Calvo signs $2M in stimulus contracts

by Krystal Paco

Guam - Governor Eddie Calvo signed two contracts today: one for roof repairs for Upi Elementary, Chief Brodie, Tamuning and LBJ Elementary Schools; the second for 150 state of the art electronic whiteboards that will be used by the Department of Education. The grand total of both contracts is close to $2 million.

DOE superintendent Jon John Fernandez was happy for the support of education and putting our kids first, saying, "And there are two types of support with these contracts and one is the facilities themselves, and we know we need a lot of work and so these roofing repairs along with a lot of other structural repairs we're doing with our ARRA funds are very important as our principals will tell you."

And with recent breakins and these new electronic boards, Fernandez says DOE is identifying those schools who are vulnerable or seem to have high incidents of breakins so they can refocus their efforts and develop strategies including hardening rooms where the boards will be stored through the consolidating grant funding.

Governor Calvo meanwhile got news from the U.S. Department of Education officially granting an extension for the vital use of ARRA funding. It extends the deadline to September 30, 2013 by which Guam may obligate the funds for capital improvement and technology upgrade projects.