by Krystal Paco

Guam - Guam's first charter school may have received the green light to open doors over two years ago but they continue to struggle to find a permanent home. Month-to-month they've pushed their opening date, but founders of the Guahan Academy Charter School remain hopeful they'll be opening doors soon. According to spokesperson Therese Arroyo Matanane, they continue to look at properties in hopes of converting a facility into a school campus.

Although Senator Aline Yamashita commends this progress, she admits, she and her colleagues need to provide stronger support for other charter school hopefuls. "We want to review the law to ensure that those who do want to charter get the kind of support that they need to do it, and it's a big feat to actually open up a school," she explained. "So I think she is getting closer to finding a place, and so it looks that if all goes well now they might be opening up next school year."

Finding a location that meets zoning requirements as well as their budget of $5,500 per student has been a struggle. Speaker Judi Won Pat says this money, which is currently part of the DOE budget, will rollover should the charter school not open doors in the coming months.

"The money will continue to remain with DOE until such time that any charter school has identified the number of students that they will have enrolled in their school and only through that the moneys will transferred from DOE to the charter school, because these are our public school children it just means that somebody else will be educating them," she added.

While the Guahan Academy Charter School continues to look at venues, Won Pat says the Humatak Foundation wants to open a charter school at the old F.Q. Sanchez Elementary School, but is delayed because the campus like many northern schools, was hit by copper wire thieves.

Meanwhile, the speaker hopes to strengthen the very committee that approves charter school openings. She says DOE superintendent Jon Fernandez has asked to be part of the Guam Charter School Council, but overall the Council must recruit more members.

"There are positions with someone with an accounting background and a retired educator whether it's a teacher or school administrator, so that's what we're doing right now is trying to recruit and submit the names to the Governor's Office so that an appointment can be made," she said.