Few elected officials have actually helped public schools since 2023


Public school campuses used to get government-wide help during the summer months to prepare schools for opening. From Felix Camacho’s first year as governor through Eddie Calvo’s last year 16 years later in 2018, governors had coordinated the Adopt-a-School program, where schools would be “adopted” by an agency, the courts, and legislative offices. The adopting agencies would help school staff – oftentimes with resource help from private businesses – with repairs, cleanup, and yard work.

Some senators have criticized Governor Lou Leon Guerrero for not continuing the program at the scale her predecessors implemented it. That criticism came to a crescendo the last two weeks as legislative education oversight chairman Chris Barnett publicly alleged Ms. Leon Guerrero and Lieutenant Governor Joshua Tenorio had not mobilized executive branch resources to assist with school readiness.

The governor fired back, saying in a statement Friday, “If there was one person who should have seen the delayed school year coming it is Chris Barnett–yet he did nothing to prevent it. He has failed as the education oversight chair, but he has excelled at calling out problems, blaming everyone but himself for the failure of our schools, while proposing no solutions. Unfortunately, for our school kids, his ineptitude at his job will keep many of them out of their classrooms.”

The attacks launched by each side – Barnett and Leon Guerrero – are hyperbolic and also not altogether correct.

While it is true that Ms. Leon Guerrero has not coordinated a back-to-school operation to the scale of her predecessors’ Adopt-a-School program, it is untrue that she and her administration have not helped and tried to help the Guam Department of Education with school readiness.

And while it is true that Mr. Barnett has spent part of the past two weeks calling out the governor and lieutenant governor for what he perceives as a lack of action, it is untrue that he has done “nothing to prevent” the current crisis.

The half-truth arguments between the two sides got us curious. And, so, Kandit on Thursday emailed the governor’s office and all senators asking, who among you, your staff, and the cabinet have done anything to assist public schools to be ready for sanitary inspections?

Here is a report based on the responses we received, which were few:

Lou Leon Guerrero and Joshua Tenorio

The governor and lieutenant governor

Adelup is notorious for not answering questions with direct answers. If you ask the governor what date Christmas falls on, she may respond in a statement that “Christmas is a day when Chris Barnett sucks the most.” Asked to respond to Mr. Barnett’s allegation that the governor and lieutenant governor had not done anything meaningful to help schools with the previously scheduled August 8 opening date, governor’s spokeswoman Krystal Paco-San Agustin replied with an answer blaming Mr. Barnett for the crisis, but not answering the question at all.

Kandit and other news outlets pressed her further before she provided a direct response:

“We have supported through [Guam Power Authority] and [Department of Public Works] who have assisted in the development of scopes of work for needed projects which GDOE has never actually put out for bid. Without authority over GDOE, the Governor cannot use GDOE money to procure on behalf of GDOE.”

Then she explained a problem the governor’s office ran into with GDOE that previous governors did not have to deal with:

“One of the outcomes was an MOU with GPA and DOE to support their electrical. This however, is limited in scope.

“And what we can provide at the moment are band aid fixes. As of today, we continue to wait for GDOE to provide a scope of work for necessary repairs (which the administration, through Education liaison and former Speaker Judi Won Pat, has requested for weeks).

“GDOE will also need to procure materials to be used in the repairs, which could have and should have been procured long before the scheduled opening of schools. Unfortunately, the Governor does not have control over GDOE’s procurement.”

GDOE has failed to provide the governor’s office with a punch list of repairs needed and the procurement of supplies for the repairs. Without that list and these supplies, the governor’s office can’t properly plan a program involving the use of executive branch resources.

While Ms. Paco-San Agustin did not provide any information suggesting the governor had visited or personally assisted any of the public schools since 2023, she did confirm that the governor since last Thursday has mobilized her cabinet to stand by to support GDOE.

Kandit has asked the lieutenant governor’s office for a list of schools he and his staff have helped since 2023. We await that information. However, we were able to confirm that the partnership between GPA and GDOE was coordinated by Mr. Tenorio last year.

 

Chris Barnett

Senator Chris Barnett:

According to the senator himself:

“The legislature as a body has loaned portable ACs out to the schools post typhoon and even recently as GDOE AC vendor has struggled with keeping installations coming quickly. Legislative staff and I also helped prepare Ordot Chalan Pago Elementary for [public health] inspection last week, laying down deck paint to help meet PH compliance.
“Our Biba Barnett team has volunteered at countless school clean ups prior to and in this term. We bushcut and mowed the grass at Simon Sanchez, DL Perez, LBJ Elementary, Inalahan Elementary and GW High school. We painted desks at Tamuning Elementary, dumped trash and water blasted the roof at Agueda to help out before PH inspection. We assisted with Head Start readiness when the program was in jeopardy of being lost. I also volunteer to Host a lot of events for the schools. We donated a bushcutter to GW. We waterblasted the hallways at GW, DL Perez and also had a team helping out waterblasting at Inalahan Middle last year. Tomorrow,  we’ll be at Price Elementary to help out with their cleanup. We’ve also reached out to private contractors and DOC to help out.”
Mr. Barnett provided Kandit with dozens of photos of himself and the Biba Barnett team taken over several volunteer days at the campuses they helped to prepare. We chose the following two:
Tina Muna Barnes

