Indian Wells Head Start mirrors larger worry
By Erny Zah
Navajo Times
INDIAN WELLS, Ariz., Sept. 1, 2011
Three-year-old Sequoia Houck, like thousands of other Navajo students, is back to school, but unlike most of the others, it wasn't clear until the last minute that his school would be there to welcome him.
Houck attends Indian Wells Head Start and like a dozen other Head Start centers on the Navajo Nation, it was facing closure because of low enrollment.
Which only adds to the Navajo Head Start woes because last month the program was notified it stands to lose nearly $15 million in federal funding due to decreased enrollment.
The tribal program depends entirely on federal money and is not funded from tribal revenues.
Navajo Head Start and Early Head Start are funded for about 4,000 students, but fewer than 2,200 are expected once the school year swings into full effect and enrollment numbers firm up, officials stated.
In early August, Indian Wells Head Start teacher Geraldine Yazzie attended a training session on new regulations and learned that Indian Wells was on a list of Head Start classrooms facing possible closure.
At that point the center had about 12 students, eight less than the number needed. With the help of Head Start parents, she set out to recruit students by going door to door. Using her own money and vehicle, she bumped over the unpaved roads of Indian Wells until she managed to increase enrollment to 17 students, and things were looking up.
Class was supposed to start Aug. 15, but was delayed while the new students' applications were still under review, she said.
Each day, Sequoia looked for the bus to take him to school.
"He kept asking me when the bus was going to pick him up," said his mother, Lynette Charley.
Charley said keeping her son at Indian Wells Head Start was a calculated decision. Houck's father has a full-time job in Flagstaff, so at the end of the last school year, Charley considered moving away from her mother's house to Flagstaff so her family could be together.
Her son could've attended Head Start through the Northern Arizona Council of Governments, but she would've had to get an apartment in a city where housing is limited and usually expensive.
As much as being a family unit was important to Charley, so is Navajo culture and she said Head Start in Flagstaff didn't have the same Navajo culture strength as Indian Wells.
"I really liked the way the way he was picking up the language," Charley said of her son.
So she opted to move into her family's hogan so her son could continue his schooling at Indian Wells Head Start.
"We made the decision against an apartment," she said, recalling her shock at learning that the Indian Wells classroom might not reopen this fall.
She went to Flagstaff and put her son on a waiting list for Head Start there, but thankfully, the Indian Wells Head Start finally opened Monday with 16 students, just over the 15-student minimum needed.
Yazzie added that she must continue her recruiting efforts to keep the center open.
She has her work cut out for her.
Preschool options
Less than a mile away from Yazzie's Head Start classroom is Indian Wells Elementary, a part of the Holbrook Unified School District. About three years ago, the school opened a preschool program of its own.
With no cost to parents and lodged in newer facilities, the school's preschool program has about 42 children who receive a half-day of schooling, different from Head Start's full day program.
The Holbrook district started its program in response to the 2006 shutdown of Navajo Nation Head Start, which was defunded by the federal government for severe mismanagement under then director J. Kaibah Begay.
Until then, the Holbrook district had depended on Indian Wells Head Start to provide information about special needs students because federal law requires public schools to provide education to special education students, said Superintendent Robbie Koerperich.
Since the district wasn't getting information from Head Start, district officials decided to use federal Title 1 money to open a preschool at Indian Wells Elementary, which would serve both regular and special ed students.
"Over the last two or three years, Head Start openings have been sporadic. We were having a hard time identifying students because of the sporadic openings," Koerperich said.
But the district never intended to put the Head Start classroom out of business, he said.
"It's a choice of the parents decide our preschool or send them to the Head Start. By no means do we wish to compete with Head Start," Koerperich said.
Nonetheless, Koerperich said there is a waiting list for students to enter the district's half-day program.
For Lorena Yazzie, who recently enrolled her son Larrance, 4, at Head Start, the extra half-day of schooling made the difference.
And Larrance himself said, "I'm too young for the big school."
Charley said she understands why parents might choose the elementary school program over Head Start. The facility is newer and has a nicer playground, but she contends that Head Start has a stronger cultural component.
"The aspect of the Navajo language is embedded there," she said, adding that she has family members who have enrolled their children at the elementary preschool.
She said when she was trying to recruit students, she focused on the cultural component offered at Head Start.
Regardless, one concern parents brought up during Yazzie and Charley's recruiting drive was Head Start's ability to remain open.
Spencer Willie, Navajo Nation Head Start program manager, said the only reason a center would close is if it endangers the health and safety of a child.
"I think it's important for parents and staff of Navajo Head Start to understand that closure happens only if a center or program is found compromising the health and safety of children, as was the case in 2006," he said in an e-mail.
Yazzie worries, nevertheless, as she looks at the tiny number of Early Head Start enrollees in her classroom, and foresees the need for additional recruiting efforts.
This year, she has only three students in Early Head Start, so at least 17 more students to ensure that her center will reopen next year, she said.
Funding cuts ahead
Problems for Willie might be more drastic.
Proposed funding cuts are scheduled to take place beginning in November.
"If Navajo Head Start is provided a reduced funding at $15 million, the program will have to move forward with various contingency plans, but NHS will need to continue to provide services to the 2,100 children currently enrolled," he said.
Willie said Navajo Head Start wouldn't close a center unless federal Head Start mandated the closure.
"It is important to understand that Head Start services on the Navajo Nation will not be interrupted by the Office of Head Start unless it is determined that the health and safety of centers is not present," he stated.
But low enrollment, not safety conditions, was at the heart of the uncertainty about whether the Indian Wells Head Start classroom would reopen this fall.
Yazzie said one option would have been Home Based Head Start, in which the parent acts as the teacher with help from a certified Head Start teacher.
But Charley, who also has an 11-month-old son, said she want Sequoia to go to school so he could socialize with his peers and socialization - learning to get along with people outside your family - is one of the key goals for preschoolers.
So she was pleased to see Sequoia off to regular Head Start first thing Monday, and had only one regret.
"The bus picked him up at 7:30 this morning," she said. "I wish I had my dumb camera."