HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Guam Department of Education Superintendent Kenneth Swanson had set a deadline to have all schools inspected and passed by April 2024 but that target date has shifted as he told education officials that high schools won’t be inspected until after the current school year ends.
“High school inspection cycles will occur after the end of the current school year to ensure course completion and graduation so we don’t have the risk of a closure. High school campuses are a lot bigger and a lot more complex,” Swanson told the Guam Education Board on Dec. 19.
To date, 14 out of 41 GDOE schools have passed sanitary inspection, according to the superintendent. With Adacao Elementary School having failed in April, the department now has a 93% passing rate.
“(At) Adacao, we don’t have the funding to do all of the ceiling tiles in the building. Almost all of them are gone and it’s a two-phase problem with insulation particles falling through the ceiling onto the students, and the other thing (is) that (the) suspended ceiling is part of the HVAC system so you can’t maintain the humidity temperature without the ceiling tiles in place,” Swanson said.
He added that Adacao is up for re-inspection in January.
Astumbo Elementary School was inspected the week of Dec. 19 and is expected to pass.
Three more schools are also scheduled to be inspected in January.
“(The) next school to be inspected (is) Harry S. Truman (Elementary School), Marcial Sablan (Elementary School) and then Liguan Elementary (School) in the near future. Trying to do one a week, that’s a bit of a challenge, but we are working on that,” Swanson said.
Despite not being inspected, Swanson confirmed that Liguan Elementary School will reopen Jan. 2.
“They will be back on full campus schedule and so will their host school,” Swanson said.
GDOE’s facility and maintenance teams have prioritized preparing schools for inspection placing routine maintenance on the back burner to stay ahead of inspection schedules.
“Maintenance teams are working on two schools ahead of inspection schedules to make repairs and guide local staff to complete self-help items,” Swanson said.
Should a school fail an inspection and be required to close, Swanson said “the only viable option is to continue instruction online with teacher work sessions and hard copy packets. The online option is not optimal, and the community doesn’t desire that. We are very much aware of that. Double session is not impossible to arrange but difficult because of transportation requirements.”
With all sanitary inspection permits set to expire June 30 every year, GDOE is working with the Department of Public Health and Social Services on language to revise the current law and change the date of expiration for inspection permits.
“So that they expire on the anniversary of the inspection rather than all expiring on June 30,” Swanson said.
Adacao Elementary School on July 3, 2023, in Dededo.
