Rep. Stansbury, To’Hajiilee Community Celebrate $90.4 Million to Replace the To’Hajiilee Community School
In partnership with community leaders from the To’Hajiilee Chapter of the Navajo Nation, Rep. Stansbury secured $90.4 million to replace and rebuild the To’Hajiilee Community School in the FY 2023 Budget.
TO’HAJIILEE, N.M.–Today, U.S. Representative Melanie Stansbury (N.M.-01) joined students, teachers, administrators, and school board members of the To’Hajiilee Community School to celebrate $90.4 million they secured in the FY 2023 Budget to replace the To’Hajiilee Community School. The school, originally constructed in a floodplain as a government boarding school, has experienced regular and dangerous flooding that has interfered with classroom activities.
Rep. Stansbury has been fighting for funding to build a new facility for the To’Hajiilee Community School (TCS) since she was sworn into office in June 2021. During budget negotiations in August 2021, she led efforts to expand Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) funding and personally fought to ensure this $90.4 million for To’Hajiilee was included in the FY2023 Budget in December.
“For years, the To’Hajiilee community has sounded the alarm on dangerous and unacceptable conditions at the To’Hajiilee Community School and the federal government has failed to prioritize and meet its moral, trust, and treaty obligations to this community and others served by the Bureau of Indian Education,” said Rep. Stansbury. “Funding to replace this school of will enable To’Hajiilee to build a state-of-the-art facility to serve the community and students for generations to come. I am deeply proud to have helped secure this funding and thank everyone at home and in Congress who helped to make it possible. School funding helps transform lives.”
“As Vice President of To’Hajiilee Navajo Community, I would like to give thanks to Congresswoman, Melanie Stanbury and her Staff for advocating on behalf of To’Hajiilee Navajo Community, as well as the rest of the working Legislators in Washington, D.C., for their hard work and working diligently to approve $90.4 Million dollars for a new school for our To’Hajiilee Navajo Scholars,” said Nora J. Morris, Vice President of the Cañoncito Band of Navajos. “We all have been working alongside local government leaders and To’Hajiilee Navajo Community School Board, Inc., and meeting with the Governmental Agency and Delegation advocating for funding for our school. We will continually work together as one team to make this happen. This is the greatest news in a long time for the People of To'Hajiilee, a new school. Thank you so much on behalf of our children, as we know they will be very excited and happy, as we all prayed for our children to be safe and warm in standardized buildings. Our Children deserve a new school, and we appreciate the funding and all your help. Ahéhee'.”
“I am excited and relieved that our children, teachers, and staff will soon have a new, safe, and beautiful school to grow in for generations to come. Support for this was not overnight! We invited anyone and everyone willing to listen and visit our campus so that we could show them the rapidly deteriorating foundation, the excessive damage from multiple floodings, and the shifting walls,” said To’Hajiilee Community School Board Vice President Paulene Abeyta. “Visitors would leave our campus with overwhelming concern of the conditions they witnessed. Our Board & Administration worked tirelessly with local chapter leadership and Congresswoman Stansbury & former Congresswoman Haaland to get the support needed to make this happen. We can't thank them enough!” A lifelong To’Hajiilee Community resident, Abeyta is a mother of four children currently attending To’Hajiilee Community School and has served on the Board for six years.
“We have been looking forward to this day to hear the wonderful news about our students getting a new school. Within the past four years the local To'Hajiilee Community School Board and Administration team have been voicing our flooding and structural facility concerns. We now can say our voices have been heard,” said Willinda Castillo, To’Hajiilee Community School Chief School Administrator. “Our instructional staff will now be able to teach without worrying about flood issues. Our students will now be able to focus on their academics with no interruption of school closure due to their school getting flooded. We thank Congresswoman Stansbury and her staff for addressing BIE school construction for To'Hajiilee Community School. Ahéhee’! (Thank you.)”
“We are extremely grateful to the top management of the Interior Department. We are also grateful to our Congresswoman and staff from their untiring work on behalf of our school,” said Larry Holman, To’Hajiilee Community School Administrative Service Specialist. “We are also grateful for the support from the Senate Appropriations Committee.”
Bureau of Indian Education officials have testified before Congress that there is an estimated backlog in BIE school funding amounting to $4.5 billion to replace and repair dilapidated and unsafe school facilities, which affects over 48,000 Indigenous students across the United States. In the 118th Congress, Rep. Stansbury is continuing her work to fight for funding for BIE schools and meet the needs of Indigenous communities across New Mexico and the nation.