Taos schools begin work on solidifying Pueblo input

At the last school board meeting of 2016, tribal administrators with Taos Pueblo requested a spot on the Taos School Board that would amount to more than a “mascot.” Even with the annual transition in the Taos Pueblo administration, school leaders are saying the gears are in motion to build on collaborations between Taos Pueblo and the district.

Dwayne Lefthand, 2016 “second sheriff” for Taos Pueblo, told the board Dec. 13 the tribe would like a voice and guiding hand on the elected body in order to better “collaborate and communicate” with the district.

Principally, Lefthand suggested the tribe have a say not only in the transition of Taos Pueblo students from the Taos Day School to district schools, but also in budgetary matters and the hiring of staff members who serve Taos Pueblo students.

The Native American student population of the school district has grown in the last two years. As of 2013, Native Americans made up 7 percent of students in the Taos Municipal School District. In 2015, they were more than 10 percent of the population. The increase is partially due to Taos Day School no longer offering eighth grade, which was previously the highest grade level offered at the Bureau of Indian Education-operated school.

Furthermore, Lefthand suggested more Taos Pueblo parents are electing to send their kids to traditional public schools or charter schools earlier than eighth grade.

As such, tribal officials said it was imperative to have a consistent voice in the district's affairs, building on earnest efforts in the last year to shore up a working relationship between the two governments.

But a perennial impediment to that consistency is the annual change in Taos Pueblo government, which is selected by the all-male tribal council to serve one-year terms that last from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31.

Harold Cordova, 2016 lieutenant governor, told the school board that he prefers the two governments hash out the details of a spot on the board “eye to eye.” He also said it’s important to “plant the seeds [of this partnership] so we can move forward and see them come to fruition.”

Taos Municipal School District Superintendent Dr. Lillian Torrez told The Taos News Jan. 10 that following winter break, district officials are setting up a meeting with the new Taos Pueblo leadership and tribal education staff within the coming weeks.

During the December board meeting, Lefthand talked with school board members about the recent history of tribal representation in the schools.

Board member Jason Silva said there was a previous “gentleman’s agreement” that particular board members would champion the needs of Pueblo students and have face-to-face meetings with the educational staff in tribal administration. However, because of routine elections and tribal council selections, those informal duties got shuffled around within both governments. That caused a “break in communication,” Silva said.

Lefthand said the Taos Pueblo member who previously filled that role at times “felt like a mascot” without any tangible influence over the education of Native American students in the district.

While Silva suggested he could “be your voice” by assuming the role of liaison as an intermediate step, board member Mark Flores expressed that representation should come directly from a representative from the tribe.

Researching what a spot on the five-person Taos School Board could look like and putting it into place “would take some time to do,” said board member Jim Sanborn. “I want to figure out a way to accommodate at least the spirit of what you guys are requesting,” he said.

A board position could take the form of a memorandum of understanding (MOU, a formal agreement to a partnership) or a more loosely organized and less accountable gentleman’s agreement. Or it could be an elected position with voting rights. Regardless, Lefthand suggested the position be permanent to have consistency between tribal administrations.

The five members of the school board run in off-year elections and their district boundaries are based on the population distribution at the last census. Adding a voting member of the board would likely require redrawing the boundaries of the district, a yearslong process. Board member David Chavez suggested that Taos Pueblo could have a voting member on the board without redrawing the boundaries by encouraging someone from the tribe to run in regular elections.

The next round of school board elections will take place Feb. 7. Incumbents Flores and Sanborn were the only people to run for their seats.