by Michele Catahay, KUAM NewsThursday, March 27, 2008 Subscribe to Michele's newsfeed
The Guam Education Policy Board terminated superintendent of public education Luis Reyes after a meeting that started at 6 Wednesday evening. It ended just after 10pm with a unanimous vote to remove Reyes from his position immediately. Reyes, who was at the beleaguered Southern High School most of the evening, arrived to Price Elementary School in Mangilao late last night and was notified of his termination.GEPB board chairman Joe San Agustin, "Reyes wasn't fired, he was terminated. It was voted by the board we went into executive session to discuss personnel issues and it was brought to the attention of all the board members about the condition of the schools and the progressive problems," he told KUAM News. "Unfortunately Mr. Reyes is the only one who comes to work who has the full control. He's the one responsible for the schools, and they felt the welfare of the students' education and the children were in jeopardy, and it just kept building and then Southern High closed. And then there's the jeopardy of the other nine schools and we're really worried about how many other schools will be in jeopardy, and that's the reason why."According to San Agustin the board recognized that Reyes wasn't solely to blame for the problems with Guam's public schools, but also certain staff he decided to surround himself with. "Other board members brought up that it was his staff that brought down Mr. Reyes and the board voted unanimously to terminate Mr. Reyes immediately," he explained.The board appointed associate superintendent for elementary schools, Corina Paulino, as interim superintendent until a permanent replacement is hired.