With the first day of school year 2026-2027 set for Aug. 10, Guam Education Board members questioned Guam Department of Education management on school readiness Friday, with one member challenging the superintendent's team over data integrity with just 17 days remaining before schools open.

Maria Gutierrez, the board's longest-serving member, raised concern after reviewing the School Readiness Status and Progress Tracker.

"Number of schools ready to open as of June 10, 2026, no schools. June 17, no school. June 24, no school. July 1, no school. July 8, no school. July 15, also. Percentage of schools ready to open - zero percent ... all the way to July 15," Gutierrez said.

The lack of documented progress also confused Gutierrez, who noted the Master Schedule was only 25% to 50% complete.

"This report is very confusing for me because I looked at everything. I want to make sure that we are ready," she said.

Gutierrez stressed that the "public needs to know" what is going on, tying a lack of communication with public school families to declining enrollment.

"We're down to minus 136 students. We are decreasing, enrollment is decreasing," Gutierrez said. "You know why they're going down? They go to charter school. ... I am not satisfied with this because it is not to me you say here, we're all ready but then here this document that is given to the board ... I'm not comprehending it."

GDOE officials clarified that the School Readiness reports are updated weekly and assured the board schools will be ready to open Aug. 10.

"This report is done weekly. And on a weekly basis, I monitor it. ... I'm finding out that different people from different schools have also been given assignments to respond ... I've asked them to verify their data," Deputy Superintendent of Educational Support and Community Learning Jackie Quitugua said.

Quitugua said the next weekly report will include a summary with more current status updates and expressed confidence in school principals working toward the Aug. 10 opening.

"We'll show you that we will be ready for August 10. And the numbers will be different. The way we are reporting it is really just the status of the school. So if you're done with, let's say, your professional development plan with maybe 50%, okay, we are going to note that — there's a school that's left blank," Quitugua said, noting she speaks directly with principals on progress in those cases.

Deputy Superintendent of Finance and Administrative Services Franklin Leon Guerrero attributed operational delays during Super Typhoon Bavi to the department's aging IT infrastructure.

"Unfortunately, just prior to the typhoon we had to shut down our entire computer systems to protect them. ... Some of our switches are 15 years old ... they're not even manufacturing those switches anymore ... if we turn them back on, the power fluctuates [and] that school will not have internet connectivity for three months, six months. The risk is too high," Leon Guerrero said.

He said systems are back online but there was a "domino effect" that delayed master scheduling, teacher recruiting and food and nutrition services. A hard copy workaround allowed meal cards to be issued during the outage.

"The system was brought down strategically and it came back up 100%. So we are getting our momentum back but there were delays," Leon Guerrero said.

The board voted to hold a special meeting Aug. 7 for an update on school reopening readiness.