Shoshone-Bannock Jr./Sr. High School transitioning under BIE
From left, Hank Edmo-McArthur, Jessica Matsaw and Jonathan Braack.
By DANA HERNANDEZ
Sho-Ban News
FORT HALL — The Shoshone-Bannock Jr./Sr. High School is transitioning from a tribally controlled school to a school that will be ran under the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), the BIE is a division of the US Department of the Interior.
“The new transition will allow SBHS to remain with the tribes and the school board, it is just changing the funding source,” said Operations Manager Hank Edmo-McArthur. He also explained that being under the BIE the school will receive funds directly instead of getting amendments, which come from the tribes’ government system.
Edmo-McArthur said a lot of this came about and has been discussed for years due to the advantages it brings. The state of Idaho had begun discussing teacher minimum pay and two years ago the state began the veteran teacher pay and if a teacher has been there a couple of years they reorganized their pay.
SBHS was ranked 48 in the U.S. teacher pay rate and we told the school board all along that this is coming and that we have to reorganize our structure to make that new pay scale and it was easier for us to become under the bureau operations. Now, that SBHS is becoming a Bureau operated school they exceed the state of Idaho’s minimum teacher pay by $5,000. Edmo-McArthur said, “So, now when teachers come here we can actually offer them starting pay right off the bat of $45,000.”
The teachers in the state of Idaho have what is called a Persi, which is a pension plan and SBHS didn’t offer that and has discouraged teachers who were interested in positions and were comparing offers from other districts that had Persi accounts.
“For us to try and recruit teachers from Blackfoot or Pocatello was severe competition because we had lower starting salaries and no Persi account. Now with the Bureau SBHS can go across the whole entire nation. “We might be able to recruit some of those Native American teachers from a different reservation. So, it just gives us a bigger and wider reach and there is just all sorts of advantages to this,” said Edmo-McArthur.
SBHS Superintendent and Principal, Jonathan Braack said being a BIE school they are going to be able to come in and offer starting this summer or even this year a higher teacher pay than the state. “That it immediately makes us a competitive district in Idaho,” said Braack.
He went on to explain they can market and can start bringing in high quality teaching applicants and they want to pay well trained, well educated, experienced teachers. “This helps us jump ahead of the game and my guess is we’ll have the applicants that are looking for the prestigious districts applying for us now. Simply because of our salary and benefits package,” said Braack.
He also said that for at least 7-8 years there has been a teacher shortage in Idaho, meaning you cannot find a qualified school teacher regardless of what school district you are in. SBHS is going to build a circumvent and get around the teacher shortage in Idaho as a Bureau school district. “We’re going to be marketable for the first time ever. We have a very real dedication to hiring as many Native staff as we can, classified and certified. The more we can have here working with our students, the better. We have and are going to have teachers of all races here because when they come here they’re going to realize they are on the reservation and we’re all a guest.” said Braack.
He went on to explain that because of federal funding they can close the gap between highly trained and well experienced improvement focused teachers versus those that are just looking for a job. SBHS has been blessed over the years to have employees here who will do the work regardless of what they get paid because they really do love the students. “There is a direct correlation to the kind of education the kids get. Having said that, we have staff here right now who have been here because they love the kids. Those staff are going to stay and are finally going to get what they deserve as far as compensation and federal benefits, and retirement that they can actually start putting into,” explained Braack.
Edmo-McArthur said, “it’s not just the teachers, but it’s really all of our staff like our bus drivers that make us a big family, hence our motto, “we are a small school, but a big family.” A lot of our other staff will get pay increases as well. This contributes to our staff being able to having more money to go out in the community to purchase at local stores and from local Native artists. Our goal was to make sure our staff can work here as long as they can, and now we can help our staff with a retirement. Our staff’s future is what we want to take care of and will be one of our benefits.”
The transition also helps SBHS restructure everything and is kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity for them to start over. In the next few months SBHS will offer the federal government what they see as the best package for education and they will hold them to it. “So not only are we going to be able to keep or bring in and retain highly qualified staff, we get the shot to build the program and the school with the latest research, latest tribal country and tribal school research on teaching math, language arts, science, language, and culture and pull that in here and redesign it,” said Braack.
SBHS staff will all be on the same page at the beginning of school year because they’re all going to be at the table planning it in the next few months. Braack stated, “redesign is an opportunity to start over and everybody is here because they want to be. So that’s why we are so excited and we’re going to start involving the community in the discussions. What we’re going to do is we’re going to follow best practice for organizational development and design for our native school. We’re going to give the BIE over the next coming months our school model and we’re going to do it through a strategic plan. The reason is because it covers everything and more that the Bureau is asking for us in our new school. It helps us identify what our core focuses are in our school district. The top five in a district usually are governance and leadership, everything learning, school culture, school finance, and parent/community involvement. Then we’ll have a very explicit goal statement that is measurable and is something that we can achieve with each of these five and this is where in the plan we say here’s the things we’re doing to make it happen.”
He also said the Bureau says, “tell us what you want us to hold you accountable to, give us your school model and we’ll figure out how to fund it so this will also let us know what kind of positions that we need for the Bureau to approve for us to have on the campus.”
In the past SBHS has hired teachers as emergency hires through the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence (ABCTE) program which allows a person to earn an Idaho teaching certificate through the American Board online program. At least a quarter of their teachers were participating in this program.
This happens a lot in Idaho and is just a measure the state has taken to fill the teacher shortage in Idaho. “Usually the grand majority of SBHS teachers have been certified and went through education programs and received a teaching credential linked to a college teaching program and when we switch to the federally Bureau operated school there going to tell us, you need to hire certified people,” said Braack.
“It’s not to weed out people who are not qualified but it’s also sending a message over the course of this year and its branding us a district that is up here, we’re looking to put together an A team of qualified people and this is our chance to do it because there is a learning gap when you bring in an educator who is on that alternative route. We’ve been fortunate here over the years with our ABCTE teachers, they are fantastic and I can think of three staff right now who are teaching and went through that alternative authorization and they’re the best teachers that I have seen, so it depends on the person,” say Braack.
Curriculum is being developed, Brack said they are developing a professional learning community (PLC) process which started last week and will continue working on it through until the end of the year. They are breaking up their teaching staff and paraprofessionals into the five content areas from math to Shoshoni language and culture, they will be working in groups over the coming months and will look at what curriculum is being taught and what is not being taught. “We did this a few years ago, but we got to go back and do it again because sometimes somethings fall off the side. Yes, curriculum is going to be developed, revised, retained, in all these five content areas that cover every single class. Then they’re going to go in to look at how their teaching that and because their going to be working in teams they’ll be having constant conversations with each other about their craft about what is working well and what needs to be improved,” said Braack.
Edmo-McArthur said the FHBC supported the transition but wanted them to remain vigilant and focused on the language classes and to continue their tribal government classes that they started just this year. “We feel that it’s really important and we feel these two things alone make our school unique and students can’t get that in Pocatello and Blackfoot. Our history and our students are going to learn that right here on campus. That is something that sets us apart and I am glad the FHBC said this,” said Edmo-McArthur.
SBHS also wants to focus on their technical trade classes. Edmo-McArthur said it can get complicated and that technical trades doesn’t always mean welding or automotive classes, but it could also be coding for computers or graphic design. “When our kids graduate we want them to look at what jobs are out there. The Bureau is so willing to work with us, they love that we have a plan already. I really think it’s going to be a huge benefit for the community,” said Edmo-McArthur.
