Tribal school can now apply to become a public charter school

By Katherine Warren

Smoke Signals staff member

With the new year underway, Shawash-iliʔi Skul Adminstrator Justine Flynn, with approval from Tribal Council, will now be able to apply for the school to become a charter school.

This is due to the passage of House Bill 3953, which allows federally recognized Tribes to ask the State Board of Education directly to be the sponsor for a public charter school. Previously, Tribes had to work through a local school district.

The bill was sponsored by Rep. Tawna Sanchez of Portland, at the request of Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.

Flynn said that first she must send a letter of intent to the Willamina School District 45 days before submitting the application. Once the application is submitted, the State Board of Education will have 180 days to review it. She said the board is confident it will have the ability to review the application quickly, so the Tribe could potentially receive approved funding before the 2026-27 school year. Funding will still have to flow though the school district before going to the Tribe, but Flynn said she hopes this is a temporary situation.

 “We (the Tribe) have been very candid with the state that we will continue to push to make changes within that legislation that allows us the autonomy we would like to operate the charter school,” she said.

Currently, the Tribe will have to negotiate with the state board as well as the school district. However, if the Tribe and the school district can’t come to an agreement, then the board would step in to help with negotiations.

Flynn said she believes the Tribe needs to ask for the ability to have federally recognized Tribes act as their own sponsors.

“The sponsorship has to do with the oversight, legalities, auditing and things like that,” she said. “We have the ability to do all of that stuff internally, so legislation needs to support that.”

Once the charter school is approved, the district will allocate state per-student funding to it, for each of its students. However, the Tribe will have to negotiate a percentage rate with both the state for its oversight and with the school district, so it will not receive the full amount. However, Flynn said, she hopes to reduce the allocation the school receives from the Tribe by $300,000 the first year. In the second year, she said, she hopes to reduce the allocation from the Tribe by $500,000.

As the school grows, Flynn said, so will the amount allocated to it by the state. She said her proposal to Tribal Council included a three-year expansion, with additional money coming in from the state each year, to decrease the amount needed from the Tribal budget.

By year three, she hopes to have the school offering full-time kindergarten through fifth grade, with the state funding $700,000 annually, and the Tribe funding $800,000. Most of the Tribe’s portion, she said, will go to supporting the language nest, which includes two early childhood language classrooms offering immersive chinuk wawa and cultural education.