Hagatna
The Guam Department of Education is seeking $10 million to carry the public school system through to Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year.
Superintendent Nerissa Bretania Underwood says if the money isn’t found, the department will have to shut down.
She says part of the shortfall stems from the department’s need to pay a note to the Guam Power Authority of about $200,000 a month, and the money wasn’t appropriated.
DOE Deputy Superintendent Taling Taitano says the schools have faced such financial problems before, but last year they were allowed to use bond money to address the operational shortfall.
The U.S. territory’s 32,000 public school students are set to start the new school year Aug. 10.
