by Krystal Paco

Guam - It's been three years in the making and the Guahan Academy Charter School is looking at opening its doors come October 1. Guam's first-ever charter school may open its doors this school year but the question is, where?

According to project director Donna Dwiggins, securing a location has been difficult, as they've been waiting for their budget to get approved. Things are looking up however as the Guam Academy Charter Schools Council approved their $3 million budget at today's special meeting. Dwiggins clarifies that although the Guahan Academy Charter School is a public school, their budget request is separate from the Department of Education's.

"It's one of those what comes first the chicken or the egg problem, and we've worked as far as we can with getting the facility but we can't go any further with getting the facility until we have a budget that approved and locked in," she said. "Our next big hurdle is making sure that it now gets in that overall budget that gets approved for all of GovGuam agencies by the Legislature," she said.

But, legislators have yet to hear the charter school's budget request and aren't set to approve GovGuam budget until August 20, which is also the first day of class for the island's 40 public schools.

Dwiggins says the charter school has been eyeing parts of the CoreTech facility in Tiyan that are not in use by Untalan Middle School. Earlier this year Speaker Judi Won Pat added an amendment to Bill 437 to allow DOE schools, charter schools, and the Guam Community College and University of Guam to lease Tiyan based on their needs. Bill 437 was signed into law.

Dwiggins says the Guahan Academy Charter School will include pre-kindergarten through high school grades to provide individualized instruction to achieve student success. Unlike other public schools, the charter school could develop its own curriculum, implement longer school days, more instructional time, and other components for student development. "What we're trying to do is provide another avenue for those kids another choice for those parents and their children or students," she said.

The Guahan Academy Charter School hopes to enroll 500 students before their opening in October.