GDOE has enough classrooms to accommodate 40,000 students, but now has only 24,000 school kids to fill them.

GDOE Superintendent Ken Swanson confirmed the plan during another oversight hearing before the Education Committee.

He said they have not yet identified which schools will be affected, but expects that no matter what they come up with it'll get a lot of push back from parents.

He said, “The process to do that work, we're gonna solicit stakeholders over the next two weeks to begin that process. It will be public. It will probably be contentious. Rezoning always is. It’s not easy in any community, and here even more so because most of the schools have long standing set of roots in a culture and people have senses of ownership and tradition in their families and those are all to be respected.”

Swanson said they'll be assessing capacity versus actual school attendance and enrollment.

But GDOE won't be deciding who goes where until it gets as much stakeholder input as it can.

“My own grandson who's a senior at Guam High school came to me and told me his school is gonna close. I said that's real interesting, I don’t know that answer yet,” Swanson shared.

Rezoning schools was just one topic in another wide-ranging oversight hearing meant to update the committee on the many lingering problems from mold mitigation to Public Health sanitary compliance.

GDOE has about $70-million in American Rescue Plan money left and has prioritized seven schools.

“We looked at the schools with the most students that were serving the most students that were most likely going to stay open. And then determined within the cost limits that we have which ones we could do. The contractor has the scope to do all five of the areas, so the sequence that he works we need to work out with the principal and the contractor before they actually start work,” He said.

Swanson also added, “And so was this seen as the most efficient use of the funds? I believe so as far as the state we're in, and the other part is that we have to remain cognizant that there is a time limit on the availability of those funds and we need to make sure to be able not to leave any money on the table.”

So far, all Tier 1 schools have passed the required Public Health sanitary inspections.

They're now working on Tier 2 schools.