Guam News - Guam News

Guam - The Guam Attorney General's Office has yet to receive a request from the Guam Education Board or the Department of Education for a legal opinion on the vote made at Wednesday's GEB Meeting.

"Attorney General Rapadas is, however, hopeful that the Board may be able to resolve those issues affecting the educational environment for teachers, staff, students and their parents or families without resorting to a legal opinion and imposing further cause for delay" AGO Spokesperson Carlina Charfaurous wrote in a memo to the media Friday afternoon.

The 4AB schedule was approved by Board Members in February.  Teachers formed a facebook group, Guam Schools United, and planned rallies in opposition to the schedule.  Upon request Board Members met with teachers, students and parent's in stakeholders meetings held at all five high schools.  At the meetings teachers said the new schedule which adds additional class periods unnecessarily extended the school day and yet decreased the total instructional hours for each class period.

"There wasn't enough stakeholders input to support the 4AB," Member Joe San Agustin said while making a motion for the board to reconsider the adoption of the schedule.

Board Member Barry Mead and Chairman Francis Santos both voted against the motion made by San Agustin; Ron Ayuyu, Dr. Jose Cruz, Dr. Anita Borja-Enriquez, Rosie Tainatongo and San Agustin all voted in favor of the motion.  Dr. Paul Pineda and May Camacho were absent.

While the majority of the board did vote in favor of the motion Mead argued that the motion did not get the two-thirds vote he says is required to overturn prior action made by the board.  According to Mead the Roberts Rules of Parliamentary Procedure adopted by the board require that a motion to overturn prior-action be published ahead of the meeting or get the approval of two-thirds of the board's members.  The motion was not published in the agenda.

Department of Education Legal Counsel Rebecca Perez was consulted on the matter and she stated that five votes are needed to pass a motion, but when asked about the specifics of whether the Roberts Rules trump the majority she said she was hesitant to give an opinion without reviewing the specifics.   After more discussion the board instructed Perez to write to the Attorney General's Office.

In the meantime Santos said the 4 AB schedule will remain in place for the upcoming school year unless the Attorney General's Office says otherwise.