by Michele Catahay

Guam - The John F. Kennedy High School community is gathering signatures in hopes of pressuring the Guam Community Improvement Foundation to drop its lawsuit and allow the construction of a new school to move forward immediately. The effort is being spearheaded by Senator Eddie Calvo.

JFK seniors Dylan Orot said, "We are hoping that people will take part in the petition. I know that our goal was to have 50,000 signatures so that we can show people that we still care about JFK, with classmate Eileen Calleja adding, "I think we can we've been doing this for so long. We've been through rallies and everything. We've been through a lot of petitions. This is not our first petition. I think the goal is possible."

Despite the petition drive though, GCIF attorney Randy Cunliffe says they have no plans to drop their case, therefore, plans to build a campus through the international bridge corporation will remain on hold. "There's a stay of any proceedings pending court proceedings under the law," he said, "so I don't think there's any way they can unless the legislature does away with this RFP and put it out for a bid because the government has the money. There are other bond monies they can reprogram and put into the schools and it makes no sense for the government to spend $200 million to build a $30 million school."

JFK teacher Angelo Andres says it's been an inconvenience for the past year and a half for students and teachers simply because JFK doesn't have its own campus. He says he's not too happy with the idea that the GCIF probably won't back down and hopes the governor will step in.

He said, "Our situation, again this is no way to run a school community. We would ask him to step in and declare a state of emergency and maybe he can find a way to resolve this issue. He is the governor, and I'm sure he has the power to move this forward and I know he has the means to do it."