By JONAH LOSSIAH
One Feather Staff
The Cherokee Central Schools (CCS) Board of Education hosted several guests to their meeting on Monday, Aug. 15.
Among those guests was Consie Girty, director of the Hope Center and Pre-K with CCS. She said that their program just received a big boost for material development.
“Our brand-new phase program was selected as one of eleven of the 53 phase sites across the nation, to be able to receive $62,160 to combine with Unite For Literacy to develop our own books. We will get to produce Cherokee books with Cherokee faces and Cherokee places and Cherokee language. And we’re getting the money to do it. When I got that, I was just thrilled,” said Girty.
“We just got that grant for like $289,000 to fund that phase program last year. And we were selected in our prime year. Our girls, I’m not going to lie, they worked their tails off.”
Howard Wahnetah attended the meeting to give a general update on finances for the Board. It was the last monthly financial report for School Year 2021-22. He said that everything was in order and the last pieces were falling in place.
Superintendent Michael Murray followed this report discussing his meeting with Tribal Council to discuss the CCS budget for SY 2022-23. He said along with the general discussion, he made sure to offer some details on the water damage issues that are continuing to hinder construction on campus.
“I thought it would be unfair not to mention the water intrusion stuff. I updated them with where we’re at with that. It’ll probably be Christmas before we finally have everything identified and a fix in place. Then we’ll come to [Tribal Council] with a dollar figure. I have absolutely no idea or else I would’ve told them that it was going to cost ‘x’ amount,” said Dr. Murray.
The plan at the moment is to get the full report from Terracon on the damages and to progress with the necessary repairs. Superintendent Murray did say that the legal issue is still on the table, but that fixing the buildings must be handled first. This was something that was expanded upon by CCS Attorney John Henning.
“Regardless of whether you can win a lawsuit or not, you’ll have an obligation to mitigate damages. You can’t know something has gone wrong and sit there and let it get worse and not do your best to try to fix it. There comes a point where you have to go on and fix it in whatever condition it’s in. Get it back to where it needs to be, and then pursue relief for that. Just because there might be a lawsuit, there’s never going to be a good reason to not go on and apply the fix now.”
Blake Smith, an intern with Northwestern Mutual, was another guest to the Board meeting. Smith is a former CCS student and will be starting his own practice through the internship with Northwestern Mutual.
“They do wealth management, retirement planning, and some basic insurance planning. I really see the value in coming and giving talks to the kids and showing them the opportunity that they’re given with the money they get. Just working with people outside of Cherokee, you never really realize how much opportunity you’re given until you see how they built their lives. I feel so much ahead, and I’d love to get the opportunity to show the kids to show how ahead they really are if they took advantage of it,” said Smith.
The Board applauded Smith for thinking of his community and offered names for him to contact at the school. They said they would be happy to facilitate his efforts at CCS. Chairperson Jennifer Thompson said that to have Smith talk to CCS students could be a wonderful chance to have a peer that they respect come back to educate and help, especially considering Smith graduated from Cherokee High School in 2019.
Henning also spoke with the Board about an update to Policy 4353, which addresses long term suspensions at CCS. The Board had previously held conversation on the subject so that they could work on the issue with Henning and Tribal Council Rep. T.W. Saunooke. Rep. Saunooke said that Council would be happy to work with the Board to implement the amendment to policy, which adjusts it to match that of the state. Henning said that he would be submitting his work soon in order to get it to Tribal Council as soon as possible.
The consent agenda was passed with one amendment. The Board withheld one resolution, to approve Margaret Robinson as a substitute teacher, for discussion in closed session. That item was also passed following the closed session. The approval of the consent agenda put forth the following:
- Mary Bryson is approved as the 8-hour food service worker for Cherokee Central Schools.
- Sally Bryson is approved as the 6-hour food service worker for Cherokee Central Schools.
- Charlene Rodriguez is approved as the 4-hour food service worker for Cherokee Central Schools.
- Cheryl Maney is approved as the 4-hour food service worker for Cherokee Central Schools.
- Joshua Driver is approved as the 4-hour food service worker for Cherokee Central Schools.
- Stephen Blankenship is approved as a high school auto mechanics teacher for Cherokee High School.
- Ashley Teesateskie is approved as a Cherokee Language instructor for the Cherokee Cultural Department.
- Mariah Crow is approved an increase to Level 5 at her current step for School Year 2022/2023.
- Randall Saunooke is approved as part-time security for Cherokee Central School.
- Heather Saunooke is approved as the Elementary Social Emotional Learning consultant for Cherokee Elementary School.
- Kimmemelah Perkins is approved as a substitute teacher for Cherokee Central School.
The Monday, Aug. 15 meeting of the CCS Board of Education was called to order at 4:45 p.m. with Chairperson Jennifer Thompson; Co-Vice Chairs Tara Reed-Cooper and Melanie Lambert; Secretary Kristina Hyatt; Board members Berdie Toineeta and Regina Ledford Rosario; Tribal Council Rep. T.W. Saunooke; Superintendent Michael Murray; Assistant Superintendent Beverley Payne; HR Director Heather Driver; CCS Attorney John Henning of Campbell Shatley, PLLC; and Administrative Assistant Diane Driver all in attendance.
The next meeting of the CCS Board of Education is set for Monday, Sept. 5 at 4:45 p.m. Meetings are being held in the Administrative Offices at Cherokee Central Schools. These meetings are open to the public unless there is a call for an executive session.
