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Show Education in San Juan County Zenos L. Black I grew up in Blanding and went to school there for twelve years, graduating from high school in the spring of 1925. I graduated from the University of Utah in the spring of 1930 with a degree of Bachelor of Science and a teaching certificate. I taught in Idaho for twelve years, then came to Monticello as principal and teacher of the school which contained grades one through twelve. It was when World War II was in full swing. Many of the young male teachers of the state had been called into the military service, and both male and female teachers had abandoned the teaching service to work in the war industry where salaries were much higher than in the teaching field. Consequently, there was an extreme shortage of teachers. Our distance from the populated areas made it worse for us because the teachers who were left preferred the larger schools. As I recall, that first year, 1942-43, we started out widi a teaching staff of six teachers for grades one through eight and two teachers plus myself for grades nine through twelve. I taught five classes and did the work of principal in my spare time. Every teacher was loaded to the hilt. Several of the classes exceeded forty pupils and none of them, widi the exception of home economics, had less than thirty. The teachers were dedicated and not afraid to work hard, and we managed to have a pretty good year. We did get some relief during the year in the high school. At Christmas time, a young lady, who had taught there the year before, came to visit some of her friends and the superintendent 337 San Juan County got her to come into the school and finish out the year. In June of 1943 I was appointed superintendent of the San Juan School District. Needless to say, I was overwhelmed. There were so many things to do and so little time to do them. There was no secretary, so I had to do all the chores of the office, all my own correspondence, keep the records, make all the orders for equipment, books, and supplies, etc. I did not know where to begin or what to do. Finally I learned a very positive lesson. I told myself, "You can do only one thing at a time. Choose one thing, do it, then choose another thing and do it. Keep doing this and soon the picture will change." That is what I did, and after a few weeks things began to look better. During those early years, the two biggest problems concerning the operation of the schools were: first, to staff the schools with the very best teachers that it was possible to get; and second, to get enough money to operate the program. Miss Embry has talked about the problems involved in getting teachers to come here for the meager salaries, 860 to $90 per month, we were able to pay. I can verify this from personal experience. I have interviewed hundreds of prospective teachers all over the state of Utah and parts of Colorado and my success rate has been poor. I have met with young men and young women, prospects for teachers, many of them, only to be told "no" when they found out where San Juan was located and what the salary would be. I made one trip with Lloyd Hansen, the former superintendent, to recruit teachers. He told me that he had very little success signing teachers until August. By that time, the odier school districts, especially in the populated areas, were about filled up with teachers. Candidates without a job, being afraid they might not find anything better, were willing to talk with him. You might think that to be a poor way of recruiting and that all we would get would be the poorer teachers. Not necessarily so. Yes, as I was going through the schools in Blanding, we had some poor teachers, but we also had some of die best teachers who ever set foot in a classroom. After I started re- 338 Education cruiting, we had a few poor teachers, but we also had many many good ones, teachers who were dedicated and placed their pupils above all else and gave them their all. Our pupils received a good basic education and those who went on to college measured well above the average students of the city schools. During the war years and for several years following the close of the war, we had to rely heavily on local people to staff our schools. Fortunately for our children and our schools, quite a few of the young girls, normal school graduates who had come to the district to teach, met, fell in love with, and married local boys. They settled down here and raised families. I appealed to these ladies publicly and privately to come into the schools and make a contribution to the welfare of the children of the communities. Many of them responded positively and came in for a few years. Some of them remained in the schools after the teacher shortage, returned to college during the summers, and qualified for teaching certificates. We also had two or three men who left their work and came in to help with the teaching. We could not have carried on without diese men and women. With them, our schools and our children were blessed. One of these young ladies, Reta Paige, came to Monticello about 1924. After a year or two, she married Ken Bailey and settled in Monticello to make her home with her husband. During the teacher crisis, I contacted her to come and help in the schools. She declined as she thought she was needed more with her family than with the schools. I told her that if she changed her mind, to contact me. After a year or two, she came and said she was ready. We put her to teaching the third grade in Monticello. While I was superintendent of schools, I made it a policy to visit every school at least once a month and to visit and observe every teacher at work two or three times each year. After visiting Reta several times over a period