Parents, teachers, and students had a direct platform to voice their concerns to the top education leaders and senators.  Tuesday night’s town hall meeting with the Southern High School community fostered much-needed discussions and a pathway to solutions. But will it be enough?

From broken restrooms, as Charlie Balbastro with the Guam Youth Congress noted,  “The wings in the hallway restrooms. When I went there, it was wet, and the toilets were broken", to no place for students to play sports, with ISA athletic director Marvin Linder commenting, “We practice rugby and wrestling in this room here because it’s the only place we have", the challenges facing Southern High are complex.

And it's no secret to senators, Guam Department of Education leaders, and others in the Haya District.  Food services administrator Sean Monforte said, “We do have issues with the maintenance of our classrooms, and our air conditioners, and our bathrooms–but even our plumbing, our sewers, our cafeterias.”

The town hall meeting shined a spotlight on these issues, with a particular focus on critical building maintenance and facility needs.  The agenda also putting the school’s exclusion from the GDOE’s refurbishment project into sharp focus, as it targets five key areas for improvement to address infrastructure shortfalls. 

GDOE superintendent Dr. Kenneth Swanson explained why, saying, “It wasn’t pulled off because it was too high. It was because there was language in the contract for this school that was not consistent across the bid packages of all 41 campuses. It was this school and Inarajan.”

But efforts to make up for that are underway, according to Southern principal Michael Meno, who shared, “I did look at trying to get four of the building’s restrooms renovated throughout the local budget since it's not included in the renovation project. This is going up through a proposal for this fiscal year and now moving forward to this legislature.”

In the meantime, GDOE is also making a push to return maintenance teams to the schools as a long-term solution. And while these efforts will take time and ultimately come down to money, other schools advocating for more support in local funding.

Inarajan Middle School principal Derrick Santos said, "If DOE is going to be at the forefront of our future—then it better be at the forefront of what you do in your legislative sessions because we don’t have the funding to sustain the things that we need.”