AsTumbo Middle School passed its public health inspection this weekend. There now are 25 public schools that have passed public health inspection and have current permits to operate under regulated safety and sanitation standards.
The Guam Department of Education, Department of Public Health and Social Services, contractors, maintenance staff, other GDOE staff, and volunteers fixed in one year the problems multi-decade funding and attention failures from senators and governors created and fostered. Education superintendent Erik Swanson said he expects the remaining campuses to pass public health inspection by the end of next month, limiting the disruption to learning to only a few weeks for the minority of schools.
Joe Sanchez, GDOE’s curriculum chief, said this latest disruption should not have lasting impact on students.
Also this weekend, GDOE released information regarding the Head Start Program:
Head Start classes will start on Monday, August 19, 2024 at the schools that opened on Thursday, August 15. Head Start at the following schools will begin classes tomorrow (Monday, August 19):
Adacao Elementary School
B.P. Carbullido Elementary School
C.L. Taitano Elementary School
H.S. Truman Elementary School
Inalahan Elementary School
M.A. Sablan Elementary School
Maria Ulloa Elementary School
M.U. Lujan Elementary School
Merizo Martyrs Elementary School
Talofofo Elementary School
Wettengel Elementary School
Head Start students of the following schools (whose campuses cannot open until they pass public health inspections) will not be attending classes until their respective school campus reopens, according to GDOE:
Chief Brodie Elementary School
D.L. Perez Elementary School
Finegayan Elementary School
J.M. Guerrero Elementary School
Machananao Elementary School
P.C. Lujan Elementary School
C.B. Price Elementary School
Upi Elementary School
Information regarding Universal Pre-Kindergarten (pre-k) and Gifted And Talented Education (GATE) pre-k:
Schools that opened on Thursday, August 15, 2024, will open Pre-K classrooms on Monday, August 19, 2024, as originally scheduled on their home campuses.
Regarding the pre-k programs, schools scheduled to open on Thursday, August 22, 2024, or later pending Public Health inspections will be delayed. This includes the following Pre-Kindergarten host schools:
GATE pre-k:
– Machananao Elementary School
– H.B. Price Elementary School
Universal pre-k:
– Finegayan Elementary School
– J.Q. San Miguel Elementary School
Pre-Kindergarten programs listed above will begin classes once the host school opens for instruction at their home campus. They will not be attending alternate days or alternate sites.
The video here is a combination of clips from GDOE’s Friday, August 16 news conference on school readiness:
Information released Friday that continues to be current information regarding public schools:
The Guam public elementary schools that will not have passed public health inspection by Thursday, August 22, will share campuses with a nearby school that does have a sanitary permit. Those schools will operate on alternating schedules, with the “guest” schools starting on August 22, then alternating with the “host” school attending campus on Friday, August 23, then the guest school on Monday, August 26, then the host school on Tuesday, etc.
The public middle and high schools that will not have passed public health inspection by Thursday will have their teachers teaching and students learning online. Hard copies will be an option.
The middle and high school special education students who need face-to-face attention will have the option to attend classes at an open campus. Those decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis.
Below is a list of the remaining schools that have yet to pass public health inspection. For the elementary schools, we display the list in pairs that show which school with a sanitary permit is hosting which school community that will temporarily be alternating days with the host school. Please keep in mind that rapid changes will happen to this list as GDOE and its partners prepare more schools for and get them to pass public health inspections. For example, as soon as “guest” school Machananao Elementary School gets permitted, those students will be moving back to the Machananao campus, and both Machananao and its current “host,” Astumbo Elementary School will go back to a daily class schedule.
HOST: Astumbo Elementary School
GUEST: Machananao Elementary School
HOST: Wettengel Elementary School
GUEST: D.L. Perez Elementary School
HOST: Adacao Elementary School
GUEST: Upi Elementary School
HOST: C.L. Taitano Elementary School
GUEST: J.Q. San Miguel Elementary School
HOST: M.U. Lujan Elementary School
GUEST: Price Elementary School
HOST: B.P. Carbullido Elementary School
GUEST: P.C. Lujan Elementary School
HOST: Maria Ulloa Elementary School
GUEST: Finegayan Elementary School
*HOST: J.M. Guerrero Elementary School
*GUEST: Chief Brodie Elementary School
*J.M. Guerrero’s inspection happened Friday. As of the publication of this story, GDOE has not announced whether the campus has passed inspection, though the superintendent expects that it will.
The following middle and high schools will be going into the online learning model. Once one of these schools passes public health inspection, that school will go back to face-to-face classroom instruction:
Inarajan Middle School
V.S.A. Benavente Middle School
Jose Rios Middle School
**F.B.L.G. Middle School
**Okkodo High School
Southern High School
G.W. High School
**FBLG’s campus has been closed down. The school community last school year shared Okkodo’s campus on a double session schedule, which is the plan for this school year as soon as Okkodo is allowed to open and untill FBLG can return to its Yigo campus.
GDOE is preparing for the inspection of Okkodo and Southern High Schools this week. It has prioritized the readiness and opening of the middle and especially the high schools in order to get students out of the online learning mode as quickly as possible.
Mr. Swanson said – barring unforeseen events that can always disrupt progress – his agency is looking at all available campuses being permitted by the end of September.
