Navajo community wins fight to replace crumbling campus
BY SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN ASSOCIATED PRESS UPDATED
FEBRUARY 24, 2023 8:31 PM
TO'HAJIILEE, N.M. A school tucked into the sandstone cliffs and juniper-dotted mesas of central New Mexico is fortified on one side by a wall of sandbags and an earthen berm. On the other side, melting snow puddles along the edges of classrooms.
Inside, caulking, paint and metal plates hide the cracks that have formed over decades in the block walls. With each rainstorm, the nearly century-old To'Hajiilee Community School on the fringes of the Navajo Nation sinks further into the ground.
The layers of bandages won't have to hold much longer. Residents of the small community off Interstate 40 recently learned that after years of raising flags about the school that lies in a floodplain, the latest federal budget included $90 million for a new campus.
The price tag tops $6.2 billion, and the wait is long. To'Hajiilee would not have been moved up the priority list last year if not for a community campaign driven by stories of flooded classrooms and playgrounds, relentless calls to Washington, D.C., and invitations for decision-makers to see it in person. Otherwise, another decade would have passed and another generation of students would have walked the same halls.
Read more at: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/nation-world/national/article272596097.html#storylink=cpy
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