WR superintendent denies chapter’s allegations
FORT DEFIANCE
In a resolution passed on March 11, Fort Defiance Chapter asked the governing board of the Window Rock Unified School District to remove the superintendent they hired two years ago.
WRUSD Superintendent Lynette Michalski denied the accuracy of any claims listed in the resolution. The resolution claimed that she violated Navajo Nation jurisdiction, conducted herself with personnel in an unreasonable and disrespectful manner, replaced a qualified Navajo candidate with her own daughter, allowed a high turnover rate, hired employees with questionable backgrounds, and violated the “Every Student Succeeds Act” with behavior she allowed in classrooms.
“I deny all of them,” Michalski said. “They’re false. They’re based on lies. I don’t know what they want out of this, but none of it’s true.” Michalski sent a chart to the Navajo Times to back up her claim that she had not caused a high turnover rate at the school. The information in the email showed the district lost 17 staff members out of 340 in the school year that ended in 2016. For comparison, 35 had left the school year before and 76 the year before that.
“Our turnover rate is very, very low,” she said. “Considering, you know, the percentage of staff turnover in the state of Arizona, Window Rock has one of the best rates of retention rates in the state.”
Michalski did not address claims that she “promoted and advocated adverse actions against Navajo jurisdiction” in her interview, but the claim likely referenced Window Rock USD v. Nez that ended at the U.S. Ninth Court of Appeals in 2017.
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Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow