The Guam Education Board was unable to meet last night to pass a budget because it lacked a quorum of five board members.
The announcement was made by Department of Education Superintendent Dr. Nerissa Underwood after she took roll call and the required number was not met.
Present for the meeting were Chairman Ron Ayuyu, Vice Chair Rosie Tainatongo, Dr. Jose Cruz and Joe San Agustin.
Dr. Underwood said last night that she questioned for clarification as to whether the student representative and Teresa Pereda are current active board members. Underwood said she expects a review and an answer soon. The request was made to Atty.
Rebecca Santo Tomas and Assistant Attorney General David Highsmith.
Board member San Agustin said the student representative and Pereda are active members.
If the student representative to the board and board member Pereda had attended the meeting, the board would have had a quorum, said member San Agustin. The new law also enables the student representative to be a voting member.
œThere was no quorum so the board could not convene. The dilemma is that the law requires us to approve a budget of the Department of Education and submit it to the legislature by Jan. 30. Now the board has no choice. We are left without a course of action because we dont have a quorum.
San Agustin said he was not aware whether the superintendent contacted the other two members informing them of the meeting.Dr. Underwood said she did not contact Pereda since Pereda had said she wanted to step down.
œEven though within the law, we could have had a quorum, unfortunately, maybe the other two members werent advised of this.
Im talking about the student rep who became a voting member. The appointee, Ms. Pereda, if she was advised to come to the meetingwe could have had a quorum and could have at least passed the budget. The other major issue besides the budget is the election of chair and vice chair, San Agustin said.
San Agustin added that the new law did not cause the expiration of the term of the student rep, but it did give the student representative voting authority.
Pereda continues to sit on the board since she was appointed and confirmed last year, before the new law was passed, said San Agustin.
œThe law gives Ms. Pereda the authority to sit on the board until such time an appointee is confirmed by the legislature. So until such time, well just have to hope for the best, he said.
Vice Chair Tainatongo said that the superintendent should have submitted the budget to the board members last year when the board had a full complement of members. Tainatongo said school principals were already working on their budgets with Deputy Superintendent of finance Taling Taitano.
œIts poor plotting. The budget could have been submitted to the board in a timely manner last year at the time Taling was working with the principals on their budget. Here we are, once again, facing a crisis, said Tainatongo.
San Agustin pointed out another dilemma in that the law says that the composition of the board is nine. But, the law gave the student rep voting authority, which totals to ten members, not nine, said San Agustin.
œSo what the law has done, in essence, is it has made a dilemma. You dont have a tie breaker. The composition of the board is made up usually of odd numbers, not even numbers. I dont know how its going to work. If there was a five to five vote, nothing will ever pass. How do you say, five vote no and five vote yes. Five to pass? No, it should be six to pass. The law has to be changed immediately. Otherwise, five to pass and the other five say no, what do you do. It will still pass, but it becomes a joke, said San Agustin.
Underwood said she had also called this particular section of the law to the attention of the two attorneys and expects a legal interpretation soon.
The five individuals who were appointed by Governor Eddie Baza Calvo were at the meeting, but are not official members until they are confirmed by the Guam Legislature. They are May Camacho, Barry Mead, Paul Pineda, former Senator Francis Santos and Dr. Anita Borja Enriquez. The governor has since transmitted the nomination packets of Enriquez and Mead to the Guam Legislature.
By law, the governor can appoint three members to the board, but because of two vacancies, the law states that the governor can also appoint members when there is a vacancy on the board.
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Article source: http://mvguam.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=16393:school-board-fails-to-approve-gdoe-budget&catid=59:frontpagenews
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