A push to make Native American history, language and sovereignty a more regular part of Winslow classrooms, rather than a once-a-year November tradition, came before the Winslow Unified School District Governing Board at a recent meeting. Indian Education Committee Chair Lisa Vandever spoke to the district about entrenching those lessons deeper into its everyday K-12 curriculum.
Vandever started with a result from the committee’s annual family survey that she admitted stung a little. “A lot of the families don’t exactly know what the Indian Education Committee does, what we support and really what the funding goes towards,” she said.
What got to her about that is how much the committee has been doing. This year alone it paid for the Native American Festival, weaving and coloring booths, games, a film festival, food demonstrations and a display on Native Americans in the military. It also purchased 200 books for all five school libraries, microscopes and learning kits for Washington School and a greenhouse it hopes will anchor a future food-sovereignty workshop, and the organization helped cover the year-end Native American Awards, a junior high promotion and a preschool celebration.
But she’s after something bigger than a packed events calendar. “One of the biggest things we wanted to do is bring that cultural exposure to our students,” Vandever said. “Our students probably get a minimum of the month of November to see what Native American heritage is.”
Her central ask was to change that. Vandever said she had looked at curricula from states like Montana, Oregon and Washington that already require Native American history in their schools, weaving literacy together with ancestral knowledge and cultural stories. Those lessons reach every student during the school day, she said, instead of just the families who can make it to an evening event and the district wouldn’t have to start from scratch, since other states and national groups have already built the materials. “Having something that is actually in our curriculums in our schools would be very impactful … not only our Native American students, but our general population,” she said. “Native American history is history.”
From there she laid out a wider wish list, including a culture week, a student leadership summit, culturally relevant field trips and a Winslow version of the Indian Nations and Tribes Legislative Day that other heavily Native districts attend at the Arizona State Capitol. She also wants students to learn how tribal government works, from the 22 tribes in Arizona to the more than 570 across the country. “They don’t know that Navajos have that dual citizenship, where we are recognized as a sovereign nation,” she said. “What does that mean?”
Language was the other big piece. Vandever said the district could teach basic Navajo, Hopi or Apache and connect it to real opportunities later, like the Navajo Nation’s Chief Manuelito scholarship, which she said has put students through college on full rides when they can certify their fluency. She noted that relatives of hers had been recipients.
There’s a hard limit on all of it, though. “As you may know, our funding was cut tremendously,” Vandever said. “We really can’t bank on all the things that we did do.” The cut hit federal funding and the Navajo Nation has stepped in to cover part of the gap, though that money is unpredictable.
Board members were receptive to the idea but wanted something concrete before signing on. Board member Todd Wilcox latched onto Vandever’s description of the knowledge as “a gift.” “I feel like it should be something that does need to be brought to the forefront,” Wilcox said. Board clerk Jennifer Sanderlin added a note of caution about the timeline, explaining that any new curriculum has to sit on public display for 60 days before the board can approve it.
The board asked the committee to regroup after its membership changes over, since two seats will be open when current terms end June 30. The board asked to come back with a real plan that spells out the programs it hopes to run, what they would cost and what help it would need from the district.
In other action, the board tabled its proposed early-release calendar after noticing a conflict over the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, which showed up as an early-release day for the lower grades but not the high school and members said they want the schedule to match districtwide. The board also approved higher Winslow Junior High athletic fees, with most sports rising to $40, track to $25 and the annual family cap going to $140. Board member Isabel Britton, who said the proposal was confusing, voted no. Board member Dodie Montoya was not present.
The board also held a special meeting last week to approve a bid for a new HVAC replacement that board has been waiting years to replace in the high school gym, the cost for the project is $1.8 million.
In other business, the board:
* Approved past meeting minutes and the ratification list.
* Approved a donation of $500 from Renemarie and Brett Drey to Jefferson Elementary School to buy books for the school’s book vending machine.
* Approved the following hires: Carlee Edwards, Winslow Junior High School English teacher; Charley Cox, high needs paraprofessional; Alyson Jones, media tech; and Kyle White, inclusion paraprofessional.
* Approved the resignation of Chase Edwards, gifted and talented education teacher.
* Approved several routine documents for Wells Fargo, which lists whose names appear on checking accounts and lines of credit.
* Approved a document certifying the max enrollment for each grade level and what each grade level average class size will be for the upcoming year.
