Bois Forte seeks school expansion

The Bois Forte Band of Chippewa are joining forces with the Nett Lake School District to seek $11 million in state bonding money to renovate the school

By Lee Bloomquest
News Tribune Staff Writer

NETT LAKE - The remote Bois Forte Reservation about 15 miles west of Orr is growing.
  
And leaders of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa are teaming up with the Nett Lake school district on an education and business plan that will improve band members' lives far into the future.
  
To meet the needs of an increasing school population, the school district plans to seek $11 million in state bonding money to expand and renovate the K-12 Nett Lake school.
  
If approved by the 2006 Legislature, the existing 70,000-square-foot school would expand by 8,000 square feet to help meet the demand for additional space for Head Start, child care and classrooms. A community medical and dental clinic and boys' and girls' club would be attached.
  
Teresa Strong, Nett Lake school superintendent, says the district not only wants to improve educational opportunities for children, but also build their self-esteem and create a multi-purpose facility where children living on the reservation can recreate in safety and learn from role models.
  
Community and tribal education services and improved school security also would be a part of the renovation.
  
"All of the services offered in this building need more space," Strong said. "We want to take it a step further to include additional programs that help children. We believe strongly that a healthy child is an educationally strong child."
  
FOR THE FUTURE
 
The project isn't just about the present, but about preparing Bois Forte Band children for accomplishment in their adult years, Strong said.
  
"What we want to do is to be able to have the Native kid be successful in the non-Native world," said Strong, who attended Nett Lake school and later graduated with an education degree from the College of St. Scholastica.
  
"To me, it's important to be able to leave here with self-confidence, to go out to college, be successful and be successful in life," she said.
  
Several things have helped boost enrollment at the school: a new school curriculum focused on reading skills, high-technology computer labs, personal laptops for every student in fourth through sixth grades, a higher reservation birth rate and new job opportunities for band members.
  
Over the past five years, enrollment at the school has grown from about 45 students to 85. The school has 10 certified staffers, not including music and Ojibwe language staff.
  
Having the school, clinic, boys' and girls' club, and other services within one building would benefit the children and community, said Ray Toutloff, a former school superintendent now working as a grant consultant for the tribe.
  
"If we can get all these programs working together successfully, where the kids see nurses and doctors every day, they may have a long-term influence on the kids, and we could end up with kids as doctors, nurses or teachers," he said.
  
Space for after-school programs for children and adults also is needed, Strong said. About 80 children participate in after-school and evening activities at the school daily.
  
"Nett Lake is a nice, quiet community," Strong said. "But there's not much for the kids to do after school. With the remoteness of the area and the possibilities of drugs and alcohol, we need a safe environment for these kids to go to."
  
EMPLOYMENT IN PLAN
 
School enrollment has grown partly because of business development by the tribe and reductions in state programs that help low-income people, said Kevin Leecy, Bois Forte Reservation Tribal Council chairman. That's bringing some tribe members back to the reservation from larger cities, he said.
  
The tribal council, which oversees the operation of Fortune Bay Resort and Casino at Lake Vermilion, bought several other businesses, creating new job opportunities for its members.
  
In 2005, the band acquired Powerain, a touchless car wash manufacturer in Tower and WELY, a radio station in Ely. A deal to acquire The Ledge, a convenience store along Highway 169 near Tower, is to be finalized in about 10 days.
  
By next fall, the tribe plans to open a convenience store in Nett Lake.
  
The reservation, with a population of about 900, has an unemployment rate of about 30 percent, Leecy said. The reservation's per capita annual income is $4,994.
  
NEED FOR MONEY
 
The tribal council helped pay for students' laptop computers. It also runs a shuttle bus on a 100-mile round trip between Nett Lake and Tower to transport band members to jobs at Fortune Bay. Tribal scholarships to higher education facilities are planned.
  
Despite what some may think, Fortune Bay doesn't generate the revenue stream to pay for a new school, Leecy said.
  
"Fortune Bay has a modest income," he said. "We do still need that assistance (from the state)."
  
School and tribal officials said to improve the reservation's social and economic future, they need to continue working hand in hand.
  
"The tribal council and the school have common goals," Leecy said. "We want to be sure that we're giving people a hand up for the future. We need to work together to help the Bois Forte Band and take them seven generations from here. It seems like a long time, but it's not. We need to look that far ahead, and education needs to be the number one factor in the band so they can support their families and the band in the future."
  
Sen. Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, says he will request $11 million from a Maximum Loan Effort program to fund the project. Of that, residents would have to repay $300,000, Toutloff said.
  
In addition, the district will pay $15,000 per year, a condition of a local school referendum residents approved in November that supports the project.