Guam News - Guam News

Guam - Jon Fernandez, the new Guam Department of Education Superintendent, spent his first day on the job visiting students and staff at Simon Sanchez High School and F. B. Leon Guerrero Middle School in Yigo.

He spoke with students attending summer school and set aside time to talk to the principal and teachers at each site.

“Our primary mission is to educate our children, so I wanted to start by hearing from our children first,” said Mr. Fernandez.  “It is their interests that should guide our work on a day-to-day basis.”

Mr. Fernandez plans to visit all 40 schools over the next few weeks to personally assess student needs and hear directly from those who manage, work or receive instruction at each site.

After completing his school tours today Mr. Fernandez met with high school principals, and planned to attend the education reform task force meeting in Mongmong-Toto-Maite.

On Tuesday, Mr. Fernandez will head south to Oceanview Middle School (8:30 a.m.) and Southern High School (10:30 a.m.).

“We have a number of operational and financial challenges facing our school system, but the focus of all of our efforts has to remain on the classroom and on teaching and learning if we are ultimately going to succeed at our mission of educating our children to succeed.”