Board:
Are Ramah kids eating OK?
Food service a hot issue
By Walter Howerton Jr.
Staff Writer
GALLUP — When the Gallup-McKinley County School Board passed a request for a $10 million bond issue on Monday nobody even took the time to chew it over. But when they started talking about second helpings of cafeteria food in Ramah, there were bones to pick and it spiced things up considerably.
A Ramah High School student griped at the last board meeting that students were being denied free second helpings, a privilege it turned out other students at other district high schools never had in the first place.
Board member Annie B. Descheny demanded a report from food service director Suzanne Whitehead about why all students couldn't get free seconds, not just those in Ramah.
At Monday's meeting, Whitehead gave it to her, complete with a brief history of the school lunch program all the way back to the end of World War II, when the high number of malnourished draftees coming out of the high schools alarmed the federal government.
Also, the board passed a resolution Monday proposed by the student advisory board that "any extra food prepared should be made available to the students."
In a succinctly prepared report, Whitehead explained the cost of doing business in the district where the food service department has to make its own way, pay its own bills and provide 9,000 meals a day, 169 days a year.
She said meals cost about $2 each to prepare. Some students get them for free; some pay only 40 cents; and even those who pay full price pay only $1.25 per meal.
"It's frightening when a meal costs more than the reimbursement," Whitehead said.
She said her department depends on such things as commodity food to help make up the difference. And that preparing far too many meals and giving away the extras, even at one school like Ramah, threatens the precarious balance of the entire food service operation.
Whitehead said that things were "out of control" in Ramah and that 893 extra meals had been prepared there between Aug. 19 and Nov. 5 at an unreimbursed cost to the district of $1,834. At that rate, the Ramah cafeteria would prepare 2,744 extra meals by the end of the year at a cost of $5,637. Whitehead called it "excessive overproduction."
If the same thing happened at schools throughout the district, Whitehead said it would cost the food service department at least $202,000 it does not have.
Whether all of those extra meals in Ramah end up on student plates was not clear, since Whitehead said the same group of about 10 boys gobble up seconds every day. That would not seem to add up to 893 extra meals, but board member Joe DeLaO said he could explain that.
"It doesn't surprise me a darn bit" that people in Ramah are complaining about Whitehead putting the lid on the cafeteria pot, DeLaO said.
He said food has been disappearing out the back door of the Ramah cafeteria for years and said that when he worked for the school district students complained that all they got of the holiday chicken or turkey in their school lunch at Ramah was the wings.
"The breasts and legs went out the back door," DeLaO said. "We are subsidizing some people in Ramah" with school food, he argued and said he would not tolerate any Ramah effort "to crucify the food service" because someone had cut back on the free food.
Whitehead said that free seconds were being offered to Ramah students "until this issue is resolved."
Emily Ellison of Gallup High School is on the school district's student advisory board. She said, "I don't think Ramah students should get special treatment. Treat all students the same." She said she worked to pay for any extras she received and thought Ramah students should do the same.
Whitehead agreed.
"In order to keep serving, we must recoup the cost," she said, suggesting that Ramah students be offered the chance to pay for extras by doing such tasks as sweeping, mopping or taking out trash. She also said the district food service needs to be involved in hiring food workers at Ramah.
Whitehead said the reality of the situation is that giving away second helpings rather than requiring students to pay for them could mean students giving up such expensive items as Pizza Hut pizza, fun foods or four-ounce cheeseburgers. It could also mean a rise in lunch costs or that the district's food service could end up in bad financial shape.
Descheny seemed unsatisfied by the whole discussion and ended up railing against pizza as "junk food" and said of the school cooks, "If the cooks aren't cooking why call them cooks? We need cooks to cook not to heat things up."
Though none of her remarks about pizza seemed to apply directly to the Ramah discussion, Descheny still demanded that Whitehead conduct a study of whether Ramah students are getting enough food and report back in two months.
