Honeymoon comes to end for ed chief

 

F ollowing calls of nepotism and favoritism among the ranks of Navajo Nation Head Start staff, one council delegate attempted to call for a special investigation of the program's administration.

The request, as made by Leonard Anthony (Shiprock), would have launched a special investigation against the administrators at the program's five agency headquarters.

However, the Budget and Finance Committee, which had final authority over the matter, voted to table the request and give the tribe's new superintendent of schools time to resolve the matter on his own.

"The Department of Diné Education did not have a superintendent all this time," said Nelson Begaye (Lukachukai/Tsaile/Wheatfields). "We should give him a chance to straighten this out."

If passed, Anthony's bill would have requested the Navajo Nation's auditor general to conduct a special investigation on claims that administrators in the Head Start program's Crownpoint and Shiprock agencies have exhibited nepotism and favoritism. The investigation would have looked into matters in all five agencies.

Begaye's request specifically tables the matter until six months after Andrew Tah, the former Greyhills Academy High School superintendent, is confirmed to his new position as the Navajo Nation's superintendent. The council is expected to confirm Tah's appointment during its summer session in July.

This could give Tah until the end of the year to address the matter, however, the new schools chief gave every indication that he would find a resolution before that deadline.

"I'm glad they wanted to work with me," Tah said. "We will look into it an find a resolution by working with the education department."

LoRenzo Bates (Upper Fruitland), committee chair, reminded Tah that the committee has the option to take the bill off the table at any time, should he resolve the issue before then.

The issue comes from a slew of complaints that Anthony said has driven the Education Committee to act. The complaints allege that administrators have been mistreating some employees and have been making decisions based on favoritism and nepotism, Anthony said.

The complaints came to the Education Committee after DODE administration failed to address the concerns, Anthony said.

"The employees came to us when it became clear that the directors were not listening," Anthony told the committee.

Some of the letters the committee received were originally addressed to Spencer Willie, director of the Department of Head Start, Anthony said.

"But there was no movement on that," he said.

Willie was out of the office and unavailable for comment Wednesday.

Anthony did not go into specifics of the complaints, but said there were enough to prompt the committee to request the special investigation.

The Office of Auditor General is responsible mainly for financial audits. Hoskie Kee (Baca-Prewitte/Casamero Lake/Little Water) questioned why the special investigator request was not being made to the Office of Ethics and Rules, which should handle such complaints.

Elizabeth Begay, acting auditor general, said special investigations do fall under her office. However, the results of such investigations are not released publicly like the financial audits. Instead, they are forwarded to the proper government entity to take proper action.

Begay said her office conducted a financial and performance audit on the Head Start program in 2006, when the federal Head Start office shut down the tribal branch for a slew of safety violations.

The tribe's Department of Justice has requested that the auditor general's office hold off on any follow up reviews, Begay said.

"In that case, a special investigation to focus on just the nepotism and favoritism is more appropriate than an audit," Begay said.

The 2006 shutdown was credited largely to mismanagement by the program's previous department manager, J. Kaibah Begay, who was herself accused of rampant acts of favoritism in the months leading to the closure of the program.

The tribe has since worked to resolve the issues and has managed to reopen about 130 of the original 162 Head Start sites. The program continues to face several obstacles in staffing the sites, which require at least four employees each before they can reopen. 

Anthony said he will wait and see how DODE will resolve the issues, but he is wary.

"The issues will still exist," he said.

Anthony does concede that any movement to look into the complaints could be a positive step.

"Let's see what Mr. Tah can do," Anthony said. "I do have faith in him and his managerial skills."

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