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Flagstaff Bordertown Dormitory, Inc.
COVID-19
Preamble
COVID-19 has created an everchanging landscape that includes ambiguous and sometimes conflicting direction from governmental entities and new, ambiguous, ill-defined laws and consequences which are difficult to discern.
In this confusing context, we set forth the following principles which are the basis of our COVID-19 Policies:
- The health, safety and welfare of our students, staff and communities.
- To continue in providing the best possible educational opportunity for our students in these conditions.
- To operate Flagstaff Bordertown Dormitory, Inc. in a professional, responsible, efficient manner as is our public responsibility.
- To establish policies in good faith and in an attempt to be fair to all.
In return, we ask that all employees deal with these issues in good faith, with the focus on the above principles and our FBD mission and in a spirit of collaboration and cooperation with the administration and co-workers to accomplish the common good.
COVID-19 requires that we remain flexible, be prepared to act quickly and responsibly and that we allow our administrators to exercise their discretion to meet the demands created by COVID-19 and achieve the above enumerated principles.
Purpose
Flagstaff Bordertown Dormitory (FBD) strives to promote a healthy, safe work and home environment for all students, staff, and visitors. This can only be achieved and maintained when active interest, participation, and accountability exists at all levels of the organization. To ensure this, FBD has established this COVID-19 Policy with general health and safety rules for ALL staff to follow to ensure a safe work environment and limit the spread of the virus. Some rules require workplace changes to be implemented as soon as possible in order to limit the spread of COVID-19. All staff members are to follow these rules, review them often, and use good common sense in carrying out assigned duties. It should also be noted that while these policies and procedures specifically address COVID-19, they shall apply to any infectious disease.
This policy outlines the best practices for prevention of the spread of infectious disease in the dormitory. First and foremost, the goal of this policy is to promote and reinforce, where possible, a culture of best practices for highly infectious diseases.
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December 2019/January 2020
Greetings! Parents, guardians, relatives and friends,
Although 2020 will be here soon, 2019 has been a good year here at Kinlani. Looking back over the fall semester, we should all be proud of our many accomplishments. My staff and I are pleased at all the services we were able to extend to our students. From the food services department, to residential, facilities, academic, recreation, behavioral health and administration we have worked diligently with your children to keep them positive, healthy, and safe while providing academic and other extracurricular/recreational services.
There were at least 80 (67%) students who earned a 3.0 GPA or higher roll during the first quarter of 2019. These students were treated out to Oreganos. Students participate in one hour of study hall per day and an additional hour for those who require additional support. Three part-time tutors provide tutoring services along with college students who volunteers from Northern Arizona University.
Five students attended the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The AISES conference is focused on educational, professional, and workforce development. Our students interacted with mentors, peers, and professional in STEM fields.
CULTIVATE students spent three months tending their crops at the Colten Garden on the campus of the Museum of Northern Arizona. Students learned about composting, planting, nutritional value, seed saving, and marketing their produce. Students earned a small internship stipend for their efforts.
Preparing the plot at Colten Gardens
Selling produce at Farmers Market
Native Foods students prepared and cooked lots of delightful dishes and shared their knowledge at the Food for Medicine one-day, community event on November 16, 2019. They also shared a short video that they starred in to promote plant-based diets. World renown chefs Dr. Lois Ellen Frank and Walter Whitewater spent three days sharing their expertise with Kinlani students. The following plant-based dinner was served to students and received two thumbs up from most students.
Healthy Garden Salad
Featuring baby salad greens, fresh arugula, fresh blueberries and toasted New Mexico pecans in a raspberry jam, balsamic vinegar and Dijon mustard vinaigrette
Enchilada Lasagna
Featuring mushrooms, zucchini, red bell pepper, baby spinach and green chile perfectly layered together with corn tortillas and green chile sauce
Green Rice
Featuring jasmine rice with sautéed garlic and sweet onions and cooked together with fresh cilantro, green onions, and green chile
Bean Hummus
Made from a pinto bean and roasted red bell pepper, with roasted garlic and served with Farmer’s market baby carrots, celery sticks, cucumber wedges and radishes
Sliced Fresh Oranges
Featuring fresh oranges slices garnished with cinnamon
Chefs Frank and Whitewater working with Kinlani students
Making plant based pizzas.
