November 20, 2020
Parents, guardians, and students,
What a year! I am assured though that with each other’s support and perseverance we will get through these tough times. We miss you students but want you and your families to stay safe. Due to the recent surge in the COVID-19 virus, the dorm will continue to remain closed through January 5, 2021. The reopening date will depend on the state of the pandemic as well on the Flagstaff Unified School District governing board decision.
We have been busy preparing for students to arrive on campus. Some of our 21st Century grant initiatives are being conducted virtually. Our tutors, Erin and Tyler, are available to students who need help with their class assignments. They are in the office Monday through Thursday, 3:00 – 6:00 pm, or by appointment. You can email them and they can schedule virtual meetings on Zoom. Mrs. Yazzie, our rec tech, recently offered a Zoom physical activity. There is more to come such as Country line dancing, yoga, and tai chi, to name a few.
Teen Circle and Wellbriety Warriors are also continuing with our staff, Mr. Curley and Little Owl. These two programs are designed to promote wellbeing and help students learn coping and other skills. Other components of this program will not be available until we are back in person. Please contact them if you are interested in joining either of these groups which meet weekly.
Native Cooking consultant, Vicki Anderson, recently shipped out pots and pans and food stuff to students who will be cooking delightful treats for peers and family members. Oakley Anderson-Moore, Kinlani Film and CULTIVATE consultant, will also be sending out hands-on activity kits for students to complete at home. Kinlani Film’s main goal is to engage students in the creative process while learning how to make films. All three programs made available internships.
Lauren Kiabetoney with our partner the Boys and Girls Club (BGC) of Flagstaff is offering weekly workshops on College and Career readiness, life skills development, and other fun activities. BGC also hosts a weekly tutoring hour. Please contact Lauren at lauren@bgcflag.org if you want more information. The Boys and Girls Club also offers an annual college scholarship for all members in their senior year.
Due to the pandemic we only enrolled 53% of our normal capacity of 160 students. There are currently 85 students admitted to the dorm. In most cases, there is only one student per room except in the case of siblings or latecomers. We have also converted one additional wing for girls. So, there are now three wings for females, and one wing for males.
When you return you will notice many improvements. Not only have many of the rooms been repainted throughout the whole dorm, the outside has been landscaped and looking good. There is signage around the dorm reminding us to stay safe from the COVID-19 virus. We will continue with protective strategies when students return as well. We have adopted a new COVID-19 policy to ensure staff and student safety. Our reopening plan has also been shared and reviewed by the Division of Diné Education, the Bureau of Indian Education and Coconino County Health and Human Service.
Kudos to all the many students who did well during the first quarter of the semester! Over 75% of our students were on FBD honor roll.
I hope you all have a blessed holiday. Stay safe and warm.
Kind regards,
Ms. Boone-Schuler, CEO
Before paint job, summer 2020
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New paint on Cafeteria/Gym
Real grass out front
Newly painted North Upper wing for girls
Signage around dorm
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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