Crownpoint Justice Complex Features Five Program Buildings
OFMC and the Navajo Nation share in funding the 112,375 square foot complex in New Mexico.
Video: Watch the DSRM safety inspection of the complex.
April 2013
A skylight dominates the lobby of the Courts building.
A new security camera (see orange bordered area) helps Ben Bowstring, Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig School’s assistant security coordinator, monitor activity at the campus entrance.
Security Concerns Prompt Entry Precautions
Keypads for doorways and security cameras have been added.
The 2012 Newtown, Conn., elementary school shooting has elevated efforts across Indian Country to ensure student and staff security in BIE-funded schools and dormitories.
Former Dennehotso School Board Member Gilbert Todachine painted this mural on the wall of the school’s dormitory recreation room in 1979.
Dennehotso Murals Get Reprieve from Demolition
Computer graphic advancements aid preserving artwork.
Video: See what will become of the school five murals on the walls of Dennehotso Boarding School.
Video: Watch the Dennehotso ground-breaking celebration.
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Dennehotso Replacement School Underway
OFMC builds Arizona boarding school on same site. (Photo: Digging at the February ground-breaking ceremony are (from left) Mae Big, volunteer foster grandparent at Dennehotso; Katherine Benally, Navajo Nation Council delegate; Lillian Begay, community member; Dineh Benally, OFMC Project Manager; and Nathaniel Brown, Dennehotso School Board member.)
[Play Video: Watch the ground-breaking celebration.]
[Play Video: Discover what will become of the school’s five murals.]
OFMC Supplies New Fire Trucks and Training
Firefighters from four BIE-funded schools attend hands-on training. (Photo: Seth Blackbear, a firefighter from Crow Creek Tribal School in South Dakota, came to Albuquerque to learn about his school’s new fire truck.)
[Play Video: OFMC teaches how to use the new trucks.]
OFMC Creates Solar Neighborhood at Ute Mountain
OJS quarters are powered by solar panels; increased insulation leads to energy savings.
[Play Video: See the Ute Mountain Ute Agency Detention Center’s solar hot water and solar power applications.]
Twin Buttes Replacement School Being Readied in North Dakota
OFMC funded the K-8 Twin Buttes Day School replacement project. The new school will be dedicated later this year.
Wide Ruins Ground-breaking Initiates Replacement School
OFMC’s replacement Wide Ruins Community School in Arizona gets underway. (Photo: Miss Wide Ruins Community School Palila Chee participates in the March ground-breaking ceremony for the replacement school.)
[Play Video: See the Wide Ruins ground-breaking celebration.]
[Play Video: See the plans for the Wide Ruins aquarium’s new home.]
Focus:
Updated Design Standards Include MI&R/FI&R Projects
Since 2007, OFMC’s School Design Handbook has kept up with the latest in facility construction standards.
OFMC’s budget is moving from Replacement School funding to increasing emphasis on Minor Improvement & Repair (MI&R) and Facility Improvement & Repair (FI&R) projects. So the 2013 adjustments to the BIA School Facilities Design Handbook and Space Template Update, released this month, include performance standards for MI&R and FI&R projects.
The handbook offers guidance on “green” material and component selections for improvement projects, features updated requirements from the Department’s Sustainable Buildings Assessment Compliance Tool, and gives examples for improving school security, such as recommendations for security cameras and secured entries.
Briefs:
Wide Ruins Aquarium Part of Replacement School Project
For nearly a decade, Wide Ruins Community School students have helped care for fish in a large fresh water aquarium set up in the classroom building hallway. The replacement project now under construction for the K-6 school in Arizona will include a location for the tank. [Video: OFMC Project Manager Andy Acoya talks about the aquarium.]
JFK Day School Gets New Doors
Teddy Guy, a facilities maintenance worker at John F. Kennedy Day School in Whiteriver, Ariz., shows some of the school’s new doors, funded by an OFMC Minor Improvement & Repair project. Like many other BIE schools, doors at John F. Kennedy Day School wear out and need replacing because more than 200 students, mostly members of the White Mountain Apache Tribe, use them many times a day at the K-8 school, which is located on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation.
OFMC Managers Review MAXIMO
OFMC project managers gathered in February to create requirements for the Project Manage- ment Module in MAXIMO. As OFMC transitions from FMIS to MAXIMO for asset management and work orders, there is a need to upgrade FMIS’s legacy functionality regarding project management in MAXIMO.