During the Know Your CLAN conference on November 13, 2019 students assisted with sheep butchering and making dough and bread. All parts of the sheep were prepared. Others learned how to make baah doot[‘7z7 (blue bread) and facials cream out of natural plants and oils. These lessons were held to honor our Native American heritage and teachings.
During the Fall semester, Talking Circle sessions were held biweekly for students. It is part of the Native American wellness program under the 21st Century grant. The goal of Talking Circle is to help individuals heal from inside-out. Most of the time, an individual may be living with hurtful feelings and/or experiences that have not fully healed so talking circle helps in those areas. We do our best to restore balance or Hozh0 Philosophy.
An average of 6-8 students attended biweekly. Instruments introduced were a talking stick or eagle feather. We would use this tool when the students shared. Each session would have various topics: four sacred directions, four sacred elements, the clans and the opportunity to be smudged with cedar. The process teaches boys and girls to respect one another while an individual is talking. The motto is "what you hear and who you see in the circle, stays in the circle." Last, students were given a pre-survey and post-survey of what they have learned in Talking Circle.
Talking Circle will resume in the Spring 2020 with new topics and eventually students will learn to use talking circle anytime with their peers. Parents/guests are welcome to participate. The sessions are scheduled Wednesday afternoon at 4:00 pm; or, on a Thursday evening at 8:30 pm (depending upon group's request). Thank you.
Making tortillas
Removing the sheep skin
Making baah dotl’izi
Making facial cream from natural products
Wellbriety Warriors group facilitator: Michael Little Owl
Fall 2019, a small group of students attended a Wellbriety Warriors’ group on Thursday’s at 6 PM. This is a newly implemented group at FBD with a cultural bend to address daily stressors and angst. These students with varied backgrounds created a sense of trust and respect amongst each other in what resembles a talking circle fused with opportunity in art expression, and cedar smudge. When we end each participant has a closing remark of gratitude. We average 6-8 participants with four core members who attended since the first sessions. The students are guided to simply to honor confidentiality of others expressed words, and to be themselves. We will continue to maintain this group into the spring semester with a drum making activity in January and we will likely schedule another painting session as our last one was well received. We adhere to an open-door approach to the group, no requirements needed, and participation is voluntary based. This spring we look forward in creating new ideas and being seen as a viable sources of peer support in the dorm. As the counselor, I facilitate and admire the level of leadership and integrity these students demonstrate.
During the upcoming spring semester other activities planned include the Close Up Flagship program where four students will attend an all expense paid trip to the Nation’s capital and NYC. They will learn about our democratic system first hand, participate in monument studies, debates, and leadership opportunities. They will visit museums and famous sites in both Washington DC and New York City.
Students will get to visit local colleges, universities and technical training schools. Students will visit local colleges including Yavapai College, Universal Technical Institute and community colleges such as South Mountain, Chandler, and Phoenix Community Colleges.
We encourage students to participate in the many extracurricular activities held here at the dorm. As always, academic preparedness is a must. Studying, being present and putting forth your best effort will earn you good grades.
I wish you all Happy Holidays and Happy New Year with many blessings/
Respectfully,
Theresa Boone-Schuler, CEO
21st Century Program - November 2019
Kinlani CLAN Program Funded for Second Round
Flagstaff Bordertown Dorm has once again been awarded the 21st Century Community Learning Center (CCLC) grant for an additional three years. The Kinlani CLAN Program will continue some of its initiatives from the past three years in addition to new programs. New programs will focus on wellness and holistic well-being. CULTIVATE will teach students how to grow traditional Native American foods in a plot at the Colten Gardens of the Museum of Northern Arizona. Eight students interns will be selected and paid a small stipend to participate in this 12-week program. The holistic wellness program sponsored by the residential manager and behavioral health counselor will focus on social and emotional wellness from traditional Native American approaches. Talking circles, sweat lodge, and other approaches will be utilized.