The board passed a resolution proposed by the student advisory board that "any extra food prepared should be made available to the students."
No one from Ramah spoke at the meeting.
The board also authorized a vote on Feb. 8, 2000 to continue a 2 mil tax levy and to approve $10 million in bonds for capital improvements. The mil levy will create what was described as a "slight" increase in taxes.
| Top |
Court rejects Milford plea
Laurence also turned down
By Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — The Navajo Supreme Court has rejected appeals in one case involving a Navajo Nation Council delegate from Fort Defiance, and in two more involving the removal of the secretary-treasurer of the Smith Lake Chapter.
Chief Justice Robert Yazzie and Associate Justice Raymond Austin ruled that the arguments filed by Leonard Tsosie for veteran delegate Elmer Milford lacked merit.
Milford wanted the Navajo Nation's top court to reconsider its Sept. 24 dismissal of his appeal against an Ethics and Rules Committee's June 25 decision on Milford, and to impose sanctions against the prosecution for deliberately making it impossible for Tsosie to meet court deadlines.
The committee ordered Milford to issue a written apology to the Navajo Land Department for unethical interference to advance work on his daughter's home site lease or face a 30-day suspension from the council. He wrote the apology. The committee dismissed other allegations against Milford of violating the Navajo Ethics in Government Law.
In their one-page decision on Nov. 3, the justices noted that the deadlines to file the record for an appeal were set up in 1987, and that the key question remains the date the court receives the records, not the date the lawyers request them from the lower courts or administrative hearing bodies.
Similar reasoning appears in another Nov. 3 decision by the two justices. The second decision involves another Tsosie appeal, this time in one of two cases involving Grace Laurence, then secretary-treasurer of the Smith Lake Chapter.
An Ethics and Rules Committee decision against Laurence on April 24 led to the lawyer filing an appeal on May 6. Chief Legislative Counsel Steve Boos asked the court on Aug. 13 to dismiss the appeal for lack of a case record, which it did on Sept. 24. Five days later Tsosie tried to get the court to remove Boos from the case, and on Oct. 18 Laurence's lawyer asked the justices to reopen the case.
Noting they didn't find a case record to review before their Sept. 24 dismissal of the appeal, Justices Yazzie and Austin pointed out in their Nov. 3 decision, "even today, there is no agency record on file in this case. The burden is on the appellant (Tsosie for Laurence) to make sure the entire record filed with this court on time."
Laurence's lawyer also failed to convince the Supreme Court that its September decision undermined Navajo common law. In fact, the justices saw it exactly the opposite.
In a second appeal by Tsosie for Laurence, the justices rejected on Nov. 4 the attempt to overturn the Navajo Board of Election Supervisors' decision of June 24 declaring the Smith Lake Chapter's secretary-treasurer's office vacant. The vacancy declaration was based on the Ethics and Rules Committee decision on May 24 to issue sanctions, including removal from office, against Laurence for violating the ethics law.
On July 2, Tsosie appealed to the Supreme Court, followed on Sept. 29 by a motion to remove Boos from the case.
Yazzie and Austin rejected Tsosie's attempt to disqualify the Office of Legislative Counsel as the legal representative of the ethics committee and the election board.
In fact, they wrote in their decision, it is the job of the legislative counsel to defend the Navajo Nation in such appeals.
The justices added, "It is up to the Navajo Nation Council, and not this Court, to prescribe or amend the duties of that office."
| Top |
Area in brief
Fall festival
MAGDALENA Ñ Fall Festival of the Arts will be held from 10 a.m. to
4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday in Magdalena (25 miles west of Socorro on
highway 60.) There will be more than 30 artists, studio tours, food
and more. Information: (505) 854-2261.
Parent/teacher meeting
GALLUP Ñ There will be a parent/teacher/student meeting at 7 tonight
at the Gallup Junior High library. Information: 863-6811, ext. 235.
