$427 million is needed to address all the facility concerns at Guam Department of Education schools across the island, but according to officials that is just the start.
During the oversight hearing held by the Committee on Education, Libraries and Public Broadcasting Julie Ulloa-Heath, GDOE Deputy Superintendent of Assessment and Accountability broke down the costs by school based on a third-party facility condition indice (FCI) assessments of school campuses.
"FCI is the facility condition index a standard industry matrix used to measure the physical condition of the building or facility. 0 to 5 is considered good condition, 5-10 is considered fair and poor is anything greater than a 10," Ulloa-Heath explained.
The executive summary of the report shows the following estimates of costs per school and FCI rating for 2026:
Adacao Elem., $3,725,480, FCI-7
Agana Heights Elem., $8,631,307, FCI-18
Agueda Johnston Middle School, $18,306,821, FCI-17
Astumbo Elem., $5,351,045, FCI-10
Astumbo Middle School, $4,008,638, FCI-6
C.L. Taitano Elem., $5,659,196, FCI-10
Carbullido Elem., $7,853,337, FCI-17
Daniel L. Perez Elem., $11,317,930, FCI-15
Finegayan Elem., $8,122,749, FCI-16
George Washington High School, $38,571,010, FCI-16
Inarajan Elem., $6,012,563, FCI-11
Inarajan Middle School, $19,269,150, FCI-22
JQ San Miguel Elem., $6,518,685, FCI-15
Jose Rios Middle School, $13,185,210, FCI-15
JM Guerrero Elem., $7,170,713, FCI-20
Untalan Middle School, $14,594,260, FCI-12
Liguan Elem., $3,588,644, FCI-7
Marcial Sablan Elem., $13,961,926, FCI-19
MU Lujan Elem., $15,352,225, FCI-18
Machanaonao Elem., $4,262,978, FCI-10
Maria Ulloa Elem., $9,398,983, FCI-17
Merizo Martyr Elem., School $7,736,180, FCI-18
Oceanview Middle School, $19,037,504, FCI-21
Okkodo High School, $12,041,470, FCI-6
Ordot-Chalan Pago Elem., $2,635,453, FCI-3
P.C. Lujan Elementary, $13,299,137, FCI-18
Southern High, $56,309,975, FCI-11
Talofofo Elem., $6,289,780, FCI-17
Tamuning Elem., $14,760,735, FCI-27
Truman Elem., $9,857,353, FCI 21
Upi Elem., $14,038,598, FCI-20
Vicente Benavente Middle School, $12,970,373, FCI 15
Wettengel Elem., $14,841,190, CFI 18
The assessments show 25 schools in poor condition, six schools in fair condition and one school in good condition. Price Elementary School was included in the assessment however the information provided by Ulloa-Heath is pending clarification by GDOE on cost and CFI rating.
Costs by district:
Lagu, $103 million
Luttan, $61 million
Kattan, $112 million
Southern Schools, $150 million
"That's a lot of money that's needed for GDOE," Ulloa-Heath said noting that the CFI did not include, John F. Kennedy High School, FB Leon Guerrero Middle School, Tiyan High School or Simon Sanchez High School.
Ulloa-Heath emphasized that the Facilities and Maintenance division has 72 employees preparing schools for Department of Public Health and Social Services Sanitary inspections, "yet we still manage to have based on when I came in in January, we received 16 As, six B and five pending which we know will pass A or B. Unfortunately, yes, we have one closure."
Despite the department's true needs, Won Pat said the annual budget request was prepared using a "realistic approach" based on prior experiences with the legislature in various capacities.
"We took the adequate education and applied a dollar amount to every single one of those to make sure we are in compliance," Won Pat said referring to the 14-points of the Adequate Education Act.
A large portion of the budget goes toward personnel costs of which certified teachers receive the largest share at $158 million.
"The question was asked in spite of that law would you be able to fill all those certified positions and the answer of course, is no. As you heard earlier, we did say we had about 65 teacher vacancies," Won Pat said pointing toward the department's perineal teacher shortage.
In total, $259 million is needed to meet the staffing requirements of the Adequate Education Act and the Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Union.
"When you look at what we did, following the law, the other is that we didn't just do the 14-points. We looked at other mandates from the legislature, and we included the dollar amount and the last thing we included as well is the CBAs that's the Collective Bargaining Agreement," Won Pat said.
The CBA covers special education including staffing requirements for adult support or one-to-one aides and school aides who monitoring hallways.
"That's when we came up with the very realistic ... the $307 million just for this year," Won Pat said. "But I'm not saying that at this point we need supplemental budget, not at all."
Franklin Leon Guerrero, GDOE's Dep. Superintendent of Finance and Administrative Services said facilities and maintenance has a remaining budget of $598,532 for fiscal 2026.
"As was mentioned earlier ... we could spend hundreds of millions on facilities. So, this $598,000, if you're running a marathon, you pace yourself. So, these facilities and maintenance budget is paced," Leon Guerrero said.
Faced with high maintenance costs and a dwindling student population, Won Pat shared that when she initial came on board eight months ago, they took a look at facilities and cost saving measures to include the decommissioning and consolidation plan from former Superintendent Kenneth Erik Swanson's administration which identified six schools in the south where student populations have fallen to only a fraction of occupancy capacities.
However, because that has been "scraped" Won Pat said she is meeting with island Mayors to see how the high costs of running these schools can be reduced.
"Agreements maybe to use a facility by the community in exchange maybe to handle or take care of the grounds maintenance and then we take that out of our contract," Won Pat said.
She also said that the Fiscal Year 2027 budget bill if signed would allow GDOE to look at unused spaces including individual classrooms to be leased by the department for profit.
"What we are trying to do is save and bring in those monies to be able to take care of our facilities because we know that's where the largest cost is," Won Pat said.