by Krystal Paco

Guam - It appears things are finally getting better as the Department of Education is seeing a reduction in breakins. DOE superintendent Jon Fernandez says although there was a rash of copper wire breakins late last year, he's since worked with mayors and custodians to increase presence on campus during vulnerable hours.

"So far so good since the copper wire thefts and the foot patrols we've been working with our mayors to really increase the presence on campus and that's really involved sharing access to our campus over the weekends. One of the other key steps we did is to require our custodial contractors to shift their hours so we could have more of a presence on campus between 10pm and 5am, which are really the vulnerable hours for all of our schools," he said.

Fernandez says these arrangements have been in effect since January. Meanwhile, DOE's proposed Fiscal Year 2014 budget sets aside $1.9 million for the purchase of security cameras, radio communications, and alarm systems for all schools.