Guam - The Department of Education is preparing for budget hearings scheduled for next month. The agency is asking for a total of over $240 million. According to Deputy Superintendent of Finance and Administrative Services Taling Taitano, division heads and administrators are ready and determined to justify their budget.

Taitano says they're looking at reports such as the Evergreen Management audit to determine how some of these recommendations can be implemented.  "When we put the budget together, we wanted to make sure that we meet all of our mandates such as the board union contract, what it's going to take to operate the schools according to our mission. We took a very hard look at our personnel requirements, the Evergreen report and all other reports that have been done for the department to try and see what will it take to put some of those recommendations in place," Taitano explained.

Hearings for the department begin on June 15 and will go on for several weeks.