With recreational options limited in many villages, island mayors are looking to tap into underutilized public school facilities to give residents more access to community spaces.

Is there a way to put the Guam Department of Education’s idle properties back into use? That question coming up during a recent Guam Education Board meeting, raised by Mayor Brian Terlaje of Yona. The mayor asking the board for guidance on how to reclaim underutilized GDOE facilities for community use—including Yona’s baseball field, half of which he says falls under M.U. Lujan Elementary School, and other interest expressed by his colleagues for the vacant J.P. Torres Success Academy in Santa Rita.

“The mayors are trying to see how we can—with the limited amount of recreational facilities we have in our villages, we want to see how we can reclaim some of those facilities under DOE that we see fit to be used by the community," Terlaje said.

In response, GEB chair Angel Sablan saying GDOE's legal team will review the specific requests—also pointing to recent legislation by saying, “There is a new law that has been passed as to what GDOE can do with its facilities, whether it's a vacant school or recreational facility—or whatever it is that GDOE owns.”

Sablan adding that the process is still being worked out, as it involves multiple agencies and officials to determine how best to repurpose GDOE-owned properties that are no longer in use. He also addressed the future of another facility—the now-decommissioned Chief Brodie Elementary School.

“Just reminding everybody that this board had already approved that the Chief Brodie Elementary School, if it ever becomes anything else, would become a middle school for Central," Sablan pointed out. "Now, I think the law says that charter schools have priority–but that group of committee is going to be put together, and they will make that decision.”

in the meantime, an in-person meeting with current GDOE superintendent Dr. Kenneth Swanson is in the works to continue the discussion.