The award of a $2,759,058 construction contract fora large school complex in the New Mexico section of the Navajo Reservation was announced by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
In the Navajo language, the new facility will be known as Dzilth-Na-o-dith-hle School. The name roughly translates as "Turning Mountain," a reference to an unusual nearby hill which seems to revolve, always presenting the same appearance to a traveler passing through the reservation.
To be located near Blanco Trading Post, in Rio Arriba County, the school will serve more than 500 Indian children at the elementary level in the Kimbeto-Huerfano area. A Bureau-operated trailer school at Kimbeto will be closed, but a dormitory at Huerfano will remain open for Indian children attending public school in Bloomfield, N. Mex.
The contract calls for construction of two school buildings with a total of 17 classrooms; two 128-pupil dormitories; a kitchen-dining building to serve 260; a combined instructional materials center and administration building; storage, maintenance and garage facilities; and quarters for employees.
A school enrollment of approximately 255 boarding and 255 day pupils is expected. Boarding students will be housed according to grade levels.
The new school will relieve the present overcrowded and inadequate school facilities now serving area Indian children.
Successful bidder was Lembke Construction Co., Inc., of Albuquerque, N. Mex. Four bids were received, ranging to a high of $3,126,541.
