Money request made due to partnership with Rehoboth school

GALLUP

Legislation was introduced on Tuesday by the Budget and Finance Committee to provide funding to Rehoboth Christian School for various needs.

The legislation was neither passed nor denied due to a loss of quorum.

The bill was introduced by Delegate Pernell Halona and includes funding for student transportation costs, a Navajo language teacher, summer school expenses, an updated air conditioning system, and improved classrooms.

The total proposed is $540,528, which would come from the Unreserved, Undesignated Fund Balance.

“They (Rehoboth Christian School) need several items, mostly for a HVAC system for the elementary school and also money for the bilingual program, the Navajo-speaking program,” Halona said.

Transportation for students was one of the main concerns since there are many students who go to Rehoboth from varying places on the Navajo Nation, Halona said, and the funding would help the school to keep this transportation available.

Peter Ippel, principal of the elementary and middle school at Rehoboth, said the transportation funding is important due to the size of the area the school serves.

“I think they’re all things that are really designed to help us in serving our kids the best that we can,” Ippel said. “We serve an area of 3,000 square miles and so those bus routes are incredibly important.”

Ippel believes the Nation encouraging students to take Navajo language and government classes is important due to the history of Rehoboth, which was once a boarding school that discouraged learning of Diné culture.

“Teaching the Navajo language, you know, Rehoboth as a boarding school probably did have the history of going against teaching the Navajo language and now we’re promoting that,” Ippel said.

“I’m so excited about that and that’s the way I want that to be,” he said. “We’re excited about that.”

The funds will also be used to accommodate to a wider variety of students so refurbishing of classrooms is needed, Ippel said.

“We’re trying to include more special needs kids into our school and that’s why some of these materials for refurbishing a classroom for kids with special needs, something we have not been able to do as well as we hoped in the past,” he said.

Air conditioning is another concern at Rehoboth, specifically in the elementary where a good HVAC system is needed.

“Before all the security concerns of our era, it was just open the windows, open the doors, but now for security purposes you just can’t do that kind of thing,” Ippel said. “So that’s another aspect of just trying to make this a more conducive learning environment.”

Norman John II, president of Bahastl’ah Chapter, said the chapter sponsored a request to the Nation to help Rehoboth Christian Schools in spring of 2021.

He developed the resolution and it passed the chapter unanimously, the Nation’s District 14 council, and the Fort Defiance Agency Council.

He said parents have been questioning when Rehoboth will receive this funding.

“We’re pleading with you to have the Navajo Nation help support our school because we try to maintain high achievement for academic, not only academic but athletic programs,” John said.

Ippel spoke about the importance of the partnership between the Nation and Rehoboth and how both parties have built a relationship over the past few years. He also believes the priorities for everyone involved are focused around the youth and doing what is best for them.

“I think the whole pandemic thing really helped me to realize what a partnership we have with the Navajo Nation as we became kind of this food distribution center for a lot of the area, in water deliveries and that sort of thing,” Ippel said.

Delegate Edmund Yazzie echoed Ippel and spoke about the partnership between the Nation and Rehoboth.

“This is a private school that caters to our Navajo kids and they teach them the Navajo language, the traditional background, the Christianity background,” Yazzie said. “So, for all the times non-Native donors have donated and so we decided, as Navajos, we should do something to help out.”

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