School Planned For Native Americans District 81 Hopes Proposed Academy Will Reverse Dropout Trend

Spokane educators watch the statistics with alarm.

Native American students drop out of school at two to three times the rate of other Spokane School District 81 students.

They are disciplined far more than most children. They miss more school days than any other racial group does.

Year after year, the numbers barely change. Now, educators are banking on the Spokane Medicine Wheel Academy to reverse the trend.

The academy, proposed to open next fall, would be the district’s first school primarily for students from a single race.

While other students wouldn’t be barred from the school, educators would recruit children with a strong interest in Native American culture, said Larry Parsons, area director for northeast Spokane schools.

Organizers will ask school board members to approve the plan - which includes a heavy emphasis on Native American culture - Wednesday night.

They expect to face critics who say Native Americans are being singled out for special attention which isn’t available to students of other racial minorities.

Some principals worry their predominantly white schools will become even more racially bland if the academy lures away their Indian students.

But proponents say they need to make the dramatic effort to salvage students who have failed in other schools.

“We’re responding to a cry to do something different than we’ve been doing,” said Parsons. “Doing nothing is unacceptable.”

The proposal calls for the Medicine Wheel Academy to initially recruit 25 dropouts from grades 7 to 12 and to have a $150,000 annual budget for two teachers and supplies. Proponents hope the school will grow to include hundreds of children in all grades.

Teachers would use creative, hands-on methods to educate students in both traditional subjects, such as math and English, and in Native American culture, including languages, arts and dancing.

Toni Lodge, who helped plan the academy, said many Indian parents believe the school could help struggling students succeed in school and in future careers.

“It can give them a sense of belonging, a place to be, and a really healthy, positive, loving environment,” said Lodge, director of The NATIVE Project in Spokane. “That’s sometimes not how public schools are for our kids.”

During the first year, potential students would be interviewed and only dropouts who are committed to giving public schools another try would be accepted.

That’s partly because district policy says schools can’t budget extra money on alternative programs. By recruiting dropouts, the district also would attract state tax money that follows each student.

That money, in turn, would be used to pay for the program - including supplies and salaries for two teachers, Parsons said.

Space won’t cost anything extra because the school initially would be housed in two classrooms at Bancroft Center in north Spokane. Those rooms already are being used for an after-school Indian program.

Some principals worry the academy eventually would lure away the few minority students they have in their schools.

But Tom Tremaine, a Spokane attorney who helped plan the academy, says the district is losing many of those students anyway.

“When you look at the dropout rates, the diversity is leaving the schools anyway,” Tremaine said. “This is a way of bringing those students back in.”

If board members approve the proposal, Lodge predicts another bonus - the resurrection of waning Native American traditions.

“I think we as Indian people just feel so strongly that what little we have left needs to be preserved,” said Lodge. “The public school system has not helped us in that process.

“If they want to see an Indian dancer in 50 years, we have to teach the Indian children now. If you want your children to know what Indian art, music or language is about, we have to teach our children now.”

, DataTimes