Tribally-operated school will open Aug. 26

By Katherine Warren

Smoke Signals staff

After many years, a dream has come to fruition for some Grand Ronde Tribal members: Their own school.

The first day of the new, Tribally-operated school will be Monday, Aug. 26, with the kindergarten class. First through fifth graders will start Tuesday, Sept. 3.

Although this has been discussed for several years, concerted efforts to open the school began in the spring and have been ongoing since. 

On July 2, Education Department Manager Angela Fasana; Curriculum Specialist Cheyanne Fasana-Heidt and Shawash Academic Teacher Adam Langley sat down with Tribal Council to give an update about where they were at with Tribally-operated school.

Fasana-Heidt shared that they were getting ready to do interviews for a math and science teacher and were hoping to have someone hired by the end of the month.

The next update involved curriculum development. As of July, 24 of 40 lessons for literacy were completed. To put this in the sense of a school year, curriculum is completed through January.

Literacy and health curriculum was created by Education Department employees and math/science are from outside sources. Math is from Discover Wild Learning and titled, “Wild Math.” Science is from Science Through Nature and is titled, “A Year Discovery” and those were translated into Chinuk Wawa.

The math/science program is nature/outdoor based on the seasonal round model and includes hands-on activities.

In early August, Fasana, Fasana-Heidt and Chinuk Wawa Education Program Manager Justine Flynn sat down with Tribal Council to give another update.

Fasana-Heidt shared with them that a math and science teacher had been hired and was developing weekly assignments.

“We are back to the drawing board about whether or not to hire a special ed assistant or teacher,” she said.

The last staff that they have hired as of right now is a physical education/health coach.

On the curriculum front, 32 of the 40 lessons for literacy will be finalized on Aug. 21, according to Fasana-Heidt.

Health, math, social studies and science are in the process of being translated into Chinuk Wawa. Literacy and science will include opportunities for the other subjects to be blended in as well.

One of the questions that was asked by Tribal Council was who is doing the translations of the curriculum. Fasana-Heidt shared that it’s a combination of people such as herself, Flynn, Langley and others.

The next update that was shared was for policies and procedures, which are more than 75% done and have been approved. Six policies have been drafted and under review with the committee, before being finalized and submitted to the Tribe’s legal department as well as the general manager.

The final item that was talked about was becoming a charter school or local education agency, which means the Tribe becoming its own school district.

Fasana shared with Tribal Council that she is looking at whether it’s possible to become a local education agency and what that would look like.

For more information about the Tribally-operated school, contact Flynn at Justine.flynn@grandronde.org.