by Krystal Paco

Guam - The Department of Education is struggling to make it through the final days of the fiscal year. It was earlier this fiscal calendar Governor Eddie Calvo directed a 15% reserve on all GovGuam agencies in hopes of saving enough money to apply to the island's deficit.

While other agencies have been able to live within tighter budgets, it's hitting DOE the hardest. As GovGuam's largest agency, a 15% reserve equates to roughly $30 million. According to Bureau of Budget and Management Research director John Rios, BBMR will release the DOE reserve on an as-needed basis. So far, BBMR has released $2.1 million.

DOE deputy superintendent of finance and administrative services Taling Taitano says the agency used those funds to meet the difference of their $6 million dollar pay period and $1 million monthly power bill. Taitano defends that DOE is making cuts in line with the governor's directive, such as freezing hiring of personnel, but it's not enough.

She said, "If you take a look at our spend rate we're staying within our appropriation level 1644 we are working with the Educational Finance Supervisory Commission to see if we can live within an amount smaller than the 15% reserve release." The Education Financial Supervisory Commission is comprised of the Budget Office of the Legislature, BBMR, the Department of Administration, and the Office of the Public Auditor.

The Commission is set to meet Thursday to adopt a final forecast for the rest of the fiscal year, as well as determine how much more of the 15% reserve DOE will need. John Rios expects to need to release more of the reserve with the start of classes next week.

In the meantime, he applauds DOE for holding the line, especially because they're following executive orders not to apply increments to employees. Ultimately, he hopes DOE can save somewhere from $5 million to $8 million of their reserve to apply to the island's deficit. "And it's not because the employees don't deserve it, but if you're running in the red you don't give increments or bonuses to your workers, you're trying to get into the black is basically what it is," he said.

Looking ahead, DOE's asking for even more money for the upcoming fiscal year. As we reported, the agency presented a request for a total of $294 million, $86 million more than what the Legislature was hoping to authorize and $79 million more than what the governor proposed.