Native Cooking, Kinlani Film and the Peer Mentorship programs will continue for the next three years. The Leapsters, students mentors/ leaders, participate in training and serve as mentors to students throughout the year. The Native Cooking class will also continue to provide students with cooking experiences to create traditional dishes with a contemporary flare. Traditional foods and plant-based cooking is emphasized. Students in Kinlani Film will hone their film making skills while creating short and group films.
Students cooking with Native Chefs Lois Ellen Frank and Walter Whitewater, Red Mesa Cuisine, Santa Fe, New Mexico
KINLANI CLAN FOCUS:
Culture/language
Leadership
Academics
Nutrition/Wellness
Goal & Objective of Kinlani CLAN Program
- Provide opportunities for academic enrichment
- Offer students additional services, programs and activities to reinforce and complement the regular academic program
- Offer families of students active and meaningful engagement in their children's education
Know Your CLAN - KYC
One of the goals of the 21st Century Grant is to offer students additional services, programs and activities to reinforce and complement the regular program. Know your CLAN mini-conferences held throuhgout the year is one way FBD implements this goal. One a Wednesday, half-day, students will participate in conference style breakout session where they engage in different topics. Of those sessions held in the past, Toast Masters (public speaking), clean foods, STEM activities, and outdoor recreational activities have been offered. Culture and language lessons have also been offered as well as team-building activities offered by our Leapster (peer mentors).
Our next KYC will be held next Wednesday, November 13, 2019. One main session of two breakout session will be held. The first is our age-old tradition of butchering a sheep and preparing for a meal. Of the two breakout sessions, the first will involve the hands-on preparation of an acne cream made from Native Plants. Marina Vasquez, Mayan, will lead this session. The second session will lead students to make a traditional "blue bread" from blue corn. Students will first lean how to make juniper ash to add to the blue corn flour. The FBD kitchen staff will lead this session.
This KYC Conference is dedicated our Native American traditions and heritage as we celebrate Native American Heritage Month.
Students making homemade corn tortillas.
No fry bread, fresh corn tortilla, hominy stew, and fresh blueberry juice were on the menu that day.
More information on the Kinlani CLAN program will be posted at our website:
www.kinlanidorm.org
Kinlani CLAN Staff
Wellbriety Program– Michael Little Owl, BH Counselor
Talking Circle—Terry Curley, Residential Manager
Native Cooking—Vicki Anderson, Consultant
Kinlani Film and CULTIVATE—Oakley Anderson Moore
Learning Assistants/Tutors—Erin Billy, Tyler Benally, Gabrielle Barry, Lisa Vandever
Academic Advisor—(position currently vacant)
All FBD Staff—program implementation.
Flagstaff Bordertown Dormitory, 901 N. Kinlani Road, Flagstaff, AZ 86001, www.kinlanidorm.org
Greetings students, parents, grandparents, relatives and friends,
Welcome! As we embark on a new school year, I’m happy to welcome you to Kinlani Dorm. Ever since I was a young student, I looked forward to a new school year. To this day, I share that enthusiasm with you all. My staff and I anticipate another great year full of success, growth, and adventures. Due to the academic rigor at Flagstaff High School, we place high precedence on academics. However, we do offer a variety of extracurricular activities including recreation, social, wellness/nutrition, culture, leadership and life-skills activities. A monthly calendar of events can be found at our website: www.kinlanidorm.org.
We are happy to announce another successful awarding of the 21 Century Community Learning Centers grant which will allow us to offer additional programs for the next three years. New programs include the White Shell Program which will focus on social and emotional wellness utilizing traditional Native approaches. Staff, Michael Little Owl and Terry Curley, will lead this effort. Another new program is CULTIVATE. In partnership with the Museum of Northern Arizona, Oakley Anderson Moore, will lead students in planting, harvesting, and selling their goods at the local farmers markets.
