Public softening on BIE restructuring?

Posted by Cindy Yurth | Mar 19, 2015 | Education |

DILKON, Ariz.

If a public hearing last week in Dilkon is any indication, parents, teachers and school administrators may be starting to warm up to the idea of the tribe taking over the Bureau of Indian Education schools on the Navajo Nation.

Although there was still plenty of push back after officials from the Department of Diné Education presented a feasibility study on the plan, the Dilkon meeting was lighter on angry diatribe and heavier on curiosity than the previous three meetings on the concept.

It could have been the approach: DODE has changed its presentation significantly since the first few meetings, easing in with some history of the Bureau of Indian Education and the gradual evolution to the new policy rather than dire statistics on how bad the BIE schools are (although those so inclined could read it for themselves on a handout listing every BIE school in the area and whether or not they made adequate yearly progress for the past five years).

After the last meeting in Many Farms, Ariz., “I left out of there feeling like there was no hope,” said Lemual Adson, superintendent of Shonto Preparatory School, which has created a task force to study the 126-page feasibility study and make recommendations on it. “I’ve changed my approach.”

Under a new federal mandate for more local control of the BIE schools, DODE could become the controlling entity for all 61 BIE and grant schools and the five BIE dormitories, distributing funds, hiring personnel and setting policy.

The BIE line offices would be converted to resource centers, supplying optional curriculum and training for those schools that wanted the help.
Each school and each regional center would have a board of directors that would advise the Navajo Nation Board of Education, which would have ultimate authority over hiring, finances, curriculum and incorporation of Navajo language and culture.