Bomb threat, outage hit Navajo Pine
High school also copes with sewage
Bill Donovan
Diné Bureau
GALLUP — Students at Navajo Pine High School had to cope with
a multitude of problems Tuesday, including an electrical outage, toilets
backing up into the hallways and a bomb threat.
As if this wasn't enough, teachers at the Navajo, N.M., school complained
that they were instructed to go back into the school to determine
whether there was, in fact, a bomb in any of their classrooms.
Today should be easier as district officials decided to give students
a day off so that maintenance crews could finish cleaning up the hallways
and remove the odor of raw sewage. A decision will be made sometime
today as to whether school will reopen Thursday.
Angelo DiPaolo, assistant superintendent of the Gallup-McKinley County
School District, said Tuesday evening that his office is still investigating
what went on at the high school.
DiPaolo agreed there was a problem with communications between school
officials and the district office that resulted in students not being
released earlier than they should have been.
The problems began early in the morning when an electrical outage
occurred. This, in turn, caused the school's sewage system to back
up.
The sewage system at the high school is somewhat unusual: Sewage is
piped uphill. "Anytime there is an electrical problem, it causes
the pump to not work," DiPaolo said.
As a result, toilets back up and raw sewage in the form of "gray
water" and possibly some solid waste overflows onto the bathroom
floors and then into the hallways.
The sewage problem apparently occurred about 11 a.m. The school's
principal, Gilbert Sage, was out of town, and other officials at the
school decided to keep students in class, instructing them not to
use the bathrooms.
DiPaolo said his office was not aware of the problem until school
officials called about 2 p.m. to report the bomb threat and the sewage
problems.
"We should have been informed right away of the sewage problem,"
DiPaolo said. If the district had been informed, students would probably
have been transferred to the middle school or dismissed from school
at that time to avoid the possibility of anyone coming in contact
with raw sewage.
DiPaolo said he wasn't sure why the district offices were not informed
of the problem sooner. When he talked to officials at the school,
he said, he was told that they had tried to get in touch with the
district's maintenance office to take care of the sewer problem.
Officials at the school may also have erred when they asked teachers
to go back into the school building to see whether there was anything
unusual in their classrooms.
Normally, when a bomb threat comes in, DiPaolo said, teachers clear
their classrooms and as students are leaving, take a quick look around
to make sure there's nothing suspicious in plain sight.
In this case, police were trying to determine whether
the bomb threat was serious when school officials told teachers to
go back into the building to check out their classrooms.
"They didn't want to do that if there was a chance that the bomb
threat was serious," DiPaolo said.
Police officials said later the bomb threat was a prank.
Maintenance crews late Tuesday got the pumps working again and began
cleaning up the building. DiPaolo said this process as well as ridding
the building of any odors will continue today.
"We'll have to wait until Wednesday morning to see how far they
have gotten to determine if we will have classes on Thursday,"
he said.
DiPaolo said the district is also concerned about the possibility
that there were no plans within the school to deal with electrical
outages or sewer backups. A meeting will be held today with the school
administration to deal with this.
It was also possible, he said, that the school had plans in place
to handle these kinds of situations but they were not implemented
because the principal was out of town.
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Navajos can't sue in dispute
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Navajos who objected to a law that led to
the division of Arizona tribal land between Hopis and Navajos can't
sue in federal court, an appellate panel has ruled.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday refused to rule on
a claim by the dissident Navajos that moving them off their ancestral
land violated their freedom of religion. Instead, the court said the
suit could not proceed without the participation of the Hopi Tribe,
which cannot be sued in federal court without its consent.
The Hopis' participation is essential because overturning the 1974
federal law would undo their agreements with the Navajo Nation and
the federal government that resolved the land dispute between the
tribes, provided federal funds to the Hopis and achieved "peaceful
relations between the two Indian sovereigns," the court said.