of years and watching her work, I was impressed with her ability and her personality. When I had a vacancy for an elementary supervisor for the district, Reta was 339 San Juan County my choice. She was an excellent supervisor. She had the personality that attracted teachers to her and made them her friends. Through her hard work and zeal, the many teaching aids she had at her fingertips, and a keen knowledge of teaching methods, she was able to be of great assistance to the one-room teachers as well as those in the town schools. If teachers were hesitant as to how to proceed with their class, she could step in and demonstrate for them, or she could sit and observe them and then counsel with them on their strengths and how they could improve. She was one of the best. Financing the schools in the county was difficult. The only state aid received was based on $25 per school-age child as of October each year. Every October, each school district in the state had to enumerate every child in that district and make a report to the state office before receiving the money. It was difficult to enumerate the children in San Juan who lived on the Indian reservation, because their homes were so scattered, and in many instances no roads went to the ho-gans. Lloyd Hansen, while he was superintendent, had taken it upon himself to enumerate the Indian children. Over the years he had made many friends among the Indian people and was able to get a pretty good enumeration. I wondered what I would do, then I thought, "These are war years and there is sugar rationing. Each family has to sign up with a government agency and list all their children before they can receive sugar stamps." All I needed to do was to locate those agencies and get permission to copy their records. I spent about three days looking up the agencies and getting the information. Needless to say, our district received more state aid that year than ever before because the count of the children was more complete. A few years later, the state legislature changed the formula for state aid, so the enumeration became less important. After uranium was discovered in San Juan the valuation of the property of the county began to increase and we had a little more money to work with. In 1943 the valuation of 340 Education Monticello Boy Scouts in 1973 Pioneer Days Parade. Photograph by Ken Hochfeld, USHS Collections. the county was just over 3 million dollars. After the big oil field was discovered in the Aneth area, along with the uranium ore in the county, the valuation rose to a high of 134 million dollars. In a few short years, San Juan School District had risen from the poorest school district per capita to the richest. This was a new feeling and a new experience for the school board and for the superintendent. We were practical, however, and did not resort to unnecessary spending. We were able to raise our teachers' salary schedule so that it was the highest in the state on the base, though not as high as some on the upper end. We were able to bid for the most qualified teachers and to get some of them. We still had the problem of location, however. Many prospective teachers said, "It's too far away." When new people began to move into the district, we needed more school buildings. Some of our existing buildings were getting old and needed to be replaced, and some of them needed additions. We were able to accomplish all this 341 San Juan County without going into debt and by keeping the tax mill levy at a minimum. New buildings constructed during this time included Monticello High, Monticello Elementary, Blanding Elementary, Albert R. Lyman Elementary, San Juan High, Montezuma Elementary, Bluff Elementary, Mexican Hat Elementary, and La Sal Elementary. At the time I retired as superintendent of schools there was only one building still in use which was standing when I started. I was happy that all this had been accomplished with very little burden on the tax payers. I found out, however, that even though money helps, it does not solve all the problems. One of the problems we faced during the 1940s and 1950s was the consolidation of schools. It was a very difficult task. San Juan School District, geographically, is the largest school district in the United States. Although most of the people lived in the towns of Blanding and Monticello, others lived at their mines, dry farms, ranches, and other areas quite some distance from the towns. Roads were mostly dirt and often built over rough terrain. Travel was hazardous and sometimes impossible. The policy was if there were six school children in an area, we would try to make a school available to them. From the late 1930s through the 1950s, we operated one- or two-room schools at Old La Sal, La Sal, Lock-erby, Ginger Hill, Bug Point, Cedar Point, Horsehead, Eastland, Frye Canyon, White Canyon, South Montezuma, Blanding Indian, Bluff, St. Christophers, Mexican Hat, Ucolo, East Summit Point No. 1, East Summit Point No. 2, West Summit Point No. 1, West Summit Point No. 2, the north rim of White Canyon, and White Canyon. Some of these schools did not exist more than a year or two. People would leave the area and there would be no children for the school. We had some very interesting experiences at these one-and two-room schools. If a family lived two and one-half miles from school, we would reimburse the parents a few dollars per month to help with expenses of getting their children to school. A certain father, a widower, living fifteen miles from a school, brought his two sons, about eleven and 342 Education thirteen years old. He parked a sheep camp, a small lumber room on wheels, and left his sons there to go to school. Things seemed to go well until Thanksgiving when the superintendent received word from the teacher that