Parents want voices heard in Ganado
Say school administration balked on community forum

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Karen Francis
Diné Bureau

GANADO — When the Navajo Nation Council’s Education Committee directed the Ganado Unified School District superintendent and board to hold a public community forum by the end of December, parents who testified before the committee thought some of their concerns would be addressed by the district.

“For us, we thought it was really going to take place and maybe we were going to get somewhere,” Amber Wauneka of the Concerned Parent Coalition said.

However, December came and went and no forum was held. In fact, Superintendent Deborah Dennison appears to have no intention of holding the community forum. 

“Only the Governing Board has the sole authority to give directives,” Dennison stated in an e-mail response to an inquiry about the date of the forum.

“Ganado USD 20 is not under the authority of the Navajo Nation Education Committee and although we respect their recommendations, we do not take directives from this group,” Dennison continued.

A group of parents and community members formed the Concerned Parent Coalition last year, which had circulated petitions to not renew Dennison’s contract and to remove Ganado High School Principal Emily Arviso. Their complaints include lack of communication from the district, racism, favoritism and retaliation against employees and violence in the school that goes unreported.

In November, the board sided with Dennison and Arviso, and the coalition took its concerns to the Navajo Nation in December.

Wauneka said that the coalition had confidence the district would fulfill the directive and the group ceased its attempts to oust school administrators and board members.

“We waited that 30 day period and because the meeting never took place we started again with our efforts,” Wauneka said.

Now parents have demonstrated in front of the Ganado High School and the district offices. Members of the coalition are also seeking to recall four of the five board members.

Education Committee member and Ganado and Kinlichee Council Delegate Willie Tracey Jr. said that the Ganado district administration and board were directed by the committee on Dec. 3 to host the meeting to re-establish ke’, or harmony, which had been disturbed.

“... but the board and superintendent decide to shy behind their legal counsel’s advisement not to have such a meeting,” Tracey stated. “How will everyone ever effectively practice open communication when one tends to use the law to establish imaginary boundaries?”

In a Jan. 9 letter to Education Committee Chairperson Andy Ayze, Dennison said that she believes the Concerned Parent Coalition is related to an incident last year when a basketball coach, who is no longer employed by the district, used a racial slur when speaking to players during a game.

“Although the Governing Board and my administrative team did all we could to resolve this matter, one family, in particular, would not accept any of our efforts,” she wrote in the letter to Ayze. “The dissatisfaction from this family is what appears to have now prompted a ‘coalition’ of a few other dissatisfied people who have now become the ‘concerned citizens’ group.”

Dennison had filed a protection order last year against the parent of one of the players on the team who sought an apology and counseling for those who were affected. The parent had accused Dennison of false imprisonment when she met with him to discuss the issue.

Two days after the Education Committee meeting, Dennison and the family tried to resolve the matter in Navajo Peacemaker Court, but there was no resolution after five hours, she wrote in the letter to Ayze. The peacemaker court recommended that the protection order be maintained, Dennison stated.

“At this point this School District has spent an inordinate amount of time trying to resolve the issues with this family and to correct the malicious and untrue statements being circulated by the ‘Concerned Parent Coalition,’” she wrote. “It is very clear that these individuals have no intention of trying to become part of our educational team nor to promote a high quality educational program for our students in Ganado.”

“I look forward to continue building ‘professional learning communities’ with the parents of Ganado and the surrounding communities, as well as with the Navajo Education Committee for the purpose of striving and achieving even greater successes,” she wrote. “As superintendent I believe I have done all I can with regard to the ‘Concerned Parent Coalition’ matter.”

However, Tracey asked why Dennison wrote three pages on the issue while simultaneously stressing she has other urgent issues to address that more are more important.

“Secondly, superintendent on record before the Education Committee stated that the ‘protection order’ was lifted long ago and nothing was intact at the time she appeared before the Committee. Her Jan. 9th letter depicts that Navajo Peacemaker Court on Dec. 5 (recommended the) protection order be maintained. Does that mean she lied before the Committee?” he asked.

Wauneka, a former employee of the district, said that the Concerned Parent Coalition will continue its efforts and will go before the Education Committee again.

“To us it feels like she doesn’t take it seriously,” she said.

“We want the Navajo tribal government to have a say in what goes on in the school district because there’s situations like that have arised in other school districts… so if our superintendent or administrative people are abusing their power, like we say Dr. Dennison is, they would be able to come in and do an investigation.”

As it is now, Marietta Yazzie, also a part of the Concerned Parent Coalition and the sister of the parent that Dennison filed a protection order against, feels that Dennison believes she doesn’t have to answer to anyone.

“That’s not good leadership, period,” Yazzie said. “I feel her priority is not the students, not the community.”

Dennison, however, pointed out in the letter to Ayze that the school district held a governing board meeting in November to update the school district’s stakeholders on the educational program.