One of the agreements provided free 75-year leases and grazing and
farming rights to Navajos living on land awarded to the Hopis, including
those who filed the suit before the appeals court. They accepted the
leases but are unhappy with the lack of permanent land rights and
the requirement to live under Hopi governance, said their lawyer,
Lee Phillips.
He said there were 49 original plaintiffs, some of whom have since
died, and another 20 who joined after the suit was filed 12 years
ago. Most are sheepherders.
Some Navajo households, whose numbers are in dispute, have rejected
the leases, dropped out of the lawsuit and face eviction by federal
authorities. Phillips said he was hoping to reach an agreement that
would let them remain, but would fight the evictions in court if necessary.
The 1974 law led to court rulings that divided the disputed land between
the two tribes in northeastern Arizona and provided for relocation
of tribal members living on each others' land.
Navajos who objected to relocation and to federal restrictions on
construction and grazing filed suit in 1988. The appeals court ordered
mediation three years later, leading to the 75-year lease agreement,
which Congress ratified in 1996.
That was the end of the case, the appeals court said, because judges
cannot undo both agreements without the Hopis' participation. Judge
John Noonan wrote the 3-0 ruling, which rejected arguments by the
federal government as well as the individual Navajos that the suit
should be allowed to proceed.
Tim Atkeson, a lawyer for the Hopi Tribe, said the ruling recognized
that the resolution was a compromise.
"They (the dissidents) lost in the political process but they
were not cut off from it," he said. "They were in all the
negotiations, participated in all the dealings with Congress ... and
their tribe represented them."
But Phillips said the Hopis, too, had taken part in all the proceedings
and "reaped all the benefits of the process" before invoking
their right not to be sued.
The case is Manybeads vs. United States, 90-15003.
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Teachers' union writing 'worst district'
resolution
This is the second part of a series that looks at the relationship
between teachers and the Gallup-McKinley County School District.
Zarana Sanghani
Staff Writer
GALLUP — The local school union will write a resolution that
says the Gallup-McKinley County School District is the worst district
in the state to work for, said Tom Payton, the union president and
a sixth-grade teacher at John F. Kennedy Middle School.
The resolution will be presented to the New Mexico Federation of Educational
Employees in May, when delegates from unions around the state will
vote whether to adopt the resolution.
While not all teachers said they agreed with the resolution, most
believe the central office and school board need to improve how they
manage and communicate with individual schools and employees.
Representation has been a hot issue for many teachers since the school
board voted to end collective bargaining with the union in July. The
school board no longer negotiates the terms of the school employees'
contracts with the union.
Preparation period
Jane Henley, a teacher at Juan de Oate Elementary, said she has tried
to ask for a preparation period for elementary school teachers to
organize lesson plans during the day. However, central office administrators
have not been receptive to her request, she said.
Superintendent Robert Gomez said he agrees that prep periods are important
for teachers, but arranging for such a time requires more teachers,
and the district does not receive enough money from the state for
that.
Henley, a union member, said she understands the restraints the central
office is under. She said she does not expect to get everything she
asks for, but she does expect the respect and support she deserves
from administrators.
"I know Gomez has done some good things," Henley said. "But
he's done a lot to disrespect teachers also. And the principals are
as disrespected and ill-treated as the teachers. (A request) is always
handled with, 'How dare you ask for that?'"
A Gallup Junior High School teacher, who is not part of the union,
said the central office often does not include teachers in the decisions
it makes. The teacher, who asked to remain anonymous, will be called
Fred.
Block scheduling
Fred said Gomez and his assistant superintendents forced ninth-grade
teachers to adopt something called "block scheduling" for
next year.
In a block schedule, students take eight classes in one year instead
of six as they do now.
"We were planning on studying it for a year, learning about it,
planning it," Fred said. "Then all of a sudden we're basically
told, 'You have to do block scheduling.' We already had a schedule
in place ready to go (for next year.) We don't have (block scheduling)
planned, and we're running out of time.