the two boys were in trouble and he should come out and investigate. The superintendent arrived at the school and the boys were turned over to him immediately. The boys had broken into the cellar of one of the farmers in the neighborhood and had taken two or three bottles of fruit. Upon investigation, the superintendent found that the only food that the boys had in their sheep camp was a little bag of flour. Those poor kids were half-starved and, being too proud to beg, had helped themselves to something the farmer had plenty of. Their father, for some reason, had failed to check on the needs of the boys, and they became too hungry for their endurance. Needless to say, the boys were not referred to the sheriff. Other arrangements were made for them. About eight o'clock one evening, a week after the school season opened, a knock came on my door. I went to the door, opened -it, and there stood a little lady, five feet two inches tall, weighing about one hundred ten pounds. I greeted her and she said, "Are you Superintendent Black?" I told her I was and asked what I could do for her. "I came to teach your Horsehead School," was her response. A few days before, I had written a note to the Deseret News explaining that there were two or three of our schools not opening because I could not get anyone to teach them. The paper had written a little news item. Mrs. Reese, the little lady, had read the article. She had been a teacher and thought it was a tragedy for those children not to have a school. She decided to try and help. I was a little skeptical. After all, if she was a teacher, why had she not obtained a job in the city area where she lived. She indicated that she had not intended to teach, but when she read the newspaper article, she decided she would like to try it. The next morning I took Mrs. Reese out to Horsehead, helped her find a place to board with one of the families and then turned over the school to 343 San Juan County her, not without some misgivings. I did not have an elementary supervisor to work with her so decided I would give her a week or two to get started, then visit her to see how she was doing. It was three weeks later before I was able to get back to Horsehead. As I opened the door and walked into the classroom I wanted to turn around, leave the room, and cry. The pupils were up out of their seats, some of them in small groups talking and laughing, there was lots of noise. It was disturbing to one used to a quiet classroom. Things seemed to be in great disorder. Fortunately, I controlled my feelings, greeted Mrs. Reese, and asked her to continue and I would observe for awhile. As I waited and watched, I began to see things which I had not noticed at the beginning. Mrs. Reese was conducting recitation class with one group, two or three groups of children were discussing their lessons together and exchanging ideas, and three or four pupils were studying individually. As time went on and my insight improved, I found an orderly classroom, every pupil assigned and every pupil participating. Yes, it was noisy, but not disorderly. I left the school two or three hours later having learned a good lesson, "Things are not always what they seem to be at first glance." Three weeks later, I asked one of the school board members, who happened to live in the Horsehead area, how the people liked Mrs. Reese. He said, "We think she is the best thing that ever happened to us." I had the experience of moving a school across the Colorado River. The Garfield School District had been holding a school at Hite, a little community near the mouth of White Canyon located in San Juan across the river and up the river about two miles. Some of our White Canyon pupils had been going to the Hite School. It became known to the Garfield superintendent and to me that only two of the pupils were Garfield students and eight of them were San Juan students. The Garfield superintendent wanted San Juan to take over the operation of the school because it was so remote from his headquarters and most of the pupils were from our district. It was not feasible for us to operate a school in another 344 Education district, so we decided to move the school to the little community of White Canyon. The White Canyon community had a one-room lumber building which the people used as a community center, and we received permission to use it for the school year. I made arrangements with one of the board members to use his truck; and he and I, along with our wives, proceeded to travel the long, twisting, and dangerous road to White Canyon, a distance of over ninety miles. We drove to the Hite Ferry, ferried the truck across the Colorado River, and proceeded to the Hite school. We loaded the school desks, equipment, and available books and supplies, then proceeded back to the ferry and across the river. It was a little scary, but we made it without any trouble. We set up the classroom in the White Canyon building and got one of the local ladies, Janet Blake, to teach the school. It was an interesting year for the two Hite children who crossed the waters of the Colorado River in a motor boat twice a day, with their father. Most teachers are dedicated and willing to give their best and then some more for their pupils. I was looking for a teacher for our West Summit Point school. I heard about a woman in Colorado on a dry farm, who was a good teacher. I found out where the farm was and went to see her. She could not take the school, but she had an eighteen-year-old daughter who had just graduated from high school. She wanted to go to college, but money was short and her mother said she might take the school. I talked with her and we decided to give it a trial. I visited her two or three times during the fall and early winter. She lived in a little