Programs which will continued under the 21st Century include Native Cooking and Baking classes at Flagstaff High School. Vicki Anderson will once again lead students in taking traditional foods and putting a new twist in creating yummy treats. Oakley Anderson Moore will also continue with Kinlani Films. Two years ago, three great short films were screened locally at the Flagstaff Indigenous Film Festival. Last year students created a longer, group video which has yet to be screened.
Other opportunities include field trips and college trips. Four students will be selected to participate in an all-expense paid trip to the CLOSE-UP program in Washington DC and NYC. The application process will be announced soon with the trip in Spring 2020. The American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) Annual Conference is also coming up soon—October 11 – 13, 2019 in Milwaukee Wisconsin. Students will again need to compete to be selected to attend this 3-day educational and career focused annual conference. Trips to universities, community colleges, and trade schools are planned for Spring 2020.
We look forward to working with you to make this a great year!
Kind regards,
Ms. Boone-Schuler, CEO
Slideshow: Native Cooking & Nutrition Class from Vicki Anderson on Vimeo.
Kinlani Film Project -- Beginning of the Year Documentary from Oakley Anderson-Moore on Vimeo.
Box of Crayons – a film by Chelsea Selestewa from Oakley Anderson-Moore on Vimeo.
A Boxing Influence – a film by Jeremain Dougi from Oakley Anderson-Moore on Vimeo.
Placemarking – a film by Kai Begay from Oakley Anderson-Moore on Vimeo.
August 5, 2019
Dear Parent(s) and Guardian(s),
We hope you enjoyed the summer break with your child(ren) and they are ready to return to Flagstaff Dorm for another adventurous year. We would like to thank you for choosing Flagstaff High School for your child’s education and Flagstaff Dorm as their residency for the new school year.
Parent(s) or guardian(s) and your child are required to attend orientation, Wednesday August 7, 2019 at 2:00pm. We have set aside this day, devoting time and man power, to make your child’s return as smooth as possible. Due to scheduling and limited staffing, it is our hope that you have reserved time to join us at the specified date and time. We will not accept any late arrivals or late check-in for all returning students. You will be required to return Thursday August 8, 2019 @ 8:30am if you miss orientation.
We are tasked with ensuring that your child receive the best education while residing here at the FBD. FBD acts in loco parentis “in the place of a parent”, some functions and responsibilities of the parent therefore it is pertinent you understand the specific responsibilities FBD will apply.
We look forward to seeing you. Have a great day. Thank you.
Flagstaff Bordertown Dormitory
Admissions Committee
CEO Update, March 2019
Greetings! parents, guardians, and relatives:
With spring break only weeks away, many of us are already sensing spring fever. However, with spring break also comes the last quarter of the academic school year which means end-of-year projects, finals, and course completions, etc. Seniors are busy polishing scholarship applications and awaiting college acceptance letters. This year’s graduating class of 22 students are bracing themselves for life on their own after graduation. Four seniors have already been accepted to Coconino Community College and one to Colorado State University. Others have applied to NAU, ASU and UNM as well as others. Congratulations, Class of 2019! Go Eagles!
Two Kinlani students earn recognition
Of the many talented students here at Kinlani Dorm, two were recently recognized for their accomplishments. Gracelyn Nez, freshmen, was named Arizona Daily Sun’s Basketball Athlete of the Year. According to the AZ Daily Sun, “For her ability to adjust quickly to the varsity level, her natural talents and competitive drive….” she was named athlete of the year. Awesome job, Gracelyn!
Ben Shanahan, Arizona Daily Sun Photo; Gracelynn Nez, #13
Aurora Smith, senior, was named Boys and Girls Club Youth of the Year. Along with the title comes a $5,000 scholarship award and a laptop computer. With an interest in culinary arts, she would like to attend either Monroe College or Kendall College. Aurora is on the FHS Culinary Arts Competition Team and will represent FHS in a culinary competition at the end of the month. We wish you lots of success at your competition, Aurora!
