Diné candidate stopped a school closure with the district’s own plan. Now he wants the presidency.
Submitted
Donovan Begay is a candidate for Navajo Nation president. He is is Báyóodzin and born for Tó’aheedlíinii. His maternal grandfather is Naakaii Dine’é and his paternal grandfather is Tó Baazhní’ázhí. He is originally from Dził Ná’oodiłii.
DÁ’DEESTŁ’IN HÓTSAA
Donovan Begay drove to the Naschitti Chapter meeting with a document the school district did not know he had.
It was the Central Consolidated School District superintendent’s master facility plan, a multi-page roadmap of which schools the district intended to close. Naat’áanii Nééz Elementary in Shiprock was already gone. Naschitti Elementary, Begay said, was next on the list, with the children to be bused to Newcomb. He asked to be added to the agenda, opened the plan, and showed the room.
“This is the actual plan, official master facility plan that belongs to the superintendent,” Begay said. “I opened it up, and I showed them the list and looked, this is their plan.”
The chapter passed a resolution. It went to the Navajo Nation Department of Education. The closure stopped. Begay said CCSD finance director Byron Manning eventually conceded that closing the school would have ended a community where more than 60 jobs were tied to it.
To read the full article, please see the May 21, 2026, edition of the Navajo Times.
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