2 days Ago By By Joe Taitano II Pacific Daily News
A number of Guam Department of Education textbooks, including brand new ones, have been dumped in the Låyon landfill, Guam Education Board chair Mary Okada said. Okada brought up the issue at a school board meeting on Tuesday afternoon. She said the board was notified of “pallets and pallets” of books that were dumped into the landfill as part of ongoing school cleanup.
“That is absolutely news to me,” Education Superintendent Erik Swanson told Okada. The superintendent said he had asked for all textbooks gathered as part of school cleanup to be palletized and then placed into a warehouse. Okada said there were about 198 pallets documented, though the number now available was much lower.
She said Judi Won Pat, education liaison for Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero, had been advocating for several weeks to have unused textbooks shipped off to the “outer islands.” Okada asked Swanson to find out who was responsible for the books’ disposal and hold them accountable.
Education board member Maria Gutierrez also aired concerns about a large number of books found outside schools, including F.B. Leon Guerrero Middle School, which had deteriorated.
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