one-room shack just back of the schoolhouse. There was no electricity, no water except what she pumped by hand out of a well. Her shack was heated by an old kitchen coal and wood range. Her furniture consisted of a bunk bed and a chair and table. The schoolhouse was a one-room frame building heated with a pot-bellied stove. There was one door in the building, a wooden floor, and four or five windows on the south side which were the only source of light. She was her own janitor 345 San Juan County and had to build the fire each morning and keep it going during the day. She carried her own coal and wood and swept her own floors. The conditions were primitive. And her closest neighbor was at least a mile away. I visited her several times during the fall and early winter. Each time, she seemed to be bright, cheerful, and happy and the children seemed to be doing well. Christmas time came and she went home to spend Christmas with her family. A day or two before school was to start, the first of January, there was a heavy snow storm. The storm blocked the road to Summit Point with ten to fourteen inches of snow. A less dedicated person would have waited a week or so until the roads were cleared. This young lady, however, took the attitude that if the school calendar said the schools were to open Monday, January 2, then her school would open on Monday, January 2. The day before school was to open, her parents took her to the Summit Point road turn-off, and she proceeded to walk to the Summit Point School through twelve inches of snow, a distance of fourteen miles. She was exhausted when she reached the school, but her school opened on time. At the end of the week, she developed a serious case of pneumonia brought on by her exposure and exhaustion and had to be taken to the Cortez hospital. Normally the school would have closed, but not this one. Her mother went to the school and taught until the girl was able to return. I learned then where and how the young girl had developed her great sense of responsibility, dependability, and dedication. Consolidation was difficult because of bad roads and long distances. When a school was established in an area, the people felt more of a community spirit; and to take away their school, in their minds, would destroy the community. In time roads were improved. In 1945 I talked with the people of the little community of Ucolo about closing their school and busing their children to Monticello where they could have better schooling. Their reaction was decidely negative because of danger to their children, long days for their children, including bus riding time, and the breaking up 346 Education of the community when the school was gone. I told them that this was only a suggestion and that we would not close the school without their consent. However, I pointed out, that it would continue to be very difficult to obtain a good teacher for Ucolo, and the time might come when no teacher was available. On the other hand, the children could be assured of good schooling in the Monticello schools. I told them that according to their decision, we would continue to operate the school to the best of our ability. During this meeting, I remembered what David Gourley, the assistant superintendent of schools for the state of Utah, had told me soon after I accepted the position of superintendent of schools for San Juan School District. He said, "Superintendent, you will find many things that need to be done and many things that need to be changed. Take your time. Don't rush into anything involving changes before the people are ready. It is much easier when the people are ready to move with you." Roads were improved and school busing became safer, so in 1947 I requested that the school board allow me to order two school buses. The consent was given and the buses ordered. At our August school board meeting, a delegation from the Ucolo area came to meet with the board. I did not know what their problem was, so I was surprised when they presented a petition, signed by all the parents of the area, requesting that the school board send a bus to Ucolo to bus their children to Monticello for the coming school year. And so the San Juan School District entered into the realm of school busing service, not by coercion of the people, not by persuasion of the people, but by the request of the people. As roads improved and people found that there were advantages to school busing, more buses were added, more of the one-room schools were closed and consolidation moved along smoothly. One-room schools were needed in our school district before traveling became easy. The conditions under which the children went to school were meager and primitive. Supplies 347 San Juan County Footbridge across the San Juan River used by Navajo children to reach school buses, 1973- Photograph by Ken Hochfeld, USHS Collections. 348 Education and books were limited, and too often teachers were untrained. However, the product of these schools, the pupils, was usually good. I am personally acquainted with community leaders, successful businessmen, professional men and women, who got their start in our one-room schools. These kinds of schools, for the most part, are no longer needed, but they served their patrons well during their time. Another important story is that of education for the Indian children residing in San Juan. By treaty, made when the Indians were placed on the reservations, the U.S. Government was to take the responsibility of educating the Indian children living on the reservations. The government has not done a very good job of living up to the treaty. Some day schools and some dormitory schools were established, but not nearly enough. Only a small part of the children were being reached. One little two-room dormitory school