BUS DRIVERS TESTED

Drug Testing To Ensure Safety Of Students

It's the first day of school today and as parent Pauline Camacho said
yesterday: "We're as ready as we're gonna get."

Government officials dittoed the confidence of the Agana Heights Elementary
School parent yesterday, saying schools are ready to open today despite a
shortage of teachers, buses and unfinished school-repair projects.

And in an effort to ensure safety for students and for the community,
Department of Public Works bus drivers went through drug testing yesterday.

Though no test results are expected to be available this week, Public Works
Director Joe Duenas said many of the bus drivers are good workers who
follow the law and are mindful of the rules.

"We've been engaged in weeding out those bus drivers who don't follow the
rules," Duenas said.

He said Public Works also is expecting 10 new buses to hit the streets this
week. Initially, 19 had been ordered several months ago and were expected
to be ready to transport students beginning today.

"As the buses come in, they have to go through an inspection process at the
port ... (and) another inspection here," Duenas said.

Duenas said 10 of the 19 buses have been delivered to Public Works. The
remaining nine will be delivered in the next few days.

"I think the bottom line here, though, is that things will get better as
the buses come in," Duenas said, referring to the additional 40 buses that
are expected to arrive before December.

In the meantime, Duenas said Public Works should be able to transport
students between home and school with minimum waiting time.

At schools, preparations received a boost from community volunteers and
Gov. Felix Camacho's school-readiness task force.

Pauline Camacho and other parents said that without the assistance of the
governor's task force, the adopt-a-school program and the dogged
determination of school administrators, island public schools would be in
far worse condition.

"I don't think this is the best condition for a school, but speaking for my
school at least, we're leaps and bounds better off now than we would have
been without all the help," Pauline Camacho said. "So I'm glad we got what
help we did."

For the past three weeks, 110 maintenance workers from various government
agencies, including the Department of Education, have been making repairs
to plumbing, electrical and structural damage at schools.

Members of the Guam Hotel & Restaurant Association have adopted the four
public high schools. And each of the 37 public schools were adopted by a
government agency.

Jim Underwood, who leads the governor's task force, said the workers have
completed 2,499 of the 4,005 school-repair projects.

The repairs that remain are a mixture of minor repairs, such as the
replacement of termite-infested cabinets that had been removed from various
schools, Underwood said.

Underwood said repairs will continue "until we're down to zero repairs."

Department of Education spokesman Gerry Cruz said school officials have
been preparing for the new school year, including completing students'
class schedules and trying to ensure all students are placed in classrooms.

Cruz said there are several schools, such as George Washington and John F.
Kennedy high schools, that have more students than classrooms with teachers.

Cruz said the class size for high schools is 28 students. Classrooms that
have more students than the regular class size are expected to shrink in
the next week or two as new teachers go through the hiring process and are
assigned into the classrooms, and as student listings are finalized.

Education Superintendent Juan Flores has said the department should have
filled all its teaching vacancies, with either permanent teachers or
contract teachers.