"We weren't against block scheduling. What we were against was
(being) told we had to do it right away."
At a parent-teacher meeting at the junior high in March, many people
voiced similar concerns.
Gomez said ninth graders need to go to block scheduling to stay in
sync with the high schools, all of which are on block scheduling.
Some ninth-grade students have to take classes at the high school,
he added, and that would be difficult if the schedules were not the
same.
Teachers have received some training and will continue to receive
more training next year for block scheduling, said Esther Macias,
the director for secondary instruction.
Both sides frustrating
Despite Fred's contention with the central office administrators,
he said he does not approve of the union's resolution.
"I have no love for the district. I also have no love for the
union. I'm frustrated from both sides," Fred said. "I don't
think we can know (that this district is the worst in the state).
I do think this district has major problems.
"You have a boss on top dictating things. The teachers don't
feel they have a say in the decisions ... but the union also supports
teachers that are part of the problem."
The central office gets input from teacher committees that look at
personnel policies and teacher and parent groups that look at educational
goals for individual schools.
Gomez said the administrators try to strike a balance between their
views and the teachers' ideas.
"Every school has different kinds of students," Gomez said.
"You've got to let personalities be a part of (instruction).
Then again, you have to have effective teaching practices."
The teacher committees were formed as a recommendation from the union
when it still collectively bargained with the school board.
Nevertheless, many teachers have said they do not have a say in the
administration of the schools. They said the official venues available
to them to voice their concerns do not work.
Resolution futile
Teachers who believe the district is a tough place to work said the
union's resolution will be a futile attempt to change things. No teachers
said they thought the problems they saw would improve. Others said
they believe low teacher morale is seeping into the classroom and
hurting children.
Some teachers, like Henley, who has been in the district for six years,
said they will move out of the district because of the working conditions.
While the central office does make some unilateral decisions, said
Ginny Henley, the head teacher at Rocky View Elementary, she believes
she can have influence over what happens at her school. Ginny Henley
is not a union member.
For example, when the central office required other schools to use
an academic program called Success for All, Rocky View decided to
use the Modern Red School House program.
"You have to sell what you want at your school," Ginny Henley
said.
However, like other teachers, Ginny Henley said she is worried about
recent alterations to board policy.
Leave, grievance policies
Changes to personal leave and grievance policies upset teachers, including
Ginny Henley.
In the old board rules, if employees had a complaint, they filed a
grievance, appealed to several levels of administrators and, as a
last resort, went to the board to resolve the problem.
In the new process, the employees cannot appeal to the school board.
Instead the final arbiter will be a hearing officer chosen by the
school board and paid in part by the employee.
The board decided to implement a hearing officer to encourage employees
to reconcile disagreements at lower levels, said Paula Garcia, assistant
superintendent for personnel.
If employees have to pay half the cost of a hearing officer, Payton
said, they should have a say in who the officer is.
The requirements for taking personal leave have also changed. Under
the previous regulations, employees told their supervisor or principal
one day in advance that they were going to take a personal leave day.
They did not have to give reasons for that leave.
Under the new rules, employees must give one week's advance notice
and state why they want off.
If teachers have to give reasons for their personal leaves, said Payton,
they will be at the mercy of principals.
Garcia said the new policy is not meant to stop teachers from taking
personal days, but to regulate how many teachers take days off at
one time. Whenever teachers take leaves, substitutes must take their
place, and principals need to know in advance if a substitute needs
to be called in, she added.
Unprofessional policy
Payton said it is disrespectful of the central office to assume teachers
will abuse the two days of personal leave they have every year.
Don Whatley, the president of the New Mexico Federation, called the
new personal leave policy unprofessional. He said other school districts
in the state did not have such a policy.
The new board policy also does not have a phrase one that prohibits
board members and administrators from mistreating or retaliating against
teachers that was in the old policy.
Garcia said those kinds of restrictions and human rights are understood
or written in other district literature, such as the job descriptions
manual. Outside legal counsel helped make the board policies less
redundant without deleting essential phrases, she added.
