by Sabrina Salas Matanane

Guam - A day before he's scheduled to present the Department of Education's proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2013, new Superintendent Jon Fernandez can start it off with some good news that his agency was awarded close to $3 million in federal funding.

According to a media release, Department of the Interior Assistant Secretary for Insular Affairs, Tony Babauta, has informed Fernandez that his agency will receive $2.8 million in compact-impact funds to be used specifically for education. It was a couple weeks ago that Fernandez wrote DOI requesting for the funding to be used for education purposes. Fernandez in his letter to Babauta asked that the one-time funding from Congress be used to help offset the costs for supplies, equipment and essential facility upgrades going into the upcoming school year.

"I want to thank Assistant Secretary Babauta for making our teachers, schools, and students a priority for the Office of Insular Affairs and the U.S. Government in general," said Fernandez after hearing about the award. "As I go school to school, I am hearing about the significant challenges facing our children and our educators. I believe this grant is a unique opportunity to direct resources right into our schools and, more importantly, into our classrooms to ensure that our students benefit."

The new superintendent plans to use a portion of the funding to support "Team Up to Clean Up" initiative to get schools ready for the upcoming school year.

We should note the DOI funding was the same funding the Department of Public Works was going after for the purchase of new school buses.