Remote Navajo School Poses Unique Challenges

By Neal Singer

The $18 million Jeehdeez’a Academy, located miles from the nearest paved road in the Four Corners region, will soon be reborn as an 80,000-sq-ft school built by and for the Navajo community.

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When his firm won an $18 million contract to build an 80,052-sq-ft elementary school in the heart of the Navajo Nation, diplomacy and a sense of adventure became as much a part of success as the normal construction skills, Albuquerque-based Flintco Inc. project manager Steve Stroppel says.

The Navajo Reservation is as big as New England, but forget cell phones, says Flintco project engineer Alex Frank. There's limited service at Low Mountain, the site of Jeehdeez'a Academy, which will replace an older elementary school that is being demolished.

The closest gas station is 30 minutes away, and the nearest motel 45 miles. It’s nearly two hours to Gallup, N.M., and another two hours to Albuquerque. And don’t underestimate the difficulties of 12 mi of dirt road from the highway turnoff nearly to the site, where 2-mi of asphalt take over.

The Navajo Preference in Employment Act, enforced by the Office of Navajo Labor Relations, requires employers to give preference in employment to Navajos.  “Two hundred Navajos filled out applications at the Low Mountain Chapter House and were made available to the subcontractors for employment purposes,” Stroppel says.  “Some subcontractors already had their core workers made up of skilled Navajos.

Eighty to 90% of the work force is Navajo, says Frank, who is himself Navajo.

Before the property could be cleaned to prepare for construction, the local Navajo chapter house needed to discuss who to give the old trailers and storage bins to.

All in all, such a project "puts a few years on you, but considering the difficulties, the project's coming along quite well," Stroppel says

Stroppel meets with the school board once a month for five to six hours at a stretch to discuss the project and any change orders. A quorum of three members of the four-person board is needed to make decisions. 

"This school is a community effort," he adds.

Still, the project is ahead of schedule. Started in June 2006 and originally slated for completion next June, a completion date earlier in the year is a possibility, Stroppel says.

The company set up a fenced-off trailer park across from the jobsite with sewer, water and electricity from the Navajo Power Authority in order to reduce the number of employee commutes and possible accidents.

Walkie-talkies enable remote conversations at the site, and a land line ties the project to the outer world.

Project architect Terry Brown, FAIA, of Albuquerque-based ASCG Inc., says early involvement of contractors also helped. "They helped select methods of construction and got buildings started earlier than would be usual in design-build," he says. "We broke ground on earthworks for footings well before we finished the design documents."

ASCG is an Indian-owned architectural engineering firm recently bought by NANA, an Alaskan native corporation. The arrangement of school buildings at the site demonstrates their cultural sensitivity.

“The traditional hogan-shaped [eight-sided] building beside the school entry faces east, symbolizing for Navajos the beginning of life,” Brown says.  Buildings fan out in a “circle of life” to house classrooms, athletic facilities, administration, employee residences, and maintenance buildings.

The concrete-block exterior is embellished with designs based on Navajo weaving and done using reddish and charcoal natural colors. The walls are steel-reinforced and grouted solid. 

“Basically, we’re doing well because of the manpower and leadership of the superintendents in pushing the schedule ahead,” Stroppel says. “They coordinate the subcontractors doing three different buildings in three different stages.  The classrooms are nearing completion with sheetrock, the second building is getting electrical, and the third we just started framing.”

Guaranteed maximum price for the buildings was guaranteed when the company hit 70% of design completion.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs put up the money and allowed the local community to put the project out to bid. But the government agency has not abandoned its oversight role and will begin inspecting the project in January.

“Then we’ll pick a time frame to move children into the new school, then make the old one into a grass area,” Stroppel says.  He expects to be finished with demolition and restoration of the land by May, a month ahead of schedule.

Key Players

Owner: Jeehdeez’a Academy Inc.
Project Manager: Pinnacle One
Authority Having Jurisdiction:  Bureau of Indian Affairs
Contractor: Flintco Inc.
Architect: ASCG Inc.
Subcontractors: Gonzalez Mechanical; Sun Valley Masonry; Hacienda Mechanical;  Forgemaster Iron; Electro Tech Corp.; Bear Creek Construction; Navajo Housing Authority; Barton Southwest Builders; Kaufman Fire Protection

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