HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Three weeks remain until the start of the new school year and only two of 41 Guam Department of Education schools have passed sanitary inspection. With the clock ticking, senators, during an oversight hearing Tuesday at the Guam Congress Building in Hagåtña, expressed disappointment that GDOE’s approach to getting schools up to par seemingly has not materialized.
“(The Department of Public Health and Social Services) early on told us they would have an issue completing all of the inspections just because of the time, also because of the number of inspectors that they had. It was put on the table on day one, but everybody expected that the government of Guam would be able to assist and meet that need. I believe that the promises were made that we were going to do an entire GovGuam approach to help DOE,” Speaker Therese Terlaje pointed out, questioning if the response had changed.
GDOE Deputy Superintendent Erika Cruz indicated that although it was promised the administration would help provide much-needed manpower to Public Health to conduct inspections of schools, the extra workers did not materialize.
“When we had met with the lieutenant governor and then acting Superintendent Judith Won Pat, along with the director of Public Health (Arthur San Agustin) and (chief environmental health officer) Tom Nadeau, we talked about the possibility of utilizing inspectors with (Guam Environmental Protection Agency) and with the help of the Guam National Guard. But since then, we have not been able to get any of the additional inspectors to assist them in their inspection,” Cruz said.
Terlaje said she was disappointed by the news as she noted that even before the passage of Public Law 37-4, Public Health had been trying to hire more inspectors to fill the shortage.
“That’s unfortunate to hear that that has not progressed,” the speaker said, further questioning whether Public Health had provided GDOE with new estimates of when school inspections can happen.
Inspections
On Tuesday, GDOE reported to senators that Merizo Martyrs Memorial School and Inalåhan Elementary school passed inspection, while Untalan Middle School had just started inspection, which will take about a week to complete.
“In the event that Untalan Middle School hits 41 demerits, they are going to stop inspection of Untalan and go to the next school,” Cruz said.
A typical inspection is estimated to take about seven days to complete, including issuing a report. That means in the next three weeks, only three more schools can be inspected before the Aug. 9 start of the school year.
“The only change is that once a school hits 41 demerits, they are going to stop inspection and move on to the next school,” Cruz said.
The shortage of inspectors at Public Health has left the agency “overwhelmed” not only with conducting school sanitary inspections, but also with the agency’s ability to issue variances.
“They are overwhelmed with the variances. We’ve submitted over 120 variances. Seven were approved, 30 were returned back to the schools for more detail and, so that’s where we are at as far as variances are concerned. So, we have not been denied any variances, they’ve been returned to request for more information,” Cruz told senators.
Terlaje noted that Public Health officials did indicate they would work with GDOE on variances, but, according to Cruz, no timeline was provided to show when Public Health inspectors could get through them.
‘State of urgency’
With three weeks left until the start of the new school year, Sen. Jesse Lujan asked the new GDOE superintendent about the current state of the department.
“Dr. Kenneth Swanson, what state are we on, are we on a state of emergency? We got schools opening in a few weeks. Are we in a state of emergency? (A) state of urgency?”
“I would certainly say it’s a state of extreme urgency. We have a lot of capacity and one of the suggestions that was made that I really am hoping we can work our way forward with, is all of our facilities that we have been able to rate as Phase 1 can go ahead and open pending when they get inspected because we are working from the same standards. … The urgency is for us to move everybody to Phase 1, but we know, and we are very much aware that some of the capital projects that it will take with a few of our buildings is, just because of the complexity, is going to take a little longer,” Swanson said.
According to the superintendent, GDOE is putting all of its efforts into getting the schools ready to pass inspections.
“We are talking every revenue source and labor source that we know of, to include (the Federal Emergency Management Agency). And it’s even looking for other grant opportunities and agencies that can help us that are not FEMA, but affiliate with them. … It’s a high priority. I want schools to open on time because instruction takes time. There’s also some contractual requirements that, if we delay, we run into the next school year, which is a collision we don’t want to have either,” Swanson said.
Swanson said he met with the Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero last week and expressed the state of extreme urgency.
“She assured us she was going to intervene in any way that she can. I don’t know what that’s going to look like yet,” he said.
When Lujan asked what the help would look like, the superintendent couldn’t speak to what the governor meant.
“My understanding in that conversation is she was going to focus on Public Health. I don’t know what that looks like in terms of what her intent is,” Swanson said.
Lujan asked if the superintendent agreed that formally declaring a state of extreme urgency would help.
“(I) absolutely agree if that leveraged things in the administration that we can access that we currently don’t have, certainly,” Swanson said.
Representatives of the Guam Department of Education are sworn in before testifying during an oversight hearing Tuesday, July 18, 2023, at the Public Hearing Room of the Guam Congress Building in Hagåtña. From left: Brian San Nicolas, Anthony (Sean) Monforte, Franklin Cooper-Nurse, Superintendent K. Erik Swanson and Deputy Superintendents Joseph Sanchez, Erika S. Cruz and Chris Anderson.
