By The Star Staff
Gov. Jenniffer González Colón visited the headquarters of the Department of Education on Tuesday to meet with the agency’s designated secretary, Eliezer Ramos Parés, and its work team in order to evaluate the status of public schools prior to today’s start of the second semester of the 2024-2025 school year.
“As I said in December, for the return of classes, I can take 100 percent responsibility for all schools being ready [next] August, but obviously, now in office and on the sixth day as governor, I have come here to meet with the secretary of education to find out the status of the schools,” González Colón said at a press conference. “What events have occurred in the month of December? Which schools are in good condition? Some will not be ready due to electrical, water or construction problems.”
During the meeting, the impact of 49 schools still under construction due to structural problems with short columns was discussed. Some of those schools will not be fully operational until February. In addition, 160 vacancies for teachers and 320 for school cafeteria employees were identified.
“This does not prevent the return to classes from beginning, but alternative plans have been established to meet needs in the affected educational regions,” the governor added.
Designated Education Secretary Eliezer Ramos Parés noted that the start of the semester is assured despite the challenges.
“We do not have major impediments to starting,” he said. “There are minor situations in some schools, including three that did not have electricity, two of which have already been resolved. Likewise, two schools faced fires, but measures are being taken to ensure that students can attend.”
The situation in the southern region of the island remains challenging due to infrastructure problems following earthquakes in previous years.
“We have modular schools, alternate locations and reconstruction projects on hold,” Ramos Parés said. “The governor has indicated that this will be a priority and we will work with FEMA [the Federal Emergency Management Agency], COR3 [the Central Office for Recovery, Reconstruction and Resilience], and other actors to speed up the processes.”
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Besides the photo opp, what was the goal of the governor's visit to the DE. The DE total chaos is well known, documented and reported upon; attempting to say that she wasn't aware is an ominous sign. Mrs. Gonzalez had been actively involved in politics since 2002 when she was elected representative; the last 8 eight years she had occupied the position of Resident Commissioner during the NPP governing of Mr. Pierluisi.
Mr. Pierluisi's disastrous experienced fortunately is over; however, the results of his compromised governing will be with us for some time. The "trust employees" (empleados de confianza) and the inscribed bookbags incidents are quite clear about the mismanagement of local and federal resources that was occurring under his…
What is the age of thease building and do we have maintenance records. Have we considered new building using open concept plans .