Vice Speaker Tina Muna Barnes:

Tina Muna Barnes’ chief of staff, Chirag Bhojwani, said that she and her staff have helped with cleanup efforts at schools and around the island over the past year and a half. This assistance was through her partnership with WAVE clubs in some schools, and also through the charity named after her late father, the Bill Muna Foundation.
A letter Mr. Bhojwani provided to Kandit shows Ms. Muna Barnes canceled her scheduled off island trip to attend an Association of Pacific Island Legislatures meeting this weekend so she could help to clean Price Elementary School.
Pictures provided by the vice speaker’s staff show her painting the school Saturday morning.
Chris Duenas

Senator Chris Duenas:

“[M]y staff has recently visited and coordinated with JQ San Miguel Elementary and Chief Brodie Elementary (to start) to meet with faculty and staff, ensuring that the necessary preparations for the upcoming school year are being addressed. Our efforts are focused on understanding and supporting the needs of these schools to include assisting with volunteer support and business collaboration (donations/labor). It’s important to note that this initiative is not part of a campaign or any legislative agenda from my office. Our participation is simply out of a desire to contribute, and we’re not seeking recognition or publicity for this work. We’re here to help where we can, and our involvement is driven solely by our commitment to the community.” – Chris Duenas
Joe San Agustin

Senator Joe San Agustin:

Last Thursday, according to Ms. Paco-San Agustin, Joe San Agustin sent two staffers from his office to Astumbo Middle School to assist with repairs there. The staffers adjusted bathroom stall walls and added plywood to the stall walls tomeet height requirements, used cement walls to cover areas in the bathrooms/locker room walls that were previously worked on, assisted with installing napkin dispensers to bathrooms, covered holes in the bathrooms and locker rooms with cement walls, and assisted with dropping bathroom stall walls by a couple of inches.

Speaker Therese Terlaje:

Did not respond to inquiry. Kandit found no evidence that either she or members of her staff over the past year and a half have personally assisted any of the public schools.

Senator Frank Blas, Jr.:

Did not respond to inquiry. Kandit found no evidence that either he or members of his staff over the past year and a half have personally assisted any of the public schools.

Senator Amanda Shelton:

Did not respond to inquiry. Kandit found no evidence that either she or members of her staff over the past year and a half have personally assisted any of the public schools.

Senator Telo Taitague:

Did not respond to inquiry. Kandit found no evidence that either she or members of her staff over the past year and a half have personally assisted any of the public schools.

Senator Sabina Perez:

Did not respond to inquiry. Kandit found no evidence that either she or members of her staff over the past year and a half have personally assisted any of the public schools.

Senator Jesse Lujan:

Did not respond to inquiry. Kandit found no evidence that either he or members of his staff over the past year and a half have personally assisted any of the public schools.

Senator Roy Quinata:

Did not respond to inquiry. Kandit found no evidence that either he or members of his staff over the past year and a half have personally assisted any of the public schools.

Senator Tom Fisher:

Did not respond to inquiry. Kandit found no evidence that either he or members of his staff over the past year and a half have personally assisted any of the public schools.

Senator Dwayne San Nicolas:

Did not respond to inquiry. Kandit found no evidence that either he or members of his staff over the past year and a half have personally assisted any of the public schools.

Senator Joanne Brown:

Did not respond to inquiry. Kandit found no evidence that either she or members of her staff over the past year and a half have personally assisted any of the public schools.

Senator Will Parkinson:

Did not respond to inquiry. Kandit found no evidence that either she or members of her staff over the past year and a half have personally assisted any of the public schools.

Cabinet members:

Kandit asked Ms. Paco-San Agustin to provide information on whom among the governor’s appointed directors and agency heads have assisted public schools. According to her response, only the Department of Public Works has. DPW’s director is Vincent Arriola. However, at least four other agencies also have provided significant aid to GDOE.
The Department of Public Health and Social Services is leading the inspections. Its current director is Therese Arriola, who is married to Vincent Arriola of DPW.
Guam Housing and Urban Renewal Authority director Elizabeth Napoli confirmed to Kandit that in late July she and her staff volunteers went to C.L. Taitano Elementary School and replaced 58 windows screens, replaced 99 lightbulbs, painted hallways in the main building, tore up carpets in the teacher’s lounge, and replaced bathroom fixtures. The supplies and replacement materials were paid out of pocket by the director and her staff volunteers.
The Guam Fire Department’s assistant fire chief Joey San Nicolas also confirmed his agency’s efforts at Marcial Sablan Elementary School and Inalahan Middle School over the past two weeks.  GFD volunteers will be waterblasting, tree trimming, and painting Southern High School on August 16. Pictures below:
Information, a flier, and pictures from the Department of Corrections show the coordination of parolees to help with cleanup and maintenance of Price Elementary School Saturday and Sunday. Images below:
We will update this report if any other senators provide claims and proof of helping any of the public schools over the past one and a half years.
As of 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, August 11, 2024, however, only six of the island’s 17 elected officials of the legislature and the governor’s office had confirmed having done anything to support public schools. And only five of the more than three dozen members of the governor’s cabinet had done anything to help schools as of the original publication of this report.
This report does not include efforts and charity by private sector businesses and volunteers.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Advertisement