HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — All public school students will begin the new school year Aug. 9, but not all campuses will be open for in-person instruction by that time, according to Guam Department of Education officials.
The department announced Thursday that school campuses will open under a phased-in approach for in-person learning, based on school assessments and Typhoon Mawar recovery efforts.
Based on self-inspections GDOE conducted as of July 12, only 17 schools will be ready to open for in-person instruction between Aug. 9 and 23, granted they are inspected and pass sanitary inspections as expected.
These schools are categorized under Phase 1 of GDOE’s plan.
Twelve schools were categorized under Phase 2, which projects that they will be ready for in-person classes three weeks to two months later than the scheduled start of the school year.
Under Phase 3, another 12 schools won’t be ready to open until three months or later from the Aug. 9 start date.
GDOE in its announcement did not identify which schools fall under each phase, as the classifications are considered projections.
As of Thursday, six GDOE schools have been inspected by the Department of Public Health and Social Services and, of those schools, only Inalåhan Elementary School has passed inspection formally, with a “C” grade. Merizo Martyrs Memorial School is pending an inspection report.
GDOE said Public Health will be able to inspect only three more schools before Aug. 9.
Summer not extended
Just because in-person instruction may begin later in the school year for those in Phases 2 and 3, however, that does not mean students’ summer vacation will be longer than scheduled.
Instead, during community input sessions GDOE held with stakeholders Thursday and Friday, department officials said students would be attending school through double sessions or, as a last resort, online learning.
“We are really trying to avoid having to go 100% online,” Deputy Superintendent Joseph Sanchez said during one of the sessions. “That is our absolute last resort, especially the younger kids. So we are really hoping that there can be a political solution to this soon, so that we are able to really just focus on the in-person part of our instruction.”
But Sen. Chris Barnett, who authored the public law that required schools to pass health inspections before reopening, told The Guam Daily Post on Friday that there may not be anything the Legislature can do.
“I am not sure there’s anything the Legislature can do because now that the attorney general is handing down indictments to the issuances of the sanitary permits, I am not comfortable going in and messing with the law and somehow mandating that our kids go to school facilities without a sanitary permit. I think that ship has sailed,” Barnett said.
So far GDOE has said F.B. Leon Guerrero Middle School students would continue to share a campus with Okkodo High School, while Simon Sanchez High School students would be attending double sessions at John F. Kennedy High School.
But these plans are dependent on two things: first, that the host schools are inspected before the start of the school year; and second, that they pass the inspections.
JFK High School failed its recent sanitary inspection with 57 demerits. No timeline for reinspection has been provided.
‘There’s a lot of solutions’
Barnett told the Post he is open to exploring the possibility of GDOE renting out facilities so students can attend in-person instruction.
“There’s a lot of solutions. Like GDOE, we talk about money not being an issue – I am even open to the possibility of them looking at properties to rent or lease so that we can have classes there,” he said. “There are a lot of properties on the island of Guam and I think some of them were looked at for shelters that are available, so maybe GDOE can have the schools open on time. Maybe we rent a building for six months so that the work at the schools can get done.”
A mural of President John F. Kennedy is shown July 3, 2023, at JFK High School in Tamuning. Officials plan to use the campus to host double sessions with Simon Sanchez High School at the start of the new school year.
