At Red Lake school, renewal

By Chuck Haga Star Tribune

RED LAKE, MINN. -- Biology teacher Janet Nelson sauntered to a paper-strewn table where McKinley (Mac) Auginash III already was outnumbered by teachers trying to shape his senior year at Red Lake High School.

"Am I getting stuck with McKinley at all this year?" she asked, wrapping an arm around the boy's shoulders.

Mac managed a thin smile.

"What do you think about River Watch?" English teacher Amy Ensign asked, suggesting an outdoors-oriented science class to bring Mac a step closer to graduation next spring.

"That'll work," Nelson said. "I've seen him in hip waders."

Normal they wanted, and normal was what they got on Thursday as Red Lake teachers and administrators greeted about 120 incoming freshmen and seniors -- many accompanied by parents, grandparents, guardians or siblings -- at orientation and registration for fall classes, which start on Tuesday.

Incoming sophomores and juniors will do the same today, stepping first through metal detectors and past armed Red Lake tribal police officers, three of whom will rotate through district schools this year.

Inside the high school, away from the blocked-off area where on March 21 a student fatally shot five classmates, a teacher and a security guard, students and their parents could ask about the new intercom system, restrictions on building access and other security measures.

"We don't have everything ready to go," Principal Chris Dunshee said.

"We'll adapt and fine-tune as we go," he said, even as workers continued to install deadbolt locks on classroom doors and surveillance cameras.

"We had more security in place before March 21 than most of Minnesota," he said. "Where are you ever 100 percent safe? But we will be as safe as any school in the United States now."

Asked whether he felt ready to start a new school year, Dunshee smiled. "I'm one of those people who feels he's never ready. I'm too much of a perfectionist. Maybe that's why I got into trouble last spring," he said, referring to the heart attack he suffered a month after the shootings.

A few support employees haven't returned yet because of what happened last spring, and Superintendent Stuart Desjarlait said that "about five teachers are gone, and there may be some we don't know about yet."

One teacher who was supposed to report on Monday still hasn't, he said, and the contact phone number on file with the district has been disconnected.

Two counselors have asked for medical leaves, Desjarlait said. He intends to ask the school board for authority to hire or contract for eight more counselors than the six that were on duty before March 21. The National Indian Health Service has committed $1 million for counseling services at Red Lake, Director Charles Grim said this week after touring the reservation.

As the day began, Desjarlait said he expected 150 to 200 students in the high school Tuesday, with others coming back gradually. Enrollment in the four grades last year was about 300.

"I'd like 300," he said.

Thursday's tally of 121 registrations was better than expected. "I'm very pleased with that," Dunshee said. "Now if we get 100 [sophomores and juniors today], we'll be close to where we started last year."

School officials said that 262 students from all grades in Red Lake took advantage of open enrollment or other options to attend schools in other communities last year. Of those, Bemidji took 82, Kelliher 80 and Blackduck 15. Officials there said they expect those numbers to rise only slightly.

Most of the new Red Lake students enrolling at Kelliher this year are in the lower grades, Superintendent Terry Bartness said, adding that his district has a parent advisory committee on Indian education and paid tutors for students who may need help catching up.

Many Red Lake students missed most or all of the last two months of school last year. "They've been through a very tough thing," Bartness said.

Desjarlait reaffirmed his determination "to enforce any school district policies we have," including sanctions for truancy. But he also has advised teachers to watch for "the student sitting alone in a corner, withdrawn," and to approach those kids and see whether they want to talk

Time for school

The first dawn of September came to Red Lake cool, gray and windy.

Geese flew cover for crows scrounging for breakfast outside the locked and gated entrance to the low-riding brick building that is the grieving, hopeful heart of the reservation. Wind threatened to whip ragged the flags outside, and gusts carried faint hints of wood smoke, which conjured warm kitchens in Ponemah, Redby and Little Rock, kitchens scented by oatmeal and fry bread.

It felt like a school day.

And there they came: janitors first, seeing to hallways and aisles, and police officers, armed but smiling, reassuring. Then came teachers, administrators and secretaries.

And, finally, passing once again through a gauntlet of reporters -- but far fewer cameras and reporters than in March -- came the students.

Mac Auginash's day started early, near dawn, with a talk at home with his parents.

"We've been talking to him about this year," McKinley Auginash Jr. said. "We want him to graduate and get into a college or a vocational school, something to keep him going."

A bus driver for the school district for 10 years, the elder Auginash said he's satisfied that the school has done what it can to make his son's senior year safe.

"I know a lot of the kids have got that buildup in them -- the anxiety, I call it. But everybody has that."

Wearing baggy black pants and a T-shirt celebrating the '90s rock band "Alice In Chains," his black hair tinted in green, young Mac slipped past the check-in table to a familiar alcove, a cramped but comfortable place where he often hangs out during school.

"Candy machine, I've missed you," he said, patting it softly.

He strode down the hall to check out his locker, then conferred with art teacher Mike Schlemper, who helped him calculate the courses he still needs.

"He's a laid-back kid, creative, pretty well-mannered," Schlemper said as Mac moved on. "Nice kid."

In May, Auginash was one of several Red Lake students subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in the Twin Cities. FBI investigators, looking for evidence of whether other students were involved in 16-year-old Jeff Weise's assault on the school, searched Auginash's locker and confiscated some things. He hasn't heard from investigators since, he said.

At the registration table, teachers tried to nudge Mac toward American literature, math -- and more math.

"How about computer graphics?" asked Nathan Anderson, a science teacher.

"No," Mac said. "Computers anger me."

In the end, when the classes all fit and the requirements were met, he had built a year around the math classes, River Watch and journalism.

"It looks all right," he said, looking over the final schedule. "Interesting."

He punched it into the school computer himself, no problem.