Jake Bacon, Arizona Daily Sun Photo; Aurora Smith
Close Up Flagship Program
Three students were selected to attend a weeklong visit of Washington DC and New York City with the Close Up Flagship Program. Students are required to write a 500 word essay and meet eligibility requirements including GPA and attendance. A letter of recommendation from a community organization representative, tribal or community leader, teacher or club sponsor is also required. This year junior Ignacio Agoodie, and seniors Shylowe Begay and Carmen Joe will attend the Close Up Flagship program on March 17 – 24, 2019. Students are encouraged to apply for the 2019-2020 annual Close Up Flagship Program. Applications are open up to December 2019.
NYC skyline from Central Park
2018 Close Up Flagship Program participants: Tyree Anthony, Shannon Yessilth, Amy Begay, Cameron Kee
Evelina Bahe, Cameron Kee, AZ Representative Tom O’Halleran, Amy Begay, Shannon Yessilth, Tyree Anthony.
Summer Programs
Summer programs offered by colleges and universities from through-out the country are a great way for students to learn new skills and prepare themselves for the new school year. Many of these program provide free tuition, lodging, and meals. These summer program provide academic readiness and personal development in preparation for college and beyond.
Here are a few other academic summer programs available:
- Diné College, Tsaile Campus, free Summer Bridge Program – Session I: June 8 -14 and Session II: July 13 – 19, 2019. For more information call: (505) 368-3625, or email: rrdescheny@dinecollege.edu
- NAU Nizhoni Academy - https://in.nau.edu/nizhoni-academy/
- NAU Upward Bound Math & Science - https://nau.edu/ubms/
- Phillips Academy - (MS)2 Program, https://www.teenlife.com/summer-program/phillips-academy-ms2/
- For more information: search Google “Summer Programs for Native American Students”
Other Summer Programs:
- Youth Conservation Corps – earn money and work at one of Arizona’s National Parks including Grand Canyon, Hubbell Trading Post, Navajo, Petrified Forest, Canyon de Chelly, Sunset Crater, Wupatki, Walnut Canyon - https://www.nps.gov/subjects/youthprograms/ycc.htlm
21st Century Kinlani CLAN Program ending
At the end of the 2018-2019 school year our 21st Century Community Learning Center Kinlani CLAN grant will have run its three-year course. Four main goals were cited in the original grant:
- Increase overall scores in math and reading
- Decrease negative student behavior incidences while increasing positive student behaviors
- Increase attendance in project-based learning, STEM, community service, nutrition/wellness activities, and in Native culture workshops
- Increase attendance in parental and family involvement activities
Over the three year period, many activities were implemented to address these goals including the quarterly Know Your CLAN (KYC) conferences, weekly STEM activities, Kinlani Film, Native Foods Cooking Class, as well as other social, behavioral, and academic activities. Both in-state and out-of-state college visits were made and dual enrollment courses were paid by the grant. An integral part of the grant to increase positive behaviors involved the implementation of the Positive Behavior Intervention Support (PBIS) program. Integrated into the Behavioral Health Program was the 12-session Coping and Support Program (CAST) program offering during the fall and spring semesters. Study hall, tutoring/homework assistance, academic workshops, and college preparation workshops were provided to all students. Promotional items were made available to students at most KYC conference. The Leapster mentorship program was also a component to address student leadership. The student leaders also known as Leapsters provided activities to students and staff including the FHS teachers/staff. They also made a presentation at the 2019 Native American Youth, Educators, and Employers Conference and received excellent survey results. This are just a sampling of activities during the duration of the 3-year Kinlani CLAN (Culture, Leadership, Academic and Nutrition/Wellness) Program.
To conclude the program a three-year program evaluation will be conducted to ascertain how well the goals were met. This External Evaluation will be made available in July 2019 at the www.kinlanidorm.org website. We thank all students, parents, and staff support of this 21st Century Community Learning Center grant.
NOT YET CHECKED
5/13/26 7:09 AM