by Michele Catahay

Guam - The newly confirmed Guam Education Board members will be sworn in during a special meeting this week. Members will take an oath before the meeting so they can go over and submit the Department of Education's 2012 budget to the Guam Legislature. DOE deputy superintendent Taling Taitano says the department is already challenged with its current budget.

She says division heads and principals have been meeting to determine how DOE should cut costs. She says such challenges should also be discussed with the board. "They took a look at some of the recommendations in the evergreen report. With regards to cost saving measures and other than that, there was a brainstorming session with division heads and principals and some of the things that were discussed included was freezing the hay, which has been done. Freezing increments. Holding down on hiring. Personnel is a large part of our budget. a lot of discussions on savings revolved around personnel costs," she said.

DOE was supposed to submit a budget to lawmakers back in January, but because members weren't sworn in yet, the board couldn't approve it. In the meantime, during the meeting, the board will vote for who will serve as the chair and vice chair.

The meeting will take place on Thursday at George Washington High School in Mangilao beginning at 6pm.