A Navajo Nation school near Albuquerque working against years of flooding and deteriorating classrooms is getting some good news.
To’Hajiilee Community School is receiving more than $9 million in federal funding to replace the old building and put it in a better location, KRGE reported.
The school was built in 1935 on a floodplain, bringing decades of flooding, the story said. School leaders had to fix cracked walls in classrooms, and buses have struggled to navigate through pools of water.
“We’ve done our best to do the repairs and the patches as much as we possibly can but I think we are pretty much at a breaking point where it was really starting to impact the focus and study of the students and the teachers and the staff," Paulene Abeyta, vice president of To’Hajiilee Community School Board of Education, told KRGE.
U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) helped lead the efforts to secure the funds this past December for the school that serves more than 300 Navajo students in grades K-12, Abeyta said.
“When they heard the news about the new school they were so excited, they were happy, they were asking tons of questions," said Abetya. "You know I think it was a little too exciting where they thought that they might be starting there the following day."
School leaders are considering ways the new school could be an improvement over the old one. One proposal would separate the elementary, middle, and high school grade levels, instead of having all grades together.
This could mean the new school would offer more jobs, including employment opportunities for tribal members returning to the community, with the possibility of energy-efficient models.
“I’m excited to see this opportunity for our community and for other Native nations to see what’s possible when you work together with tribal, state, and federal leaders," said Abyeta.
School board leaders don’t have a concrete timeline but hope to have construction approvals done within the next few months, the story said.