by Krystal Paco

Guam - The current Guam Education Board has a dilemma due to a resolution passed from a previous board. The Santos family waits for the news that a school will be named in honor of their late father. The board from 2005 may have made an empty promise to the Santos family.

Julie Blaz, daughter of Thomas Ramirez Santos, testified before the GEB at Thursday's meeting on the status of naming a school after her father. "I just wanted to update the new board about the situation regarding the naming of the school in honor of our father," she proclaimed.

Blaz argues that it was in February 2005 that the board voted unanimously to name a school after Santos. Blaz remembers her father as a man loved by the island community serving as an assemblyman in the Guam Congress, a senator in the 8th and 11th Guam Legislatures, Guam's first postmaster, pioneer of the Chamorro All-Star Baseball Team, associate justice of the Court of Appeals, and chairman of the Boy Scouts.

"Oh my gosh, he touched every faucet of the community life on Guam," she continued.

Blaz cried to the GEB during her testimony, but not before the same members that voted unanimously back in 2005. According to GEB chairman Francis Santos, school stakeholders appear to show no interest in renaming a school and there is a protocol for naming a new school after an honoree.

"Although the previous board had approved the naming of anew school the stakeholders based on the records that we have, do not want their school name changed," said Santos. "We recognize that here that if you want to revisit this, I believe that the stakeholders of the school decide on that the students. That's why we ask that this issue be tabled and be given back to the committee and we'll do the appropriate discussion at the school level."

When asked what school would be renamed after her father, Blaz said, "I really don't know - it's the job of this board and now I'm hearing the governor when there's a school it should be named prior to the building of the school. I don't know these things how the procedures to take place to make it a reality. We don't know we put our confidence in our leaders to do that."

Blaz continues to pray for the GEB to push to honor her father's memory.