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Guam - The Department of Education is gearing up to undergo vast changes as it prepared to issue a $100 million request for proposal.  


The agency has reviewed the latest version of the request for proposal for the $100 million modernization of a number of our island's schools. Superintendent Jon Fernandez says they hope to move forward over the next several weeks to finalize the proposal before pushing it out to bid. Topping the list for schools to be renovated is Simon Sanchez High School, as he said, "I'll be honest - maybe just ball park figures that have been thrown around but it really depends on the proposals that come in through the door with regard to Simon Sanchez because one of the ideas is to build a new school from scratch the other idea is to be able to renovate part of the school that exists right now and then be able to build around it."


To give an idea of what that cost may be Fernandez says that Untalan Middle School renovation was a $12 million job and when you take into account the size of Simon Sanchez, which has about 700 more students the cost is anticipated to be greater. "But again we are really waiting for this process to start because we are hoping that the partners out in the community who have these ideas will be able to give us a cost effective way to build these schools," he explained.


Fernandez says until experts tell him differently he hopes to be able to utilize the existing school in some form but of course they are concerned about some structural issues that may raise concern and will be evaluated and assessed, and if deemed to not be structurally sound then more new buildings will be needed.


"But I think right now what we believe is that there will be a portion of the school that will be available to the students while construction is going on so right now we are kind of thinking through what a double session may look like and have them educated in place while the new facilities are being built," said Fernandez.


He says the real question is how many new buildings in addition to the current structure will be needed, noting, "Our big question is whether the main building will stay or go there are some additional buildings that seem to be in good structural shape that may need to be revisited the quads in the area we need to figure out what we need to do with the existing cafeteria which is split between F.B. Leon Guerrero and Simon Sanchez so there is a lot of things on the table."


But he hopes students can continue to be housed in place and build around not just the school but the other facilities such as the sport facilities that the Sharks have been asking for, for years. "The other thing I am also excited about in addition to starting work on Simon Sanchez another first investment will be in the capital improvement plans that's the master facilities plan," the superintendent said.


This is the plan that has been identified for the schools and that process will take into account all existing studies to include the Army Corps of Engineers' report bringing together all the needs of the school system to allow DOE to look into the future and help plan for future renovations or new schools.