair. What I want to be careful with in the north between Yigo and Dededo, our municipal planning council has rezoned properties for condos, apartment buildings and high-rises,” the mayor said.
Savares said a 20-story condo with 329 units was being constructed in her village.
“It’s two- and three-bedroom condos and, of course, you have two and three bedrooms, that means people are coming with families. We have Summer Vista that was open. We quickly had to meet with Wettengel, Astumbo Elementary and Middle School and Okkodo High School because the students are right across Okkodo High School where the CoreTech property is at. Those are children coming to school,” the mayor said.
The mayor said accommodations had to be made with the Department of Public Works bus operations to service the area because it’s not part of the attendance areas. She cautioned education officials to take factors such as this into serious consideration.
“We want to make sure we are also going to keep schools, some space available for the construction or incoming students that are moving into these new facilities. Two to three more years we are going to have the Singapore Air Force come in. Not all military kids go to (Department of Defense) schools,” the mayor said.
The mayor continued, noting that she met with military officials last year “to make sure that we had enough housing and schools, classroom space for their children because they don’t qualify for DOD housing and DOD schools. We want to keep that in mind. Our enrollments may go up and then you are going to need to shift students back to central areas.”
“We really want to know what the plans are. We are having a bit of challenge with Joint Forces and (Department of Defense Education Activity) getting responsive information,” Superintendent Kenneth Erik Swanson responded.
While education officials are working on that piece, the superintendent said it would be part of five-year and 10-year projections.
Swanson said that, so far, the decommissioning planning process has brought some good.
“One of the good things that has come out of this process this week is a number of good suggestions on how to configure the class structures in the schools that would work better for the kids and the family. We are open to all of that, most certainly. This is not a knee-jerk reaction kind of situation,” the superintendent said.
Swanson noted that the current situation must be acknowledged.
“We have a lot of excess materials in terms of resources. … Is there a better way to use it? Probably. Is it sustainable? That’s what we are trying to figure out,” Swanson said.
According to Swanson, Joint Region Marianas projections he saw showed an influx ahead.
“Shows an influx in increased capacity for school starting in fiscal year 2028 – a ways away. … The Marines that are coming are not bringing families. These are young Marines who are single,” Swanson said.
A Zoom participant asked how education officials would evaluate the success of the decommissioning process and the short-term and long-term impact on the educational landscape.
“The short-term is our success … and balancing, especially with community input in developing solutions for families … that work well with their kids,” Swanson said.
M.U. Lujan Elementary School students board a bus for the first day of classes on Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023, in Yona.
