The future of the school year is uncertain for 12,000 students as 18 Guam Department of Education schools may not open by August 8, awaiting sanitary inspections by Public Health.

GDOE Superintendent Kenneth Swanson said the school year could be delayed by a week as he and other government officials work to find a solution two days out of the start of the new academic term.

Meantime, caught in the middle are families like Loretta Joe’s, who has two young children at Finegayan Elementary School.

The Dededo mother shared her concerns as their campus is 13th in line for inspection.

“It’s slowing them down from the school year. I am not pretty sure about the teachers and staff there–but for me I have to be home with them 24/7 now that they’re not going back to school. I need to get out of my time–and now I have to be home with them every day,” said Joe.

And while no school is not an option, Joe said alternatives like online learning aren’t ideal for her young kids.

“We don’t really have a fast internet connection–so sometimes they can’t get on,” she said.

Still, would this mother agree to send her children to a school that has yet to be inspected by Public Health?

“Um… no. I would say no,” she said.

It’s a sentiment that Okkodo High School mother Esther Ongpauco shared. She said she’s for double sessions and online schooling to keep kids out of uninspected campuses.

“Put them back online until the school is sanitized because online is still open. They should have done it before the school opened; they had a lot of time to do it. In the summer, two months of summer, they had a lot of time to clean it. There are a lot of volunteers…. No,” said Ongpauco.

Meantime, lawmakers meeting to reconsider the waivers for the 18 schools.

Meantime, GDOE’s Superintendent Dr. Kenneth Swanson confirmed the opening of school for Guam DOE will start on Aug. 15.

He said more elementary schools have been inspected by Public Health, as Astumbo Middle, Ordot-Chalan Pago, UPI, and JRM Guerrero Elementary Schools are expected to be inspected by the end of this week and next week.