Interior Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk speaks at the Bureau of Indian Education’s Theodore Jamerson Elementary School in Bismarck, N.D., following President Obama’s national address to students on working hard and setting educational goals.
HELLO WHAT IS THE BIE DOING ??
ReplyDeleteWhat are the qualifications of Mr.Bighorn? He is currently chief of staff and is known throughout Indian country as a basketball referee.
Just last week, Ms. Birdwell (a the social worker and now in charge of BIE post secondary education ) announced to Haskell Indian Nations University campus that she was sending our school President, Dr.Linda Sue Warner to SIPI to rescue SIPI's accreditation site visit. These site visits are ten years apart and SIPI's next review is this year. Why would Ms.Birdwell, who has had this job as acting and now permanent for two years, wait until weeks before the site visit to notice that SIPI is at risk ?
Is SIPI at risk ? Did Ms.Birdwell ask the SIPI President, Sherri Allison? By the comments on SIPI's campus and the distribute of emails from the Presidents office, it would appear that not only does SIPI not need help from Haskell, they didn't ask for it.
Why would Ms.Birdwell send Haskell's President Warner to SIPI to save their accreditation when Haskell has a site visit during the same time? Is it to block Haskell's new programs?
Is Ms. Birdwell sending Haskell president to SIPI to sabotage the accreditation efforts on that campus ? Has Warner been directed to make sure they do not pass fully, that stipulations are added to make the current SIPI administration look bad? It sounds like a conspiracy question, but you have to wonder since Mr. Skenandore has no intention of hiring Sherri Allison as President of SIPI and perhaps needs a reason. It would be interesting to ask Haskell President Warner what her specific instructions were. In fact, since it's a detail, there is probably a scope of work. Of course that won't tell you what was in the conversation Ms.Birdwell had with Haskell President on campus.
I do note that Birdwell issued a directive to all employees, including Warner and Allison that they are not allowed to talk to the press. I wonder what she is covering up.
While we looking at Ms.Birdwell's recent actions, I will also point out that the week before Haskell's semester started, Ms.Birdwell called down and changed the fall schedule. Haskell has an enrollment of about 1,000 students each semester. Schedules are made as early as February for the fall enrollment ( an educator would know that ). Changing the schedule meant that students returned to campus with no campus with no classes and were scrambling to add to maintain enough enrollment to stay in the dorms. This doesn't even speak to the fact that they added just anything, not something that would be in their degree plan.
Was anyone on campus, specifically the President, asked for input on this decision? I wonder. I also wonder why Ms.Birdwell acts like the President made the change, when it was a specific directive.
Speaking of specific directives from Birdwell and Skenandore, both schools were operating under legislation that allowed for an alternative personnel system so that they could operate programs more efficiently. THIS WAS A FEDERAL LAW. Both Stephanie Birdwell and Kevin Skenandore DIRECTED Dr.Warner and DR.Hamley to write a letter to congress canceling the demonstration projects on their campuses. The presidents and the Secretary of Interior were the only individuals who could make this decision and Skenandore and Birdwell could not convince the Secretary to do it, but they know that a direct order has to be followed.
Mr. Bighorn is an educated man and is qualified for the position which he holds. Can a person have interest outside his or her job. If you are going to bash someone do it with some intelligence.
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