Director of Education Maefau Dr Mary Taufetee told a hearing of the House Committee on Education that the department receives just $500,000 per quarter for school maintenance. Of that amount $300,00 goes to personnel leaving just $200,000 for supplies and materials. That funding is just not enough to carry out needed maintenance in the schools, the director told the House Committee.
Additionally DOE has to pay bills from the previous administration. Though she did not have the amount of unpaid bills from the last administration Director Maefau said it was quite substantial. She said the bills are for work performed beginning from 2022 up to 2025 and the department was struggling to try and pay them. She indicated that some of the vendors have threatened lawsuits if the bills remain unpaid.
Lawmakers reminded her that according to the law, funds from the current year budget cannot be used to pay bills from previous fiscal years.
Nearly all lawmakers present at Monday’s hearing asked questions about the status of schools in their districts. including buildings which have not been completed for several years. Such is the case at Fagaitua High School where a school building that was started during the former administration remains unfinished after more than 3 years. The Director said DOE is discussing with Public Works, Procurement and the Governor’s Office how the building can be completed. She mentioned that $137,000 has been spent and an additional $200,000 is needed to finish the project.
Other Eastern District school projects that lawmakers asked about were the multi purpose buildings/gymnasiums for Laulii and Masefau Elementary Schools.
The Director explained that the same contractor is building these projects. The Laulii building should be completed in March while the Masefau building is 71% complete.
Manu’a lawmakers Tiaoalii Sai and Vala Porotesano Liusamoa expressed disappointment that newly completed school buildings in their districts are not being used because the fans and air conditioners are not working, they do not have railings and there are defects with the bathrooms.
The Manu’a faipule did not have confidence in the DOE maintenance staff who conduct inspections of school buildings in Manu’a.
Another cause of disappointment for Rep Vala was that during the recent drone competition all schools on Tutuila were invited to send two teams while schools in Manu’a were limited to 1 team. He said this denied more students from Manu’a to being exposed to this educational opportunity. In addition the competition was only for two days and because of pending exams, teachers wanted to return the students early to Manu’a, which involved a change in the students’ airline bookings. He said the teachers ended up paying the $30 fee per student for the booking change without any assistance from DOE.
Director Maefau apologized that she was not aware of this but would look into it. Rep. Vala also inquired why the teachers were not paid any stipends for their trip to Tutuila.
Rep Ape Mark Asifoa enquired about the status of the new DOE headquarters being built in Tafuna. According to the DOE Director $21 million is allocated for the project and of that amount $14 million is remaining. She said the building was originally supposed to be three story but it has been scaled down to a two story building. Rep Ape asked if savings from the DOE building can be used to renovate the cafeteria for Siliaga school.
An issue that Rep Dr Vaasa Simanu raised was that some scholarship students have not received their scholarship checks for two semesters. The DOE Director replied that the processing of scholarship checks, which atr all locally funded, is with Treasury. She said she will follow up on the scholarship payments.
Rep Trude Ledoux-Sunia said personnel who were hired as and have been working as teacher aides say they have been told they must take courses to obtain teacher certification. And they must pay for these courses themselves.
The Director said that obtaining teacher certification was a requirement and it would come with a salary increase.
Rep Fagaima Larry Sanitoa told the DOE Director that according to ASG’s first quarter financial report, DOE’s quarterly budget was $6.7 million but the department spent just $5.2 million so there was funding available to the department which it didn’t use.
He said the Tafuna High School Gym needs a weight room and bathrooms. According to the DOE Director the scope of work for the Tafuna gym did not include a weight room. She said they are requesting the Department of Commerce for funding for a weight room for the Tafuna gym.
Speaker Savali Talavou Ale urged that the DOE make repairs or rebuild the Leone High School gym which has not been used for more than a year. It was explained by Aileen Solaita, head of the Environmental Division of the Department of Health that they declared the gym unsafe because some rods in the ceiling were coming apart and thee was a risk that during games, the rods may break and fall onto players. So it was a safety risk. Nevertheless she said students were still playing in the gym when her team went to inspect the facility.
The Speaker also said that the Leone field needs to be upgraded and maintained.
