Education

Superintendent deal may restart ed reforms

By Jason Begay
Navajo Times

WINDOW ROCK, March 27, 2008

The Navajo Nation has reached a settlement with former Superintendent of Education Tommy Lewis, a move that education officials hope will end eight months of stalemate within the board of education.

A resolution between Lewis and the tribe was alluded to earlier this month when interim Superintendent Mary Helen Kreamer confirmed that the Department of Diné Education had a green light to advertise for a permanent replacement for Lewis.

Lewis was fired by a divided board in August. The Justice Department had warned the agency against advertising until fallout from Lewis' termination was resolved.

"We have reached a settlement with Dr. Lewis," confirmed Andy Ayze (Chinle), chair of the council's Education Committee. "The Department of Justice took the initiative to reach a resolution on behalf of the board of education."

Ayze said he could not release specifics of the settlement with Lewis. Lewis confirmed that he signed a settlement but was instructed by the Department of Justice not to discuss its contents.

Regina Holyan, the staff attorney who advises on education matters, did not respond to requests for comment.

Their silence is consistent with the opacity surrounding Lewis's departure, which began when the board voted 5-4 to fire him. There was no preamble to the move, which surprised almost everyone who was following the implementation of education reforms that Lewis led.

Lewis, who had 30 years of experience in education before taking the superintendent position in July 2006, claimed the board had violated his right to due process because he was not given a chance to respond to its concerns prior to ousting him just a little over a year after it hired him.

He filed a complaint with the Navajo Labor Commission and threatened legal action.

Since then, the board - which includes both political appointees and elected representatives - has been at odds over whether to settle with Lewis, Ayze said.

"There really has been no consensus on the board of education," he said. "Everything has been at a halt for almost eight months."

Ayze's committee is likely to consider revising the education code, which outlines the duties of the education board, particularly its authority to fire the superintendent at will, he said.

"I think we might want to see a line that gives both the board and the Education Committee a say," Ayze said. "The president also wants some authority over the appointment of the new superintendent."

His comment could be construed as evidence of a power struggle between the board and committee, to which Eddie Biakeddy alluded when he resigned as interim superintendent earlier this month. But Ayze rejected the notion.

"There is no power struggle," he said. "Our goal is to work together with the board."

Still, the committee has assumed some hands-on responsibility for implementing changes envisioned by the council when it revamped the education code in 2005, Ayze said. It was necessary if the tribe's education system was to progress during the board's months-long stalemate, he added.

"We had fallen behind by a year and a half," Ayze said. "We needed to move forward rather than stay stuck."

By Ayze's timeline, the DODE should, by now, be well into establishing the tribe's own set of education standards as well as its own test to measure how well schools meet those guidelines, like the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards.

The DODE is also expected to create and enter into cooperative agreements with surrounding state agencies to coordinate standards and testing procedures.

According to the revised education code, the superintendent of education should be the sole leader of the DODE, which itself should function as a state department of education. The board should only meet periodically to monitor progress.

However, the DODE has only recently completed reclassifying its administrative positions, a process that was long held up because a superintendent was not available to approve any revisions.

Jimmy C. Begay, board president, did not respond to requests for comment.

In an interview, Biakeddy said he resigned in part due to his frustration trying to please both oversight entities. At times, it seemed as if the council committee was overreaching its authority and micromanaging the board of education, he said.

But Ayze said the committee had little choice. When asked if he was disappointed in the board, he answered quickly, "Yes."

"The committee felt a lot of frustration," Ayze said. "The board of education did not implement the commitments the members swore to uphold."

So the committee started working with teachers and school administrators to update curriculum and otherwise satisfy the federal No Child Left Behind Act, as should have been done by the board, he said.

"Rather than implement (these programs) what happened was they started picking on one another (about Lewis' termination)," Ayze said.

Now that the Lewis complaint has been settled, Ayze said at least one board member has said board members are ready to work together.

"So far, that's only hearsay from one member," said Raymond Maxx (Coalmine Canyon/T—h Nanees Diz’), vice chair of the Education Committee. "We haven't received word from the whole board that it's back together."

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