Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 15

Sunday, September 10, 1995 The Arizona Republic B5 BIA schools in need of repairs UICK RELIEF 'FOR THE' SLOW iORN-N-N OF HEMOIrWOlBS lack of school funding. But other BIA officials are reluctant to talk. Ben Nuvamsa, BIA superintendent at Fort Apache, banned a Republic reporter and photographer from a recent tour of Theodore Roosevelt School, saying it was for Tribal Council members only. Nuvamsa also refused to comment on the school's condition. However, Watahomigie, principal at the 100-student Theodore Roose-' velt School, has taken a stand, agreeing with Waters that the school is in sorry shape.

I "I am tired of being Cinderella, mopping up puddles of water," she said. "I should be focusing on curriculum." Deterioration is particularly evident in the once-stately red-stone dormitory. Weeds poke through the cracked concrete of an abandoned basketball court in an interior courtyard. Stair railings are loose and windows that open to the courtyard are shattered. The nearly 60-year-old dorm was boarded up two years ago so asbestos could be removed and the heating system repaired.

Students moved into two makeshift dorms, in which two students crowd into an 8- by 10-foot room. They were to stay only a year. But as school was about to begin in early September, the stone dorm remained boarded up as work continued. Watahomigie worries about the health of her staff and students. EPA-tested drinking water in July 1992 showed high levels of lead at Theodore Roosevelt and at nearby John F.

Kennedy School. Levels dropped to acceptable standards in September 1992 after the pipes were flushed for five to 10 minutes. School officials have been instructed to begin each day by running water through the pipes for five minutes, because there is no money to replace them, said Robert Rogers, BIA facilities-management director in White River. The sluggish pace of repairs is likely to slow even more in the face of congressional budget cuts. When that happens, Tippeconnic said, "We will put our kids' lives in jeopardy." walk in that morning and walk out that afternoon.

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The water pipes are corroded and in need jot frequent repairs, "which are expensive and create a health hazard." The steady deterioration of many BIA schools is a result of frequent budget cuts and an unreliable maintenance schedule. Things could get worse. The U.S. Senate last month approved a 1996 budget of $1.47 billion for the agency, 23 percent less than President Clinton requested and 15 percent below this year's budget of $1.73 billion. The House version of the agency's 1996 budget is 3 percent below this year's.

A House-Senate conference committee will work out the differences between the two versions, but layoff notices are going out to already thinly staffed BIA offices. Teachers and staff at BIA schools will not be affected by the proposed cuts this year, but repairs will be even slower. John Tippeconnic, until Aug. 18 director of the BIA's Office of Indian Education Programs in Washington, D.C., calls the crumbling schools and more-looming budget cuts "a major problem that has the makings of a crisis." Tippeconnic, now a professor of educational leadership and policy at Arizona State University, said the proposed cuts would be "devastating to BIA education." Tippeconnic predicts that the proposed $31 million decrease in BIA education funds would force schools to close. Others would lose accreditation.

Seven-hundred teaching positions would be lost. No parents were at Arizona BIA schools visited recently by The Arizona Republic, but Tippeconnic said he knows how they feel. "No parents want their children to to schools like that," he said. He blames the proposed cuts on a 'Congress that ignores quality education for Indian children and the BIA's ilack of clout among national lawmakers. Tippeconnic has spoken out frequently about his frustrations over Murderer scheduled to die this week MURDERER, from page B3 Ueffers kept the body in the shower stall for three days.

When the odor became noticeable, he and Van Der Vere wrapped it in garbage bags and buried it near Sedona. Van Der Vere told no one about slaying until December 1976, when she moved out on Jeffers and told the story to a friend. The friend lold police. Investigators went to Van Der who drew them a map that led them to the body in February 1977. Jeffers was arrested and sent back to the Pima County Jail to await trial.

Jle escaped with another inmate by using spoons to remove mortar around bricks in their cell, but they were recaptured in a day. Also while awaiting his murder trial, Jeffers was tried on federal forearms charges. The first trial ended he slugged his court-appointed Attorney in the face. He was convicted 'at his second trial and sentenced to 20 years in prison. At his murder trial in Pima County Superior Court, Jeffers denied killing Cheney and said she must have died by an overdose, possibly caused by Van Der Vere.

He also claimed he was at a bar in South Tucson trying to buy Jieroin when Cheney died. The jury didn't buy it. Jeffers was 'convicted and later sentenced to death. He was ordered resentenced in .1980 and once again got death. The Arizona Supreme Court ruled in 1983 the' murder wasn't cruel because Cheney lost consciousness after being injected and felt no 'physical or mental pain.

But it upheld the conviction and 'sentence, saying that the crime was especially heinous and depraved a factor that can result in the death penalty because of the infliction of gratuitous violence on Cheney. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed 5iis conviction and death sentence in 11990, but appeals continued. In 1992, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted to return Jeffers' case to the Arizona courts for resentencing or for another review of evidence.

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