Eyes on the cash
Tribe’s education department targets stimulus money

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Karen Francis
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — The Navajo Nation’s Board of Education directed the Department of Diné Education to prepare for any funding that might become available through the federal economic stimulus package during a regular meeting Friday.

Legislative analyst Daryl Begay told the board that there is not any funding specifically set aside for Navajo, but that the tribe must apply for competitive grants.

“The act requires projects that are, of course, shovel-ready, and they are aimed at employing people,” Begay told the board.

“As these opportunities are coming up the department will try to find projects that fit into these different categories,” Begay said.

Besides roads and schools construction, one possible grant the tribe could apply for from the federal Department of Justice would be for youth mentoring, he said.

The federal government has not released specifics on the grant application process but has given some general numbers to the Department of Diné Education. However, the board wanted the department to be ready when the grant application process begins.

Spencer Willie, department manager of the tribe’s Head Start program, said that he just got news Thursday evening of overall stimulus funding for Head Start for $2.1 billion.

“Through that funding, $1.1 billion, I believe, is for early Head Start and the other $1 billion is going to be for Head Start services,” he said.

“A large portion of it is going to be for expansion of Head Start programs — to be able to serve additional kids — and that’s going to be a challenge we have here because we are not currently serving the amount that they give us money for,” Willie said. However, because of that, the tribe might still be able to get funding to expand.

The program will have to look at community assessments to determine where expansion could take place.

“When further announcements come out, which will be in the RFP form, they’ll indicate how much money is available and what we can use that money for,” Willie said.

Currently 40 Head Start centers are closed across the Navajo Nation because of lack of personnel, Willie said.

There is a listing of 16 modular buildings that the Head Start program wants to buy, he added.

The good news is that an increase of 4.9 percent cost of living allowance for Head Start personnel should be included in the stimulus funding, Willie said.

“Staff should see an increase in salary 4.9 percent this year. That’s going to be helpful for recruiting new staff,” he said.

The Board of Education also voted to send a letter inviting the Bureau of Indian Education acting director Kevin Skenandore and Emerson Eskeets of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to let the tribe and schools know of its plans for any economic stimulus funding.

“BIE-funded schools are in the dark. We don’t know what’s happening. Nobody from the Bureau of Indian Education in Albuquerque is telling us — the tribe here, DODE — and even the schools out there how they will get funds, how much they’re getting,” Board President Jimmie C. Begay said.

Daryl Begay said that in a conference call with the White House on Tuesday, he understood that the federal government might not follow the BIA priority listing for funding of school construction.

“They emphasize from the White House that the construction projects that are being considered are at the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior, which was a big surprise for us because we have always been told from the agency — the BIA — that they were going to follow the priority listing. Perhaps what might be happening is some of the projects that are on the priority listing might not be shovel-ready,” he said.

DODE was told that in the next week or so, the BIA would release the stimulus package funding listing for the construction projects and make the listing public, he added.

Board President Begay asked if there was a plan on how the Department of Diné Education would work with the BIE on any stimulus funds.

“We need to get this going as soon as possible, saying,

‘This is how we address it,’” he said.