HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Efforts to construct a new Simon Sanchez High School made a little bit of progress in the first month of the new year, with the publication of a request for proposals for construction management services. The procurement is said to be pivotal for the long-standing school construction project.
Department of Public Works Director Vince Arriola said during a legislative hearing in December 2023 that construction management services should have been procured “a while ago,” and that the SSHS project likely would be at the construction procurement phase already if it had been.
Arriola commented that he and another DPW official brought up the issue of hiring a construction manager more than two years ago during briefings with staff at the Guam Department of Education, but a construction manager never was brought on board.
By the time of the legislative hearing in December 2023, DPW essentially had completed the RFP for a construction manager, but it remained under review by the Office of the Attorney General. It had taken several months of work to get to that point, with Arriola saying his department wanted to ensure the services required were received.
DPW estimated it would take 10 weeks to award a contract following publication of the RFP. After that, a “conservative” timeline of at least 90 days is estimated for review of the SSHS design, construction methods and other criteria, and the development of a bid for construction, according to Arriola.
According to the RFP, the initial term of the construction management services contract will be for three years, which may be extended two more years. Interested bidders will have until Feb. 5 to submit their proposals.
The existing Simon Sanchez High School building in Yigo is decades old and has seen its fair share of facility issues. SSHS students are currently using the John F. Kennedy High School campus in Tamuning under a double-session schedule because the SSHS facility failed to meet school sanitary building codes. The Yigo campus also was damaged by Typhoon Mawar, which struck the island in May 2023.
According to Post files, GDOE said previously that SSHS students will not be returning to their home campus until the new school is built.
Simon Sanchez High School students rush to enter the campus on Monday, Nov. 13, 2023, at John F. Kennedy High School in Tamuning.