"Nobody's supposed to do that anyway," Gomez said. "There
were a million wording changes, but I don't think the intent was changed."
The special education teacher at Gallup High School, Cheryl Roye,
said she does not get the support she needs to maintain a quality
program for her students. Roye is a member of the union.
More work, less time
"Some of those (administrators) have been out of the classroom
so long, they don't realize the time and effort it takes to teach
children," Roye said. "They add more and more and more work
and give you less and less time to do it.
"I don't see any teacher appreciation. I hear a lot of, 'Well,
it's your job. That's what you're getting paid for.'"
Roye said she spends so much time fulfilling state requirements that
she gets little time to teach her students.
The superintendent and assistant superintendents do not give teachers
the extra time and professional support it takes to do these tasks,
Roye added.
"I don't disagree with the time issue," said Gomez, the
school superintendent. "Every school superintendent I talk with
is having the same problem. We have all these accountability (tasks
from the state) but not one more minute, not one more dollar to work
on them."
Margaret Garza, an assistant superintendent, explained that many state
mandates come to the district without any explicit directions on how
to implement the new programs or policies.
She and Gomez said they will continue to work with teachers to find
how to best arrange schedules to fit in state requirements.
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MacDonald plea added to agenda
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — Here is a summary of actions taken by the Navajo
Nation Council Tuesday, the opening day of its regular spring session.
The council:
Added to the agenda a resolution asking Clinton to release former
Navajo Nation Chairman Peter MacDonald from a prison in Fort Worth.
MacDonald is in prison for conspiracy and taking bribes.
The council also included in the proposed resolution Donald Benally,
Earl Roy Lee and Ned McKenzie, three MacDonald supporters who are
in prison because of their involvement in a July 1989 riot that left
two people dead.
The council has pardoned MacDonald for any tribal convictions as well
as passed two previous resolutions asking for federal executive clemency.
Delayed until today hearing the quarterly "state of the nation"
addresses by President Kelsey Begaye and Speaker Edward T. Begay,
but heard Chief Justice Robert Yazzie's comments.
Changed the status of council delegates from self-employed to common
law employees for fringe benefit and federal taxing purposes, including
Social Security deductions.
Sent to the Government Services Committee for answers to questions
raised about adopting the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Act
as tribal law until the nation writes its own rules.
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Area in brief
Parent workshop
GANADO — There will be a Holistic View of Diné Teachings-Child
Rearing Practices workshop 6 tonight at Ganado Middle School cafeteria.
Information: (520) 755-1231.
Navy band to play
GALLUP — The U.S. Navy rock band "Millennium" will
give a free concert at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Rio West Mall. The seven-member
band will play everything from swing to ska and country to rock.
Information: Navy Recruiting Station in Gallup, 1300 W. I-40 Frontage
Rd., Suite 323; 471-0986...
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Angel brings national spotlight to Gallup
Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Special to the Independent
GALLUP — Gallup is once again receiving national attention, only
this time it's not for anything negative. It's for something that's
... well ... different.
How do you explain Gallup's angel? How do you explain a grown woman
in a secondhand wedding gown wings attached to her back with Velcro
on hotel rooftops and in back alleys?
The Albuquerque Journal tried to explain it in February in a feature
story titled, "Touched by an Angel." But it's really more
like "Touched by an Angel" meets "Girls Just Wanna
Have Fun..."
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Central High students, police resume
'rivalry'
Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Special to the Independent
GALLUP — The friendly rivalry between the students at Central
High School and local law enforcement officers will heat up this Thursday
when the two meet again for the fourth annual "Hoop it Up for
Better Relations" basketball game.
And the question is whether the over-the-hill adults can manage to
reclaim the prized game trophy, which Central High has won the last
two years...
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Burglar gets 3 years in jail
Tom Purdom
Staff Writer
GRANTS — Time will tell whether convicted felon David Martin
learned a lesson.
