Education

Interim ed boss decides to resign

By Jason Begay
Navajo Times

WINDOW ROCK, March 20, 2008

After two months stretched into seven, a period in which little was done to relieve his position, Eddie Biakeddy, the Navajo Nation's interim superintendent of education, has resigned.

Biakeddy, who was appointed interim superintendent in August, officially resigned Friday after holding down two jobs for more than seven months.

He continued to serve as deputy superintendent of education while leading the Department of Diné Education at the same time.

Biakeddy thought his appointment as interim head would only last a couple of months, but by winter it became clear that little was being done to fill the spot permanently, he said.

"Even back in December and January, I told the Navajo Nation Board of Education that they need to begin actively seeking and pushing toward finding a superintendent," Biakeddy said in an interview. "Even just an acting one, that way I could remain in my deputy position.

"They were not moving forward with that."

Biakeddy, a 30-year veteran of tribal education, was tapped to replace Tommy Lewis, the tribe's first superintendent of education, who was fired in August. Lewis subsequently filed a grievance claiming that he was denied due process.

Biakeddy's departure is the latest event in the turmoil that has plagued the department since Lewis's termination. Since then, the board of education has lost two of its members and at least some goodwill from other governmental entities.

However, in the wake of his resignation, it seems that wheels have begun moving.

Mary Helen Creamer, who was appointed interim superintendent, confirmed that the education department would soon begin advertising the superintendent position.

This could be an indication that a settlement between the board and Lewis is at hand. The tribe's Department of Justice had instructed the education department to cease advertising for someone to replace him until the matter was resolved.

The Navajo Nation Council's Education Committee has met with the board of education, the Justice Department and President Joe Shirley Jr. in two separate closed sessions in the past two weeks.

The committee is scheduled to meet again Tuesday, March 25, and is expected to discuss the superintendent issue once again.

Despite this, Biakeddy said he has no intention of reconsidering his resignation.

In fact, his official reason for leaving - because the required evaluation of his deputy superintendent position was stalled - has been resolved. The position has been reclassified and he was invited to apply for it.

"I didn't want to because of the very political nature of it," Biakeddy said. "It's pretty stressful having to deal with two entities, the board and the Education Committee."

Biakeddy barely hid his frustrations. He said both the school board and council committee had differing demands on the education department.

"The committee would try to meddle in the board's business a lot of times," Biakeddy said. "I don't know if it was a power struggle, but that's the way that I saw it. We were kind of caught in the middle of all that."

The board of education was created when the council voted to revise the tribal education code in 2005. The changes reorganized and renamed the tribe's agency overseeing education from the Division of Diné Education to the Department of Diné Education, created a board of education, and the position of superintendent of schools.

The intent was to create an education department that would serve the same purpose for reservation schools that a state department serves for public schools.

The department also is supposed to foster the teaching of Navajo culture and oversee a transition from the European Industrial Age model of education to a system that is based on Navajo values and teaching methods.

Under the plan, the school board hires the superintendent, oversees the department, and must ensure that the law's goals are achieved.

Plans for the revised education code have included development of the tribe's own standards-based exams and a system to assess yearly progress among schools.

However, the plan has been stalled, first by the revolving-door membership of the board and then by the firing of Lewis a little over a year after the board hired him.

Since then, department projects have been at a near standstill as the board struggled internally over Lewis' dismissal. The board split 4-5 on the decision to fire him, and has remained divided since then.

In the meantime, Creamer, a program manager in the department, has been selected to lead it until a superintendent is hired.

Creamer holds a master's in education from Harvard University and a bachelor's in education from Arizona State University. She served as director of the Division of Diné Education from 1983 to 1987 and as education program manager in the department since 2003.

Creamer also served on the team that helped revise the tribe's education code in 2005.

In a statement released Wednesday, Creamer sounded a lot like Biakeddy did in August.

"My appointment as acting superintendent of schools will be very brief," Creamer stated. "As soon as the board of education appoints a new superintendent, my appointment will end. We are going forward with the goals and objectives of the Department of Diné Education."

Biakeddy said he plans to take it easy for a couple of weeks before looking for another job, "something low profile."

"I don't want to be dealing with reporting to government entities," he said.

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