Public schools set to open the 2021-22 school year this coming Tuesday

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Acting Gov. Talauega Eleasalo Ale told a news conference on Thursday that public school classrooms are set to open this coming Tuesday for the new school year 2021/2022 while inter Samoa flights resumed this week but ASG is looking at a specific designated day of the week for future flights.

Talauega called the news conference to answer questions from the three local news outlets — Samoa News, KHJ News and ASG operated KVZK-TV, where they asked question but the session was not televised.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Opening of public schools for the new school was postponed from Aug. 23rd to Sept. 7th — after the Labor Day holiday — due to problems with many school campuses that had been identified by the Health Department.

When asked yesterday, Talauega confirmed that public schools will open on Sept. 7th and that  “I have gone out myself and still have some schools to go” to yesterday and today.

“It’s not perfect but in my assessment they [public schools] are ready to be occupied and work will continue. Just because school starts, it doesn’t mean we’re going to stop the work of making sure that the schools are safe,” he said.

Asked about the controversy surrounding the new two-story building at Tafuna High School that was deemed unfit for occupany, the acting governor responded, “I walked through it. And I’m not an engineer, I don’t know what the proper assessment is.”

“I have instructed Department of Public Works to have their engineers look at the building. I find it difficult to accept that a new building would be in that state. So than again, I’m not an engineer,” he said. “I think we should allow the engineers to do their work and do the proper assessment.”

Talauega said he had also spoken with the principal and they have a plan B to move some of those classes to other buildings within the campus. “So those programs and classes will continue to operate and we will approach this cautiously and make sure that the building is certified and make sure that everybody is comfortable that the building can be used again,” he said.

There have been reports of some teachers raising concerns with the safety of the building as they were told to return back to the building but are anxious fearing the building is unsafe.

In response, Talauega said DPW engineers would conduct an assessment “to check and confirm that the building is safe. And once that is done, then it should be opened and teachers should feel confident to go back and use the building.” (Read story about the THS classroom building elsewhere on the website.)

“But until that happens, I don’t think teachers should go back [to the building]. The plan B should be executed and use other facilities [on campus] until they get the certification from Public Works that the building is safe,” said.

INTER SAMOA FLIGHTS

Reports locally and from Samoa indicate that inter Samoa flights have been suspended and some residents have wondered when air service will resume.  Talauega confirmed that Apia flights were “closed down for a two-week period, as we prepare for September.”

“During this down time, we were preparing for the vaccination promotion, [and we have] secured the rights to use Sadie’s by the Sea hotel. So now we have Sadie’s for the month of September — maybe beyond,” he said.

“The idea now is to allow the Apia route to continue to open and have those travelers [quarantine] at Sadie’s,” he said, noting that once Hawaiian Airlines commercial flights resume later this month, Sadie’s will be used for quarantine for the overflow passengers.

Talauega also said that Apia flights resumed on Sept. 1st and will operate through the end of the week.  “The plan of the team is to have a dedicated day for the Apia route, so right now we’re looking at maybe Fridays,” he said.

Another issue covered in yesterday’s media briefing deals with the ASG’s planned supplemental budget. See story printed elsewhere in today’s edition and other issues from the briefing will be in future editions.