A burglar who got caught, the 27-year-old Martin appeared
before District Judge William A. Sanchez on Feb. 17 for sentencing.
Martin was convicted this past June 8 after a plea and disposition
agreement on several charges, including unlawful entry on July 4,
1998, breaking and entering on July 14, 1998, larceny on July 14,
1998, and possession of burglary tools on July 14, 1998. All the charges
except unlawful entry are fourth-degree felonies...
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Navajo police reports
Driver sought in fatal hit-run
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — Navajo police are looking for a hit-and-run driver
who killed Joe Guy, 73, of Pinon about 8:30 p.m. Saturday.
A Chinle Police District officer found the victim, who had massive
head injuries, about a half mile east of the Bashas' Diné Market
at the junction of BIA Routes 4 and 41 near Pinon after a security
guard called in the incident.
Investigators are looking for an early 1990s gray Ford pickup truck,
with damage to the right front and a broken bug screen...
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Attacker felt like 'Rambo'
Tanya Brazil
Staff Writer
GALLUP — A man on trial here for stabbing a Tse Bonito woman
in the head told police the act made him feel like "Rambo."
A taped confession to police was introduced Tuesday in the second
day of the trial of Bryan Rainey, 19, who is accused of the Aug. 11,
1998, burglary and brutal stabbing of 60-year-old Barbara Bald.
Rainey has pleaded insanity as his defense in the knifing of Bald...
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Deaths
Quentin R. Newsom
GALLUP — Funeral services for Quentin R. Newsom, 38, will be
held at 11 a.m. Thursday, April 20, at the First United Methodist
Church in Gallup. Pastor Gary Schnakenberg will officiate. Burial
will be in Sunset Memorial Park.
Newsom died April 16 in Albuquerque. He was born June 16, 1961, in
Bismarck, N.D.
Newsom was a 1979 graduate of Gallup High School. He was employed
at Furniture Warehouse, and previously at ad."
Through the interview, Rainey asked about the victim's condition,
and said he felt like killing himself.
Dr. Timothy Domer, the attending physician on the evening of the incident,
said when Bald arrived in the Fort Defiance Indian Health Service
emergency room, she had a knife protruding from her head but was alert
and able to answer questions.
The doctor said if the knife had become dislodged or bumped during
transport, the victim could have died. And had the knife been angled
a quahn Matajcich, Albert Lucero, Raul Rangel, Genaro Villanueva Jr.,
John Reyna, Adrian "Matt" Elkins, James Arviso and Robert
"Bobby" Malone.
The family will receive relatives and friends at 1606 Kit Carson in
Gallup.
Cope Memorial Chapel of Gallup is in charge of arrangements.
Samuel Chiaramonte
FARMINGTON — Prayer services and a rosary for Samuel Gene Chiaramonte,
67, will be held at 9 a.m. Thursday, April 20, at Sacred Heart Cathedral.
Father Jim Walker will officiate. Burial will be in Hillcrest Cemetery
in Gallup.
Chiaramonte died April 17 in Albuquerque. He was born Sept. 8, 1932,
in Gallup.
Chiaramonte was a life member of the Gallup Elks Lodge 1440.
Survivors include his daughter, Carmela Chiaramonte of Hollywood,
Calif.; sons, Kenneth Chiaramonte of Hollywood, Calif., and Ron Silversmith
of Gallup; brother, James K. Chiaramonte of Farmington; sister, Justine
Morris of Farmington; and two grandchildren.
Chiaramonte was preceded in death by his father, Carmelo Chiaramonte;
mother, Margaret Chiaramonte; and sister, Yvonne Fulgenzi.
Pallbearers will be David Chiaramonte, Richard Chiaramonte, Modesto
DeSantis, Kenneth Morris, Amado Olivar and Ray Pino.
Rollie Mortuary of Gallup is in charge of arrangements.
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