Two spots remain vacant on ed board

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — The Navajo Nation Department of Education is still waiting for President Joe Shirley Jr. to name his appointees for the two vacancies on the tribe's nascent board of education.

The president told Department Superintendent Tommy Lewis last Friday that he would have the names ready within a week. But according to Shirley's spokesman, George Hardeen, the president has yet to make his picks.

"I have not been informed; so, it will be interesting to find out who these two people will be," Lewis said Friday.

The board, still something of an experiment for the tribe, seems to be having a hard time holding on to its members. With the two latest resignations, three have left since the president named his first six nominees Dec. 1, 2005.

GloJean Todacheene was forced to give up her spot on the board before she even had a chance to be sworn in. Her seat was reserved for a working school administrator, but Todacheene was retired.

By the time the board took the oath of office last March, Christine Woodty had taken her place.

She didn't last long, resigning in June for "personal reasons."

By December, it was Phillip Bluehouse's turn to resign. After being sworn it, the board elected Bluehouse its chairman. But according to the Department of Education, he decided to give up the post for a seat on the Ganado School Board, to which he won election in November.

"I didn't resign," Bluehouse said of his decision not to hold on to his tribal board seat, "Navajo law didn't allow me to."

Sounding offended by the word "resigned," Bluehouse immediately hung up. A subsequent message left on his home answering machine asking him to explain his decision to resign in favor of a seat on Ganado's board was not returned.

"He felt that he needed to go back to Ganado ... he needed to go home," Lewis said. "You can't blame the man."

According to Lewis, Bluehouse's departure threw the tribal board off at first.

"I sensed some confusion after Dr. Bluehouse left," he said.

But with a new chairman in place, he added, it's back on track.

Taking Bluehouse's place is Jimmie Begay, a former BIA principal from Chinle. He was one of the five board members popularly elected to the board in November and sworn in last week. Combined with the presidential appointments, the elections were supposed to bring the board to its full 11-member strength. Bluehouse's and Woodty's resignations leave it with only nine members.

The Navajo Nation Board of Education was created by the Navajo Sovereignty in Education Act, an overhaul of the tribe's education laws the Council approved in the summer of 2005. The same act split the tribe's Department of Education into two branches, one to handle school programs and the other to run community and public services, replaced the director with a superintendent, and created the board to oversee them all.