School board, tribe discuss equal Indian participation

School board, tribe discuss equal Indian participation

Oct. 26, 2000

BY MATT GLECKMAN
Journal Staff Writer

Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Council Vice Chairman Selwyn Whiteskunk represented the tribe at a special meeting of the Re-1 school board Tuesday night to discuss equal involvement of Indian children in school events and programs.

Whiteskunk said the tribe is happy with the cooperation between the school district and the Ute Mountain Utes but added that there is always room to improve the relationship.

In a letter to the Re-1 School Board, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Council said they would like to work with the schools on the following areas:

Staff training in cultural and traditional areas.
Native American teacher recruitment.
Working with teachers who are trained in English as a Second Language.
Implementing a five-year Culturally Linguistically Diverse Committee (CLDC) plan.

Whiteskunk said that in an effort to increase educational involvement on the reservation the tribe has developed a weekly tutoring program, increased transportation to the schools for extracurricular activities and is beginning to develop a stricter truancy policy.

"We are doing our best to ensure that attendance improves. We are planning on hiring a truancy officer and those students who are missing school will face more consequences," Whiteskunk said.

He added that parents have also begun waiting in their vehicles at the bus stops to make sure that their kids get on the bus to school.

"We want our people to become educated and learn how to learn so that they can come back and help run our community," Whiteskunk said.

"Towaoc is a growing community just as Cortez is a growing community. But all of that development on the reservation is no good if we don’t have kids educated enough to control it and improve the situation of the Ute Mountain Ute tribe," he said.

Re-1 Superintendent Bill Thompson said the school board would address all of the tribe’s concerns individually.