Schools

Native American Student Program Canceled, Program Assistant Laid Off

The Title VII Indian Education program lost complete funding for the year, after someone from the school district missed filing its grant application on time. The district also voted at Tuesday's meeting to lay off the program assistant, Keya Pipeboy.

Though they may make up a small percentage of the community, if you take away their kids' educational programs, they will appear in numbers.

Several Native American parents, students and community members from San Lorenzo showed up at Tuesday's school board meeting with one goal in mind: to get back the Title VII Indian Education program.

The program recently lost all funding for the 2011-2012 school year after the grant application forms were not filed on time by the school district.

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At Tuesday's meeting, board members seemed just as upset over the loss of the program.

"Somebody didn't do their job," said board member Isabel Polvorosa.

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But who that was, the board could not exactly say.

"We're still trying to sort all this out," Superintendent Dennis Byas said. "We're not dead with this whole thing."

He said he is currently in the process of completing the review for an appeal and will hopefully be able to "put all of the pieces together within the next two weeks." 

For over 30 years, the federally funded program, amended under the No Child Left Behind Act, has educated local Native American students on their culture and history through field trips, tutoring and after-school activities.

According Lisa Young, president of the program's parents' committee, a few red flags popped up prior to the program's cancellation. One of the biggest was the lack of notification for program organizers in regard to present funding.

"We [at one point] had to return $4,000 [to the government] because we were told there was no funding for our tutoring program," Young said. "But in fact, the money was there. The problem was that no one told us it was there."

Young's daughter, Victoria Partida Young, went through 12 years of the program. Aside from helping her excel in reading and better understand her culture, she credits it for her college acceptance. She'll be attending U.C. Irvine this fall. 

"It's not just an arts and crafts program," Victoria said. "It's given me a sense of identity growing up."

If the program is not reinstated, Victoria's younger siblings will lose out on the program that has helped her succeed. They will also miss the chance of being mentored by Keya Pipeboy, a program assistant with Title VII for nearly three years who has gained substantial community support.

Those who came to speak out about the loss of the program also urged board members to reconsider their unanimous vote to lay off Pipeboy because of the lack of funding.

"He helped [Victoria] out so much — with school and scholarships — it's just such a shame to see this happen," Young said.


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