The Guam Housing and Urban Renewal Authority (GHURA) on Friday will break ground for the construction of the iLearn Academy Charter School's new campus in Dededo.
GHURA has entered into a 20-year loan for $12 million with the non-profit the Learning Institute for the construction of Guam’s first new school campus in over 10 years.
iLearn, which is temporarily located at Core Tech Development Corp's Ukudu Village property, will have its new site on the property site off of Route 16, 1700 Mendioka Lane Dededo.
CoreTech is building the $32-million project.
GHURA funding for the loan was made possible by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Section 108 Loan Guarantee Program.
“It’s been too long since a new school campus was built on Guam so the Leon Guerrero/Tenorio administration is extremely excited about this project. Unlike most of GHURA’s community development projects, our contribution to date has been more focused on the financing mechanism under a federal program that was previously not available to the insular areas. We love exploring unchartered waters for the benefit of our island community, said Ray Topasna, GHURA executive director.
GHURA said the new campus will allow for growth up to 900 students to be educated by iLearn, providing STEM-oriented education to children kindergarten to 5th grade.
Completion is expected to coincide with the start of the new school year in August 2022.
“GHURA anticipates even more groundbreaking and ribbon-cutting events over the next few months as construction activity starts to pick up again. Stay tuned Guam," Topasna said.
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