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Third and fourth grade students at the Cherokee Language Immersion School work using their Apple computers. Jacie Bush, second from right, and Solomon Winn, right, type on a computer using a keyboard overlay written in the Cherokee syllabary. WILL CHAVEZ/CHEROKEE PHOENIX
 
 




By WILL CHAVEZ
Senior Reporter

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – The Cherokee Language Immersion School recently received more than $465,000 in state charter school funds, and officials have earmarked the money for offsetting personnel costs and improving technology availability.

Principal Holly Davis said the state funds would be provided to the school in monthly installments instead of a lump sum and has been budgeted to offset personnel costs incurred by the Cherokee Nation.

“We are freeing up some of our Cherokee Nation money and this (state money) is offsetting the cost of personnel,” she said. 

Davis added that she wants to improve the technology that’s available to the students. Beginning in the second grade students use Apple laptops at school, but Davis said she wants to ensure students use the computers to their fullest potential by learning more about them through in-depth computer classes.

Another effort the school is working on is developing software that would allow the school to place its Cherokee language curriculum on computers rather than using textbooks. 
“We’ve got a few projects with technology…we’d like to see smart boards (interactive whiteboards) in all the classes. We’d like to get iPads to all of the teachers…things that would put us a little ahead of the game,” Davis said. “A lot of our testing that we are going to be required to do eventually will be online testing, so the more kids can maneuver on a computer, the better they will do on their testing.”

She also said she wants to invest more in professional development for the teaching staff to further improve its teaching skills and provide more learning field trips for the students. 

In June, the Tribal Council gave approval to the tribe’s Education Services to apply for state charter school status for the immersion school, which is part of Sequoyah Schools. 

The Oklahoma Charter Schools Act provides for creation of charter schools when sponsored by “a federally recognized Indian tribe, operating a high school under the authority of the Bureau of Indian Affairs…if the charter school is for the purpose of demonstrating native language immersion instruction and is located within its former reservation or treaty area boundaries.”

The school, which has 115 students in grades pre-school through sixth, received state charter status late in 2011. By becoming a charter school, it can receive state funding but is not subject to some rules, regulations and statutes that apply to other public schools. In exchange for the funds, the school accepts some type of accountability for producing certain results, which are set forth in the school’s charter.

Davis said the state is more lenient with charter schools like the immersion school because the school would be testing its students in subjects using the Cherokee language. 

She said there is a movement among state charter schools that emphasize other languages besides English, such as Spanish or Chinese, to have the state allow testing be done in the main language taught at that school. Davis said the immersion school would join that movement. 

“To be perfectly honest, what little testing I’ve done here for my own purposes, our kids test well. This second language thing is just really generating some real thinkers. They are really ahead of the game,” she said. 
The immersion school began in 2001 as a program for pre-school children to be immersed in the Cherokee language by having teachers who spoke and taught only in Cherokee. 

A sixth grade was added this past fall, and those sixth grade students will transition next fall to Sequoyah’s middle school. The sixth grade class currently has nine students who have been with the immersion program since its inception.

While attending the immersion school, students learn the Cherokee culture and history as well as other subjects such as science and math. English study is introduced in the fifth grade to help transition students into a more traditional school setting.   

will-chavez@cherokee.org
918-207-3961