HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — The Guam Department of Education has crunched the numbers in the American Rescue Plan grant, and there may be an additional $20 million that can be put toward refurbishing schools.
Superintendent Kenneth Erik Swanson received approval from the U.S. Department of Education to reallocate $8 million in ARP funds to fund the F.B. Leon Guerrero project, the air conditioning contract and schools listed in the refurbishment project.
“In addition to (holding) a balance to put forward into any other school that we wanted to add, that’s what has been approved,” Swanson said during the Guam Education Board meeting held Dec. 19.
Since obtaining approval from U.S. DOE, GDOE said, it has recalculated the numbers and identified additional funds for reallocation.
“We can reprogram an additional amount of money, … trying to lock down somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 million more that we can put into projects. My intent is to use all of that money,” Swanson said.
Swanson shared the news with the board after receiving some heat from GEB Vice Chair Maria Gutierrez about which schools are and are not on the refurbishment project listing.
“You already named the seven schools publicly. The stakeholders already heard what happened to Finegayan. The largest enrollment as of Friday is 837,” Gutierrez said.
Swanson said he has visited Finegayan Elementary School three times and has seen the condition of the facility, prompting Gutierrez to question why he would take the school off the list of schools to be refurbished.
“This school has been assessed for more than five years. Assessment, assessment, assessment. Whose idea (was it) in capital improvement projects to take off Finegayan Elementary school from the list?” Gutierrez questioned.
“I have to take the money that we have and put it against all of the schools on the basis of what needs to be done and what level,” Swanson replied.
“So, you don’t think that the 837 students at Finegayan don’t deserve (it)? Is that what I am hearing from you? The school that has the highest enrollment. So you don’t think that those kids up there in Mayor Savares’ village does not deserve to be one of the seven schools?” Gutierrez asked.
Swanson acknowledged that all of the students deserve the benefit of school refurbishment, but the reality is there isn’t enough funding under the ARP to do so.
“And I have also stated, too, that beyond the ones that were named, we would be able to add one or two more,” Swanson stressed. “But I cannot disclose them because those contracts are not officially signed by the governor.”
The schools identified by Swanson are George Washington High School, Oceanview Middle School, Agueda Johnston Middle School, Inarajan Middle School, Ordot Chalan Pago Elementary School, D.L. Perez Elementary School and Tamuning Elementary School.
Aside from the refurbishment project, efforts to fix damage sustained by schools as a result of Typhoon Mawar are moving forward.
Typhoon Mawar recovery projects through the Disaster Local Area Network, or DLAN, process, namely mold mitigation projects, have been solicited through the Department of Public Works and have been at the attorney general’s office for review and possible revisions for over a week.
“The attorney that was handling it was off on trial duty. He’s working on it, I don’t know the outcome of it,” Swanson reported.
Meanwhile, fence replacement and repair of perimeter fences at schools is at DPW for procurement.
According to Swanson, “most of the … debris removal (is) completed. But we still have (Harry S. Truman Elementary School) and two more campuses that have some remaining materials that need to be removed.”
He also noted that the emergency declaration that the government used to prioritize that spending has expired, and the procurement process is back to “regular tempo” through DPW.
The Guam Department of Education logo is seen Friday, Dec. 22, 2023, at department headquarters in Tiyan.
