HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — With increased per-pupil funding for the current school year, Guahan Academy Charter School is weighing a one-time incentive payout for its employees.
The upcoming fiscal year 2024 budget act for the government of Guam provides local charter schools $7,500 for each student enrolled. That increase, up from $7,000 in the current fiscal year and $6,200 in fiscal 2022, comes after years of local charter schools pleading for an increase to keep up with inflation, Post files show.
At GACS, at least some of that extra money will be used for incentive pay. CEO Ann Santiago presented plans to board members this week for a one-time employee performance payment.
Pay will be evaluation-based, Santiago said, and the payout is meant to reward employees who have been contributing to high standards at Guahan Academy – and to keep up with raises that faculty and staff teaching in the Guam Department of Education are getting.
GDOE educators saw a 22% across-the-board pay raise last year, while school staff have benefited from a one-time incentive payout and, this year, their own 22% general pay raise.
“Last fiscal year, when we requested … an increase of appropriation per pupil, all the charter schools agreed that the request is to update, somehow, our employee pay scale. But because it’s not sustainable for us, we only were able to increase or give increments … (of) about 3%,” Santiago told board members Tuesday.
She said that Guahan Academy is looking for a 16% pay incentive, which would have to be justifiable based on an “approved evaluation tool.”
GACS trustee Lou San Nicolas said she hoped student achievement would be one metric used to assess teacher performance, especially given all the resources the school was investing to have educators trained on Direct Instruction teaching.
“We’ve got to increase our scores. … Otherwise, you know, the perception could be, you’re just wasting money by doing all these trainings, and you’re not seeing any improvement,” San Nicolas said.
Santiago told board members more information about plans for the incentive pay and evaluations would be forthcoming.
Guahan Academy Charter School Board of Trustees Audit Committee Chair Al Erguiza, left, and CEO Ann Santiago attend the GACS board meeting Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023, in Tiyan.
