The local Department of Education is getting a $2 million increase in school lunch funding for the new school year, and five repaired school buses will be added back to the fleet; however, there will be no new school buses added, as originally planned.

This information was revealed by Education Director Vaitinasa Dr. Salu Hunkin-Finau during a news conference this week, held to discuss some new developments in the department before public school students begin their new school year on Aug. 27.

FEDERAL FUNDING

Vaitinasa shared some good news on federal monies for American Samoa regarding information on the School Lunch Program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and administered locally by ASDOE.

She says the local School Lunch Program has just completed with $19 million for the last school year and “we have just been notified that we will get an increase of $2 million for the new school year. That’s a total of $21 million for the SLP for the new school year.”

She said American Samoa greatly appreciates the hike in funding because “we’ve increased a lot of summer activities” which include sports programs, such as the Troy Polamalu Initiative — and all were provided meals with school lunch food.

“We also fed all of the students who attended... the five-week summer program, which is now an annual program,” she said. “So the increase is going to be very helpful to us.”

Vaitinasa also announced she has received official notice that about $2.2 million has been approved and will be released to American Samoa for the ASDOE Early Childhood Education. She thanked ECE assistant director Mrs. Mirineta Tinitali and her staff as well as deputy director of administration Russ Aab and everybody else who helped to obtain the grant funding.

“These grants are very timely and they (the federal grantor) also asked lots of questions about the status of the program and what we have achieved each year,” she said, adding that the ECE grant — or Head Start Program — “is a yearly grant, so we have to apply ever year.”

The third grant funding announced by Vaitinasa is for the Special Education. “We have been notified that $1.2 million has already been released for us since July and $4.8 million will be released in October,” she said and thanked the Special Ed team who worked on that grant funding.

SCHOOL BUSES

“Everybody is interested in school buses,” she said and recalled that at the end of the last school year, there were 13 operable buses. She noted that by the beginning of this new school year, there will be five additional service buses that will be operable and added to the fleet. The five buses were taken off the fleet during the last school year to undergo repair and service.

During a Senate committee hearing in March this year, Vaitinasa said that ten new buses would be ordered once the bid process was completed. She hoped that these new buses, funded with federal monies, would arrive on island before the start of the new school year.

At the news conference, Vaitinasa told reporters that “we are back to the drawing board” on the purchase of the new buses, adding that “we had expected the new buses to arrive before the beginning of the new school year but it doesn’t look like they’re going to make it this coming semester.”

She said purchase of the new buses is “up for local bidding again”.

Samoa News had received unconfirmed reports early last month that the bid for the new buses had been awarded. When asked about the project being awarded, Vaitinasa said, no that it had not yet been awarded.

 They were “trying to purchase through a government system, and that didn’t work, so it’s open up for bidding again,” she said.

Despite calls and email questions since last month seeking comments on the new school bus purchase, the Procurement Office never responded, although a senior Procurement Office official promised that a response was forthcoming.

During the news conference, Vaitinasa said that the original plan was for ten new buses, but a decision was made to bring in nine buses and two vans. The vans would be used for Manu’a and Aunu’u instead of full buses.

She says this change is allowable under the funding source. “So as disappointed as we are, we’re still hoping to get the new fleet in the future to add to our old buses,” she said.

Responding to questions about school buses maintenance plan and funding, Vaitinasa said there is funding for maintenance, but “perhaps there is a lack of a maintenance plan with professional maintenance people on staff. So that’s probably the biggest blockage for our maintenance of school buses — is a maintenance plan.”

“In other words, you follow the plan,” she said. For example, how many months the bus should be on the road before it is serviced.

“We’re almost finished with the maintenance plan and we’ve got one professional mechanic on board and we need to hire a couple more,” Vaitinasa said.

The issue of a maintenance plan has been raised in both the Senate and House this year and lawmakers have called on ASDOE to staff the bus division with professional personnel to ensure that school buses are checked and serviced accordingly.

School buses not only serve all public schools but they also serve the private schools on island.