GDOE: 9 schools await Public Health inspection, 3 ongoing | Guam News

With the backing of government resources, Guam Department of Education Superintendent Kenneth Swanson has made it known that he wants to get all 24,000 students back on school campuses by Friday, and the collaboration with other government of Guam agencies has been fruitful, with several schools passing inspection in recent weeks.

With pressure on the government to pitch in, Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero stood up the School Opening Readiness Team, or SORT, to bring together specialized, skilled professionals within GovGuam to address the needs of schools to pass sanitary inspection.

One of the schools that has benefited from the assistance is Okkodo High School, which passed the Department of Public Health and Social Services Division of Environmental Health inspection on Thursday.

“At Okkodo High School, SORT installed partitions in bathrooms, cleaned ponding basins and provided ground maintenance, repaired roadways campuswide (in total, 15 truckloads of milled asphalt) to make sports fields and parking accessible, and changed light fixtures and light bulbs,” Adelup said in a press release.

Each school pending inspection has several government agencies assigned to assist in bringing the campus into compliance. For OHS, those agencies were the Department of Public Works, the Department of CHamoru Affairs, the Guam Economic Development Authority and the Guam Council on the Arts and Humanities Agency.

The passing grade allowed OHS to open its doors for two student populations, OHS and F.B. Leon Guerrero Middle School, on Friday. The two schools share the same campus at Okkodo for double sessions.

At the start of the effort just two weeks ago, there were 18 schools pending sanitary inspection. As of Saturday, GDOE spokesperson Maria “Tes” Reyes-Burrier said nine schools were pending inspections and three were being inspected.

But, as acting Gov. Josh Tenorio admitted on Friday, there’s still “much work to do.”

“We’re consolidating our efforts and sharing resources to push forward,” said Tenorio.

However, the effort has encountered a snag, according to Adelup.

“SORT’s work will continue at schools that have yet to open. Based on agency reports to the Department of Education (Friday), supplies are insufficient. While paint and painting supplies are readily available, more materials are required for electrical, structural and plumbing repairs,” the governor’s office said in the release.

On Saturday, GDOE said its Procurement Office was working with the Facilities and Maintenance Division to “ensure this doesn’t happen,” but also noted that bringing schools into compliance and getting them open is a fluid situation.

“Every single day it changes,” Reyes-Burrier said. “We are working as quickly as possible to get supplies and materials to the schools.”

Of note, during a media briefing on Thursday, Swanson reported that there are a number of variances being sought which would exclude areas not planned for use from inspection, but stressed that Public Health would not entertain those requests until the respective school is inspected.

The effort in recent weeks has demonstrated collaboration and the spirit of ina’fa maolek, according to Reyes-Burrier.

“It’s a dynamic situation involving dedicated GDOE employees, the governor’s much appreciated SORT task force, DPHSS, (parent-teacher) organizations, community volunteers, and more. (The) status of schools being prepared, inspected and passed is happening quickly because of this collaboration of efforts for the children. It truly does take a village.” said Reyes-Burrier.