Arizona has 34 such schools, plus 20 others operated by the Bureau of Indian Education, or BIE. Most of the tribally controlled schools are in remote parts of the state, far from towns or metropolitan areas. That makes finding teachers tough, and the pay and benefits tribes can offer – often less than other schools – makes it even more challenging.
“It’s extremely difficult. We do not have housing, we are 45 minutes away from a town, and the town is a tourist town so housing is very expensive,” said Laura Krause, the business manager and human resources director at Theodore Roosevelt School on the White Mountain Apache Reservation.
Theodore Roosevelt is a small day and boarding school that serves sixth through eighth graders. The school has about 130 students and six teaching slots – half of which are currently vacant.
“We lost three teachers but mostly they moved into new positions,” said Krause. “Two of them are doing other things at the school.”
