Department of Defense students will head back to the classroom next week. It will mark the first face-to-face instruction in any schools in Guam since the pandemic started. The re-opening of DoDEA schools is in stark contrast to GDOE, which will continue virtual learning until at least next quarter.

Rear Admiral John Menoni says by Monday, Guam will actually be the last to open among all the schools within the DoDEA system. "I like to think of it as the most deliberate in how we look at opening," he said on The Link. "There's been no pressure on me to open the schools," - other than the fact that he's the husband of an elementary school teacher. And he also agrees with her that in-person learning is always going to be better than virtual.

"So, it's important to get the kids back into schools and work through this current pandemic in a manner that we minimize risk to students and teachers," Menoni said.

"As we move forward, we've taken some steps to both communicate about the mitigation measures we have in place and then practice a tabletop exercise and walkthroughs to prepare ourselves should we have any sort of positive case within our brick and mortar schools," he said.

What gives the rear admiral more confidence is that the infection rate amongst servicemembers and dependents has been flat for more than a month. That led him to lower the military health protection condition from 'Charlie' to 'Bravo', as he explained, "The other reason is to more appropriately align our condition and our protective measures with the government of Guam's, who recently started to open up some se

rvices, and the governor has changed from this PCOR-1 stay-at-home to a PCOR-1 safer-at-home, which allows a little bit more freedom."

To be more precise, the military is in HPCON-Bravo+. Most of the now-familiar safeguards are still mandated, but the naval officer says military members are also expected to use more discretion and situational awareness.

"We also added an additional one which placed the responsibility, onus on the individual servicemembers and their families to, if they are in a situation where people aren't adhering to masks, hygiene, physical distancing, then they have an obligation to leave, to get away from that," Menoni said.