HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Two months after Typhoon Mawar, nearly 1 in 5 of the island’s 39 public schools is still without power, Guam Education Board Chair Mary Okada told the Rotary Club of Tumon Bay on Tuesday.
More than one-third of schools are still without phone service or broadband internet connections, Okada said, providing Rotarians with the most updated data from the public school system.
The Guam Department of Education is furiously trying to comply with an accelerated deadline to get schools in compliance with sanitation regulations – which came and went on June 30 – and recover from Mawar in time to open up on Aug. 9, she said.
Newly installed GDOE Superintendent Kenneth Swanson is prioritizing getting kids back to face-to-face learning, not online education, Okada said.
However, “there is no one school that is perfectly ready for that face-to-face instruction because every school needs some amount of work” after Mawar, Okada said.
Of the six schools to receive newly mandated health inspections recently, four have failed, while two passed with only a “C” rating, she said.
“One of the biggest areas that we have to focus on is mold. Mold because of lack of air conditioning, because of lack of power in the school systems for a long period of time,” as well as blown-out doors and windows and damaged floor and ceiling tiles, Okada told Rotarians.
Here’s how schools fared in recent inspections:
Southern High School: D rating, failed.
Oceanview Middle School: D rating, failed.
Adacao Elementary School: D rating, failed.
Inalåhan Elementary School: C rating, passed.
John F. Kennedy High School: D rating, failed.
Merizo Martyrs Memorial Elementary School: C rating, passed.
Untalan Middle School is the latest school to begin its sanitation inspection, but its results are pending as of Tuesday, according to Okada.
And while it’s pending an updated inspection, the aging Simon Sanchez High School, already on its “last leg” prior to being further damaged by Mawar, will not be serving northern students, she added.
“Nobody wants to go in there. It is shut down. Nobody’s returning to Simon Sanchez.”
Contingency plans
Some of the options being explored to keep schools open in the coming months include sectioning off parts of campuses that are still usable. “(We must) figure out how to use a wing, … even if you have to do double session in the same school,” Okada said.
Students attending schools that have to be shut down completely, such as Sanchez High, will need to be relocated for double session at another campus.
Finally, students in third grade and above may be facing online or alternating face-to-face and online instruction, with the option to go voluntarily online available.
Though GDOE happens to finally be “flush with federal funds,” it has neither the manpower nor the ability to procure materials and services fast enough to get all needed repairs, which have been piling up for decades, finished immediately, Okada told Rotarians.
GDOE will be rolling out a back-to-school plan shortly, according to the GEB chair.
“You can imagine 24,000 kids. What do you do on day one if they can’t go to school? Imagine the families that are impacted,” she said.
Mary Okada was the featured speaker during the Rotary Club of Northern Guam monthly luncheon at the Hyatt Regency Guam on Tuesday, July 25, 2023.
