by Krystal Paco

Guam - It was earlier this week the Department of the Interior awarded the Department of Education $2.8 million in Compact impact money, which will go towards classroom supplies and prep for the upcoming school year. While DOE superintendent Jon Fernandez receives congratulations for garnering additional funding, there are bitter feelings on the Department of Public Works' end.

After all, DPW had been eyeing that same money for months to purchase 10 additional school buses. As of today, there are 106 operational school buses. According to DPW director Joanne Brown, that's two less than yesterday. "More than likely this school year, we're going to have days where we're not going to be able to consistently provide bus service to the 39,000 schoolchildren we provide bus service to," she said.

Brown tells KUAM News she's beginning to feel like a broken record. For as long as she's been at DPW, she's vocalized their bus crisis. Just a few months ago, she put the fleet's oldest bus on display at the Guam Legislature so leaders could see 22 years worth of wear and tear. Earlier this week DOI awarded DOE $2.8 million dollars in Compact impact money, money Brown had been eyeing for months to purchase ten new 80-capacity buses.

She said, "We had been walking through the proper procedures that we had been advised was the means to go through which was to go through the executive branch to facilitate that request to DOI for compact impact money to be used to purchase additional buses. We're highly disappointed to find out that even the governor had recommended let's give half to DOE let's give half to DPW the response in a very short time was no, it's all going to go to DOE and not to DPW."

Brown says that although DOI awarded her agency $1.28 million earlier this year to purchase five new buses, it was only enough to offset the fleet's numbers after losing six buses since June 2011. She says DPW needs additional funding in order to support DOE. "I'm just disappointed that the view is that if you're not supporting DPW in getting additional capacity for buses it's not supporting education. We're in a single house we're providing service to the very same student population.

"No matter what you put in DOE and how much resources you put and what a wonderful education system you want to provide if you can't get the kids there and get them there safely and that's an even more critical issue because of the aging fleet the lack of mechanics and the lack of resources we want to make sure our buses are safe to transport children," she said.

Committee on Transportation chair Senator Tom Ada says there is a light at the end of the tunnel. A provision in Bill 437, which was recently enacted into law, allows for a multi-year procurement transaction for DPW to purchase new buses. But in the meantime, to keep DPW afloat for the upcoming school year, more money must be pushed their way.

"And so we've got to get through this coming school year. I believe that the only way we're going to do that there's two ways: one is we can lease some buses from the private sector for the cost of about $175 a day or and maybe both, provide the necessary budget to the Department of Public Works to maintain the buses that they currently have," the senator said.