Navajo community wins fight to replace crumbling campus
TO’HAJIILEE, N.M. — A school tucked into the sandstone cliffs and juniperdotted mesas of central New Mexico is fortified on one side by a wall of sandbags and an earthen berm. On the other side, melting snow puddles along the edges of classrooms.
Inside, caulking, paint and metal plates hide the cracks that have formed over decades in the block walls. With each rainstorm, the nearly centuryold To’Hajiilee Community School on the fringes of the Navajo Nation sinks further into the ground.
The layers of bandages won’t have to hold much longer. Residents of the small community off Interstate 40 recently learned that after years of raising flags about the school that lies in a floodplain, the latest federal budget included $90 million for a new campus.
“It’s just unbelievable that we would ever have anything that great happen,” said Paulene Abeyta, a mother and vice president of the school board.
To’Hajiilee Community School is just one of about 80 schools funded by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Education that are in desperate need of repair or replacement. The agency’s priorities stretch across the country with schools in Maine, Wisconsin, North Dakota, New Mexico, Arizona and Washington.
The price tag tops $6.2 billion, and the wait is long.
To’Hajiilee would not have been moved up the priority list last year if not for a community campaign driven by stories of flooded classrooms and playgrounds, relentless calls to Washington, D.C., and invitations for decision-makers to see it in person. Otherwise, another decade would have passed and another generation of students would have walked the same halls.
“When you see the kids here today and the talent and just the excitement, you think about how limitless the opportunities are for kids if they can just focus on becoming the people that they were meant to be and not have to deal with crumbling classrooms,” said U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico.
Stansbury joined school officials, students and parents earlier this month to celebrate the funding. While it puts only a small dent in the bureau’s backlog, she said it will mark a new era for the Navajo community.
Officials hope to break ground in about a year. Already, Abeyta charged the students with dreaming big.
That means softball fields free of prickly weeds, and ant piles, water bottle filling stations, a gym with long bleachers and a big scoreboard, toilets that flush, motion-sensing sinks, well-equipped classrooms for art and woodworking, a music room filled with instruments and a culinary program with big ovens.
School administrator Willinda Castillo said community input will be vital to ensuring success.
“The school is, I think, the heart of this community,” she said.
Generations of To’Hajiilee students have learned Navajo history and language in the school. Plaques outside classroom doors display the grade and subjects taught in Navajo, or Diné. Murals adorn hallways and posters remind students and teachers to integrate Diné as often as possible.
Many of the students at the recent celebration wore traditional clothing while members of the senior class danced and performed a blessing way song.