The Pueblo of Laguna, through tribal sovereignty and the
establishment of the Laguna Department of Education (LDoE), has been
determining its own educational destiny since its inception. It is a
young and progressive tribal education system built upon a model of
shared decision making and focused on providing quality programs that
address the educational needs of all Laguna people. We strive to
improve and strengthen academic achievement by creating a disciplined,
healthy and safe environment that is conducive to learning.
The Pueblo of Laguna's Tribal Council took a historic educational
step when it won the right to build a new middle school through a
judicial decision. Original plans called for the B.I.A. to construct
the new facility; however, the Laguna Tribal Council developed the
strategy of acquiring the funds from the Bureau of Indian Affairs
through a Public Law 93-638 contract. The construction process was
an overwhelming success, and the B.I.A. acknowledged the success of
the approach the tribe took in building the facility.
The Department of Education
The success of the Laguna Middle School construction project
was the impetus for the Tribal Council to establish its own
Department of Education to operate the new middle school and other
programs such as Administrative Services, Early Childhood Programs,
and Facilities Management. More recently, the Laguna Elementary School
and the Partners for Success program have been added to the Department.
A Board of Education was appointed by the Tribal Council to oversee the operation of educational services and in 1992 the
Department began operations. Over the past several years, the
Department has experienced tremendous growth with the reorganization
of the Division of Early Childhood, and the transfer of the Laguna
Higher Education program.
The Laguna Early Childhood program was established in 1993 as
a home-based early intervention program for children with special
needs under the age of three. Later that same year, the program
received a Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) to fund the
Laguna Child Care Center. By November, 1994, the Tribal Council made
a formal decision re-establishing the Laguna Head Start program
under the Laguna Dept. of Education. With these programs now serving
over 250 children and their families, the LDoE School Board
established the Division of Early Childhood to manage these programs
jointly.
In May of 1995, a revised Educational Scholarship Ordinance
was passed by the Tribal Council, providing almost three times as
much funding than in previous years for higher education. Originally,
the Laguna Higher Education was under the administration of the
tribe but was later transferred over to the LDoE