Diabetes support group
GALLUP Ñ Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital's diabetes support group
will meet at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the First United Methodist Church.
People will be able to fix and eat pumpkin pie and soy bread. If they
bring their medications, a pharmacist will review them. Information:
726-6996 or 863-1874.
| Top |
Arizona schools need impact aid
to survive
By Jim Maniaci
DinŽ Bureau
WINDOW ROCK Ñ The Navajo Reservation's public schools in Arizona receive
about $78.3 million from federal impact aid, a program aimed at giving
money to school districts that contain federal lands from which taxes
are not generated.
The Arizona figures came to light last week when Chinle Unified School
District Superintendent Phil Bluehouse sought reassurance from the Navajo
Nation Council's Education Committee that the Navajo government did
not favor ending this aid...
| Top |
Pro golfer Begay honored
By Robert Arrieta
Staff Sports Writer
WINDOW ROCK Ñ A hero's welcome greeted professional golfer Notah Begay
III as he made a special appearance on the Navajo Nation Monday morning.
Dignitaries from both the Navajo Nation and the city of Gallup, as well
as a gymnasium full of school children greeted the first year pro, who,
as a rookie on the Professional Golfer's Association tour, won two tournaments
and holds the lowest score record, a 59...
| Top |
Off-rez business affected by Mesa
Airlines change
By Bill Donovan
DinŽ Bureau
GALLUP Ñ For decades, people who had business with the Navajo Nation
would fly from Phoenix early in the morning and fly back out early in
the evening.
Since Oct. 31, however, the flight pattern of the off-reservation businessman
has changed because of a decision by Mesa Airlines to change its main
destination site from Phoenix to Albuquerque...
| Top |
Education boss defends job
Editor's note: This is the second in a three-part series looking at
the Navajo education division. Today, Director Genevieve Jackson defends
her work. Wednesday's article concerns improvements at Head Start.
By Jim Maniaci
DinŽ Bureau
WINDOW ROCK Ñ Genevieve Jackson said it's time she defended herself
as director of the Navajo Nation's Division of DinŽ Education.
She administers 14 departments with a combined budget of $52.4 million,
most of it federal money...
| Top |
Police donate to domestic program
Staff report
GALLUP Ñ The New Mexico State Police Association recently donated $10,000
to the New Mexico Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
The funds are to assist survivors of domestic violence and their children
who seek shelter from the violence in their homes...
| Top |
U of A honors Hopi chairman
Staff report
KYKOTSMOVI, Ariz. Ñ Hopi Chairman Wayne Taylor has received the Tanner
Award from the University of Arizona Alumni Association.
The award, named after two U of A alumni, symbolizes the spirit of academic
excellence and achievement of U of A graduates...
| Top |
Navajo ranger faces DUI charge
By Jim Maniaci
DinŽ Bureau
WINDOW ROCK Ñ Navajo police arrested a Navajo wildlife ranger on charges
of driving while under the influence of liquor while in uniform and
on duty on Nov. 13.
Other weekend cases to which the Navajo Department of Law Enforcement
responded include an aggravated stabbing in the Tuba City Police District
followed by the alleged assailant escaping barefoot from the branch
jail two days later, and a mobile home fire in which the 68-year-old
resident saved his home with a garden hose...
| Top |
Court rejects Milford plea
Laurence also turned down
By Jim Maniaci
DinŽ Bureau
WINDOW ROCK Ñ The Navajo Supreme Court has rejected appeals in one
case involving a Navajo Nation Council delegate from Fort Defiance,
and in two more involving the removal of the secretary-treasurer of
the Smith Lake Chapter.
Chief Justice Robert Yazzie and Associate Justice Raymond Austin ruled
that the arguments filed by Leonard Tsosie for veteran delegate Elmer
Milford lacked merit...
| Top |
All contents property of the Gallup Independent.
Any duplication or republication requires consent of the Gallup Independent.
Feel free to send any questions or comments to gallpind@cia-g.com
|
