Guam Department of Education Superintendent Jon Fernandez said he was “surprised” by the governor’s letter awarding the Building E lease to the Guahan Academy Charter School (GACS).
In an interview with Andrea Pellacani on NewsTalk K57, Fernandez said he was with the governor last night during the Liguan dengue briefing and she did not mention anything about the letter.
Fernandez lamented that he did not even get the courtesy of getting an early copy of the letter in which the governor said she was “saddened that the months of cooperative work towards addressing the shared use of Building E of the Tiyan campus did not result in a lease between my office, GDOE, and GACS.”
“I wish the governor had told me so I could have updated her that GDOE was working and cooperating with GACS,” Fernandez said.
Fernandez said he thought the letter was “patronizing and condescending” in lecturing GDOE about the sharing of resources, especially in light of GDOE’s budgetary problems.
He pointed out that GACS already occupied half of Building E and that GDOE even helped them design the classrooms.
According to the GDOE superintendent, there was already a memorandum of understanding drafted between GDOE and GACS.
Fernandez said GDOE only had minor revision requests like taking out language that GDOE would be fully responsible for the maintenance of the facility.
Now that GACS has been awarded the lease, Fernandez said GDOE has in essence been already evicted.
“So we may end up losing our space there. I don’t know if they want us to pay rent,” he said.
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