Guam’s Simon Sanchez High School reconstruction project hits a snag again

By Pacific Island Times News Staff

The Department of Public Works will hit pause on the groundbreaking for the Simon Sanchez High School reconstruction, following a bidder’s protest that has put a new stumbling block to the oft-delayed project.

Officials and contractors were initially scheduled to turn the soil on Nov. 24, but the General Pacific Services’ protest triggered an automatic stay of the project’s award to Core Tech International Corp.

According to the governor’s office, the protest stems from a dispute regarding the timeliness or completeness of the procurement record.

For more than a decade, repeated procurement challenges have delayed progress on replacing the Yigo school, which first opened as a middle school in 1974 before it became a high school in 1981.

Since 2010, the Yigo campus has been shut down several times due to unresolved health and safety violations and other conditions that worsened in the succeeding years. Typhoon Mawar, which hit Guam in May 2023, caused extensive damage, rendering the campus unusable and beyond repair.

“The community has waited far too long for a safe, modern campus,” reads a statement from the governor’s office. “We understand their frustration and share the community’s disappointment that this long-awaited project now faces yet another procedural setback.”

Officials said DPW coordinated closely with the Office of the Attorney General throughout the procurement process to ensure strict compliance with procurement requirements, including recordkeeping and transparency.

“DPW is confident in the record produced for this procurement and will resolve any questions raised about specific documents through the formal protest review process,” the governor’s office said. “We will continue to uphold the law, maintain full transparency, and move the project forward as expeditiously as possible under the law.” 

According to GDOE's latest Citizen Centric report, Taniguchi Ruth Maiko Architects completed the design for the new Simon Sanchez High School campus in 2022.

However, due to lengthy procurement processes and protests, GDOE was unable to obtain a construction contract.

In July 2023, the governor signed a law, simplifying the procurement process for the construction and financing of the new school campus.

Guam law authorizes DPW to enter into a leaseback agreement with a financing cap of $163.4 million over 30 years.

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