By Lee Webber
As I sat here today (Saturday, July 22nd) reading my copy of the Guam Daily Post I was stunned, shocked and taken aback by the story that appeared on page eight of the edition entitled “Testimony heard on bills that could assist GDOE.”
The lead photograph for the story was of Senators Joe San Augustin and Chris Barnett sitting elevated above those testifying in their beautiful wooden gallery, significantly higher than everyone testifying, who were seated at a clean neatly organized table with nice microphones on padded folding chairs.
They were all sitting in a well-organized room that appeared to be air conditioned – to ensure the comfort of this attending – as senators and witnesses awaiting their turn to speak on Bill 91-37, Bill 113-37 as well as Bill 105-37.
Those testifying were the new education superintendent Mr. Kenneth Swanson and a woman seated at the table who was not identified in the story or the caption, and Mr. Joseph Sanchez, according to the story.
Also testifying but on Bill 105-37 was Mr. Sanchez, deputy superintendent of curriculum and instruction who testified in support of the bill with a few minor adjustments.
Testimony on Bill 113-37 revolved around the GDOE management audit mandate and who would be conducting the audit along with the need to ensure it was a quality audit, according to Mr. Swanson.
All three of these bills were said to be extremely important and will either positively or negatively impact each and every student who attends public school on Guam.
The bulk of the story revolved around the possibility of re-hiring previously-retired employees from these positions since they supposedly already possessed the skills and knowledge needed to bring the schools back into acceptable standards.
They also appeared to want to accomplish this while at the same time allowing these rehired previously retired employees back into those positions and giving them the ability to draw their new salaries/hourly wages while simultaneously drawing their existing retirement wages.
But aren’t these the same employees who have been historically part and parcel of the problem and situation that has been allowed to result in the present conditions at the schools?
The theory being that by re-hiring these same employees back into the same positions it would preclude training new people since the old ones knew exactly how to properly maintain the conditions that exist today since they were the ones previously responsibly for their care.
Given the logic of this assumption you can very likely hear me scratching my head at this very moment!
But what really caught my attention was the drastic difference between the conditions in the hearing room as compared to the conditions in the average classroom in nearly every public school classroom around the island.
Stop for a moment and consider the fact that the very people making these decisions and suggestions are part and parcel of the organization that has allowed the conditions in our public schools to reach the horrid conditions that we experience today.
Yet THEY sat in air conditioned, clean, organized conditions attempting to discuss the solutions for the very thing the elected, appointed and previously hired people have allowed to be created in our public schools.
Fourteen schools with no telephone or internet service but power running up to the facility according to GPA. Never mind the myriad of sanitary and unsafe conditions that exist at our public schools.
But education is important – the question is the type and caliber?
It begs the question, why do the voters and taxpayers in this community continued to tolerate this type of absurd behavior?
Let’s make Guam great again!
Esta.
5 Comments
Maria
08/02/2023 at 3:21 PM
A lot of our problems are when the the custodians were replaced by a private sector cleaning company. I say this because the old customers would do repairs right away out of their pockets. But with the new cleaning company, things are broken. It is noted then put into a request and nothing gets done because School maintenance does not money to get parts or replace the broken item. And I must say the schools were cleaner with the custodians than the private cleaning company. I know I work in DOE for 27.
Andy
08/03/2023 at 7:40 AM
Maria,
How is that a new contractor’s responsibility and/or fault? Shouldn’t the adminstrators, educators, and principles have the needed money for capital repairs? That answer is yes. The real question is when are the people of Guam going to start holding their elected officials, educators, and public EMPLOYEES accountable? This education house is filthy and you’re worried about who employees the custodians.
Honestly, what Lee is alluding to, and you may not like it as a 27-year DOE employee, is that you and those who came before contributed to the current, crisis-level problem. Not necessarily you specifically, but the issue arises when one institution fails it’s responsibilities so consistently over MANY, MANY years, then shifts the blame and points fingers when the system falls apart. When what they should’ve done was take introspection and ask what more can I do?
We are in the fall apart phase now, and you, either knowingly or unknowingly, contributed to it’s decline. Now that we have the hard part done (i.e. accepting our part in the problem) we can begin to ask the current DOE employees mitigate future loss of education and save our children from a bleak future.
Joe Marine
08/04/2023 at 8:19 AM
Allow me to put in my two cents. I was in school when we still had military children attending our local schools. The military build their own schools because our education system was lower than the national average, along with our government misappropriating federal funds. Now moving forward. In the 80’s to 90’s GDOE Maintenance and Facilities department had over 100 plus skilled employees. They had carpenters, electricians, Plumbers, air condition refrigeration technicians, you name it they had it. “What Happened”??? When these employees retired, GDOE never hired replacements for these individuals and now there are only a handful of these employees in this department. To make matters worst these handful of employees are tasked to go out to do inspections at our schools using their own vehicles, they do work repairs with their own tools, they receive no support for tools and vehicles, and you ask why? The answer is very obvious when you do not fill vacant positions you loose funding for these positions in turn loosing funding in this department. So there is the reason why are schools are in the state they are in right now. However, this is not new information to GDOE they have known about this departments issues and did nothing about it. Our number one priority is our children’s education with that comes a safe learning environment. GDOE, you have failed to provide the latter, due to poor leadership, and management. No department should be without personnel and equipment to perform the duties in which they were hired to do. Shame on you. We have yet to learn from past failures and yet in the end it is our children who suffer and now we are reactive, versus proactive.
Jofish
08/04/2023 at 7:38 PM
It’s called CORRUPTION AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT! These corrupt career politicians are all the same! Govguam is nothing more than a organized crime syndicate!!! They are good at “Wagging the dog” (Us) until we demand accountability from the corrupt politicians and corrupt cronies, nothing will change! We get what you voted for, the past 40 years proves it! Nothing has changed except buying votes with our tax dollars!!!
Edith C Iriarte
08/05/2023 at 12:17 PM
May I add to the above that after these well qualified in-house plumbers, carpenters, electricians, AC techs all retired, administrations started awarding these vacancies to folks who voted for the various admins throughout the years with jobs they weren’t qualified for. This was the trend for many many years under many administrations. Hence, the broken system all over within all Gov Guam agencies. Appointed leaders just all sat in their respective positions only interested in filling their chairs and their pockets with their big salaries. THIS IS WHY GOVGUAM is so broken down. Agencies from A – Z!