DURING his first official meeting with the Mayors’ Council, Guam Department of Education Superintendent Jon Fernandez discussed the challenges of maintaining the facilities of the island’s various public schools.
Angel Sablan, executive director of the Mayors' Council, officially notified Fernandez that the village mayors may no longer be able to provide grass-cutting services due to budget cuts.
The mayors had been providing this service for the island’s schools for the past three years.
Sablan stated: “This year, there’s been a mandatory up to 15 percent de-appropriation from all the budgets to go to the income tax refund fund. So we are faced with the task of reducing our budget by $443,000. Our ground maintenance project for all the schools is $447,000.”
As a result, the mayors are considering the option of stopping grass-cutting services to the schools.
Other maintenance issues were also discussed. Mayor Ben Gumataotao of Piti stated the biggest issue is bathrooms in the schools. Mayor Paul MacDonald pointed out that flooding is also an issue in Agaña Heights.
Mayor Jess Gogue of Chalan Pågo suggested that consolidating facility maintenance may be a way to allow principals and school staff to concentrate on curriculum and education.
“Even our principals who should be focusing on education are spending 80 to 90 percent of their day tackling facility matters and only 10 percent of the time addressing education,” Gogue said.
Fernandez stated that since many employees may soon be taking advantage of early retirement, a consolidated facility management program is a model that could be looked at in the future.
“I don’t want our principals to be facility managers. I want to turn that around,” Fernandez said.
Security is also a major concern. Mayor Vicente Taitague of Talofofo said at night, lighting is a problem.
“I need to figure out what makes sense in terms of getting more eyes on campus. The mayors are a part of it, just like the police department is a part of it,” Fernandez said.
Fernandez promised to work with the mayors on these issues in the future.