was established in San Juan County at the Aneth Trading Post. This school could accommodate a maximum of forty pupils. There were several hundred other Indian children on the reservation who had no access to any school. The public school officials did not feel that it was their responsibility and, for the most part, did nothing for these children. Some of the Indian families gradually migrated from the reservation to other parts of our county, principally in the Blanding and Bluff areas. No effort was made to keep these children out of school; at the same time no effort was made to get them in school. The Indian parents often moved from place to place and did not see the need of their children attending school. During the 1930s, an effort was made to make it possible for the children of the families of the Ute Tribe to go to school in Blanding. The families were on the move most of the time so the government provided a dormitory for the children, and the school officials accepted the children in the schools. This plan was carried on for two or three years and provided for twenty or thirty children. It was not successful and the program was abandoned. The dormitory was expensive, the Ute children did not get along very well in school, they kept 349 San Juan County running away and were truant from school, and the parents did not cooperate. However, those children who attended school learned to speak English and have been an aid in teaching their children and urging them to go to school. The real breakthrough for the education of the Indian children did not come until the 1950s. Albert R. Lyman, a true champion for Indian education, came to me several times and wanted me to push for a dormitory in Blanding to house Indian children where they could be kept clean, properly fed, and cared for. They would then attend the Blanding schools. I did not agree with this plan. My opinion was that children are much better off living with their parents. They needed the parental influence and love which they could not get in a dormitory. Also, I would hear talk among people of the community that they did not want the Indian children in their schools. They felt that the Indian children would cause discipline, scholarship, and pupil morale to deteriorate. I recalled what David Gourley had told me about not making changes until the people were ready. In the late 1950s Albert R. Lyman, his wife, and a few other interested Blanding citizens, built a two-room school-house on the west rim of Westwater Canyon. There were twelve or fifteen Indian camps within two or three miles of the schoolhouse. Mr. Lyman and his wife proceeded to open and conduct a school for the Indian children of that area. They had fair success with their project but because of their age it was quite hard for them to get to the school so they got two or three Blanding men to move the building to Blanding in the northwest part of town. Lyman and his wife conducted the school in the new location for another year with an enrollment of about fifteen pupils and an average daily attendance of about eight. At the end of that school year, George Hurst, president of die school board, and I thought that the school should be taken over by the school district and operated as one of our schools. The rest of the board members agreed. We operated this school for two or three years as an Indian school, and then I suggested to the 350 Education board that we close this school and integrate the pupils into our regular school grades. It was agreeable with the board members, and so we made the change with little opposition. About this time, St. Chrisopher's Mission, near Bluff, was conducting a one-room school for the Indian children in the immediate area of the Mission. With the approval of the Mission, we incorporated that school into our system, operated it for two or three years, then took the children to Bluff to our regular school. Financially we were in good shape. We could take on these extra responsibilities without difficulty. Within a few years of the integration of these two Indian schools with our regular schools, school busing was accepted by our people as a way of life. We established bus routes wherever there were children to come to school, provided roads were available and in fair to good condition. We built a new school building for elementary students at Montezuma Creek, our first venture with buildings on the reservation, and bused the high school students to Blanding. We sent buses to Mexican Hat and Monument Valley to bring children to school. The San Juan School District was finally involved in the education of all school age children who lived in the district. This took many years but was finally accomplished with very little opposition from our people. When I left office, the school district still had two problems to solve for the benefit and convenience of the Indian people and the education of their children. High school students in die Montezuma Creek area rode the bus forty to fifty miles each way, and the Monument Valley high school students rode as many as seventy miles one way. These children would leave home before daylight and get home after dark, a high price to pay for their education. Since I retired, the district has constructed White Horse High School at Montezuma Creek and is in the process of building a combination elementary and high school in Monument Valley. This should go a long way toward shortening the long bus trips, because every child will have a school not too far away from home. 351 San Juan County I enjoyed my twenty four years as administrative superintendent of San Juan School District and the opportunity to contribute my efforts and my philosophy and to see the amazing growth and development of education in San Juan. 352 |
