ZPSD is the newest public school district in New Mexico, formed in 1980 at the request of tribal leaders who wanted to create a Zuni language and cultural curriculum to keep the centuries-old language and customs alive.
New Mexico is home to 23 Indian tribes and Pueblos, so it is not unusual for tribal languages and culture to be part of a district-wide curriculum. The difficulty is that these languages have generally been passed down from generation to generation orally and most, if not all, are only now becoming written languages.
Creating a curriculum for a language that is newly written and spoken by a relatively small population can consume a considerable amount of both time and resources. However, it is worth the time, effort, and cost to help preserve a language that is also part of the community’s culture and religion.
In creating the language program, the district works hand in hand with the tribe; each person who teaches this program must pass a tribe-created language examination and receive a language endorsement from the tribe and the state. It has been a challenge, but it is a challenge that people have stepped up to meet.
New Mexico is home to 23 Indian tribes and Pueblos, so it is not unusual for tribal languages and culture to be part of a district-wide curriculum.
The End of the Service Line
Preserving language and culture is but one of the many challenges faced by school districts located on rural Indian reservations.
Wireless Internet arrived in Zuni approximately 10 years ago. What an exciting time it was when a person could call up the provider and get on a list to be hooked up! What a letdown when the conversation ended with “Sorry, we provide service in your area but only on the other side of your street” or “We will put you on our waiting list and let you know when a spot opens up.” If you were one of the lucky ones able to get service, you were limited to a maximum of 10 megabits per second at a cost of $90 per month.
In an area where 41% of the population lives below the national poverty rate, the cost of service put home Wi-Fi out of reach for many.
What’s more, Zuni is located at the “end of the service line” of the provider. And with a limited subscriber base, the provider had no incentive to update or expand service.
In an area where 41% of the population lives below the national poverty rate, the cost of service put home Wi-Fi out of reach for many. Consequently, when the pandemic hit and remote learning became a reality, the majority of students had no way to access the Internet for remote learning because of cost and availability.
Just as many districts have done, as a way to overcome the challenge, ZPSD equipped activity buses with modems, placed devices on the exterior of buildings, and purchased hot spots and data plans for any student who needed one. The district received a little more than $900,000 from the CARES Act, and the majority of that funding was spent on those hot spots and data plans.
The original data plans that ZPSD purchased were called “unlimited” plans. Unlimited meant one thing for the district, but something entirely different for the vendor. It did not take long to realize that unlimited meant 30 gigabytes per month. Once that limit was reached, the daily limit was reduced to 500 megabytes—which sounded fine until we found that a one-hour Zoom class consumed almost 1 gigabyte of that unlimited plan. At that rate, those 30 gigs of data did not last long.
The solution: purchase additional hot spots and data plans and allow students to swap out their hot spots during the month so they could have continuous service. That meant paying for data plans that were not always being used, but virtual learning comes with enough challenges without the district contributing to the problem.
Leveraging a Partnership
District-wide Internet has been just as challenging. With only one Internet provider in this rural community, the district was at its mercy.
For years, the Internet capacity for the entire district was limited to 100 megabytes of service; however, it was Wi-Fi, so we did not have to be attached to a wall connection to access the Internet, and we made do with what we had.
Knowing that our provider was not going to update its equipment to provide the service needed to take full advantage of learning opportunities available through good Internet service, the district searched for a solution.
When the time came to file for Category 1and Category 2 E-Rate projects two years ago, ZPSD was approached by Continental Divide Electric Cooperative. The rural cooperative personnel shared that they had created a subsidiary company to provide wireless Internet to its service area.
In response, we were able to work with the cooperative and the Universal Service Administrative Company to secure funding to extend service to our schools and raise the speed to 1 gigabyte, introducing competition and a new option for Wi-Fi service for our students.
Getting the service to our schools did not happen overnight. Our buildings were about 50 miles from their closest service. The cooperative was able to install the lines on its utility poles, but only after securing the easements and rights-of-way from the tribe with approval of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. It took almost as much time to secure the access rights as it took to run the fiber-optic cables on the existing utility poles. Final tribal and Bureau of Indian Affairs approval were not received until a few days before we were supposed to go live with the new service.
An Ulterior Motive
When the district accepted the request for proposals for new service from Continental Divide, there was an ulterior motive. With the knowledge that the only Wi-Fi provider in the community had no plans to upgrade or expand its equipment, and knowing that Continental Divide already provided electricity to the community, it was our hope that Continental Divide could eventually offer the option to purchase Wi-Fi to households throughout the community.
This ulterior motive is in the process of being realized. The Zuni governor’s office was recently notified that Continental Divide was awarded federal funds to extend its fiber-optic equipment throughout the community, offering what we hope is a cheaper and more reliable Wi-Fi option for any resident who wants to purchase it.
Getting over the Mountain
In rural communities, the school district is often not only the largest employer, but also a vehicle to bring much-needed services, such as Wi-Fi, into the community. Offering the best learning environment to its students is viewed as another of the district’s obligations.
In the past year, the pandemic has magnified the shortcomings in our districts. Those shortcomings may be in staffing, Internet access, funding, or rural living limitations.
I have learned over these past months and years that we all have mountains to climb, but if we only look up at where we would like to be and never take that first step, we will never get there.
When we see a program, a situation, or a challenge that is deemed to be unfair or too difficult to overcome, the only thing that can prevent us from resolving that issue is we ourselves. It just takes time to figure out a solution to whatever opportunity is in front of us, to educate ourselves on the issue, to examine all the options, to exercise patience, and to see it through to the end.
Ultimately, we must remember that we are here for the students. Regardless of the difficult work that might be required, if that work brings long-term benefits for our students, we will find that the sacrifices and struggles were worth it.