Briggs: Indian Ed grants at risk, By LISA KACZKE, Staff Writer

Issues surround compliance for Indian Education grants

Falls High School Indian Education students lined the side of the cafeteria Monday as they took turns describing how the program has helped them succeed in the school district.
About 40 students and parents attended the meeting in support of the program. Robert Horton of Rainy River First Nations also spoke in the meeting to stand in solidarity with program staff. Susan Boyle, former board member, also aligned the frustrations felt by the program staff to the frustrations felt by the community about the Falls School Board’s lack of discussion on hard issues.
The Falls school district is not in compliance with requirements of state and federal grants, which fund the Indian Education program, program director Dianne Briggs told the Fall School Board. Because of the noncompliance, the district is in jeopardy of losing the funding, according to Briggs.
Briggs also told the board of an alleged “personal attack on the director.”
Briggs called the noncompliance a “deplorable shortcoming” and an “injustice to the indigenous people in International Falls.”
District administration is attempting to change the program, Briggs said, noting that the changes will affect the students.
Administration should follow the law and “listen to the voices of the American Indian people,” Briggs said.
The Minnesota Success for the Future grant and the Title VII grant need to be reviewed by Briggs and the program’s parent committee, according to Minnesota law. The grants were submitted without the knowledge of Briggs or the committee, Briggs said.
The grants were up for approval by the school board at Monday’s meeting, but were deferred to the board’s August meeting because of pending questions surrounding the issue and Superintendent Don Langan’s absence at Monday’s meeting. Langan’s absence is due to his attendance at an educational conference in England.
Students described how program staff have helped them with their school work and home issues. The Indian Education program combines education, social and cultural awareness.
“My mom died a year and a half ago and they were there. Then my dad died,” one student said. “I need this program to graduate. A lot of us do.”
Another student told the board that after she had a baby four months ago, she has continued with her education with the help of Briggs. Without the program, she said she wouldn’t have returned to school.
Horton echoed the importance of programs such as the one at FHS, pointing out that Indian people have the lowest rates of high school and college completion.
“It means the success for our young people,” Horton said.
Tammi Jones, who sits on the parent committee, said the administration is not taking the time to learn about the district’s program, which is state and nationally recognized. There is a lack of respect for the program, she said.
Every child is cared for in the program, Jones said. A student feeling good about being Indian leads to the student doing well in school, she explained. Parents fight for the program because they want their children in the program, she said.
The issue of the noncompliance of the grants has come before the board before, Boyle said. She wondered what information the board has received about the program. It is an “excellent program, one of the best Anishinaabe programs for youth,” she said, questioning why the board was not reaching out to people in the program.
International Falls is a unique area at a unique time, with available grants, concerns about language preservation and the connection to bands in Canada, Boyle said. The district could build a premier Indian Education program, she said.
The frustrations felt by the Indian Education program staff echo the frustrations felt by the community with a number of issues, Boyle said. The community has a lack of knowledge about what is going on at the Falls School Board because there is a lack of business that happens at the board table during a meeting, she said.
“If you don’t discuss it at the table, it’s hard for the community to know where you stand on any of the issues,” Boyle said.