HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Public school students will close out the school year as scheduled, the head of public schools on Guam said, as the two makeup days have been scheduled into the school calendar and there has been no additional instructional loss as a result of modified school schedules.
Guam Department of Education Superintendent Kenneth Erik Swanson reported to the Guam Education Board on Monday that the only days public school students need to make up are a result of Tropical Storm Bolaven.
According to the superintendent’s report, “Oct. 9-11, 2023, all schools were closed for (Tropical Storm) Bolaven, resulting in a need to make up three instructional days. Working with the calendar committee and association leadership, we selected three nonstudent days remaining in the calendar to replace those lost days.”
The makeup days were reduced to two after Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero declared Nov. 24, 2023, a government holiday.
“The loss of Nov. 24 for makeup is viewed as not needing to be made up, as it was overridden by the executive order,” Swanson said.
With makeup days remaining, GDOE has worked those days into the existing school calendar so that each grade level will utilize a parent-teacher conference day in March and April. May 24, a teacher workday, also was used.
“Selection of these days provided replacement instructional days and did not result in any extra cost to GDOE for teaching staff,” Swanson reported.
GDOE was tasked by the legislative Committee on Education to calculate instructional loss as a result of modified school schedules, namely double sessions and alternating schedules. And while it was believed there would be more days to make up, Swanson said that’s not the case.
“(A) review of schools with alternating schedules revealed that, as of Jan. 18, all have remained in session and providing instruction with a mixture of face-to-face, online and hard-copy instructional materials for 85 school days. If no further days are lost, there are sufficient days remaining in the current calendar to complete the school year as scheduled,” Swanson reported to the board.
Students enter the John F. Kennedy High School campus in Tamuning on Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024.
