Flandreau receives district-wide PWNA donation of school supplies

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Students at the high school, middle school and elementary school in Flandreau and at Pleasant Valley Colony will receive free school supplies this year.

The supplies was donated by Partnerships with Native Americans, an organization dedicated to providing consistent aid and services to Native American communities.

Elisabetta Giomo-James, Title VI coordinator for Flandreau Public Schools, secured the school supplies after submitting an application in May.

She learned about PWNA through her work with the Native American Parent Committee from a parent who had previously worked at the Flandreau Indian School and knew about the organization.

The school supplies will be specific to each age group and distributed to the middle school on Wednesday, elementary on Thursday and high school on Friday.

Supplies includes shampoo, toothpaste and glue sticks for pre-k through fifth grade, highlighters for the middle and high school, basic calculators for high schoolers, to name a few.

James said she and volunteers put together over 700 bags of supplies for the students.

Eventually, through the same donation, each student will also receive a pair of TOMS shoes.

This past December, each student at the schools received a Christmas stocking through a similar donation from PWNA.

The purpose of the Title VI school program is to provide financial assistance to rural districts to assist them in meeting their state's definition of adequate yearly progress, according to the Bureau of Indian Education.

In the coordinator position, James works with the Native American Parent Committee at the school, which began around three years ago, to decide how best to use these funds.

“The goal of Title VI is to increase student achievement for Native American students,” James said. “Increase resources to them to have equity in education, and to ensure that it’s culturally relevant education.”

She works with about 30 students throughout the year to provide individualized help. After working in that capacity last year, James said she noticed a big need is attendance monitoring, a responsibility that will be added to her position this year.

Several of the 200-plus students she works with are vulnerable for not being at school and not receiving their education.

“Maybe they require special education and if they’re not here, how can we help them,” James said. “With Title VI being extra support, I can’t help them if I can’t reach out to them outside of the school.”

She said she will act kind of like a homeschool coordinator, monitoring the kids who are present and, for those who aren’t, without hearing from parents, she will be going to the homes to intervene.

The goal is for all the students to come to school in a timely manner and grow their education.

Another change to her position will be the addition of one hour to the end of the school day. She will spend from 3:30-4:30 p.m. Monday through Wednesday at the resource center for any students who may need help.

On Thursday and Friday, she will spend the final hour of her work day at the Dakota Language Center collaborating, working together to create cultural programming and for her to continue learning.

“Part of my job is to be a Native American liaison within the school,” James said. “I think this is a great opportunity for me to connect to the culture and the school in general.”

The Title VI program will continue to work on providing culturally relevant education to students, increase parental involvement and bring cultural and multicultural events to the school.