The 2017-2018 McKinley County Spelling Bee went for 23 rounds before TaSheena Thompson, an eighth grader at Gallup Middle School, was declared the winner after correctly spelling the word “trespasser.”

The district spelling bee was held at the Kenneth Halloway Auditorium at Gallup High School. Three judges sat at a table front and center of the stage and the pronouncer, Wade Bell, Gallup McKinley County Schools Director of Instruction, sat at the podium left of the stage.

Thompson and second place contestant Jerome Rabaya, a fifth grader from Red Rock Elementary, will represent the district at the New Mexico Spelling Bee at Sandia Preparatory School in Albuquerque on March...

Erika Prendas is Camille’s Sidewalk CafE’s Teacher of the Month

Erika Prendas, eighth  grade language arts teacher at John F. Kennedy Middle School, attended the school herself as a girl, and believes teaching is her destiny.

Now, she has been selected as Camille’s Sidewalk Cafe’s Teacher of the Month.

Hearing news of the win surprised Prendas, but she was even more shocked and delighted that someone had nominated her in the first place. Middle school students are taught by many teachers, so the pool of potential honorees is large, making her selection all the more special.

“I honestly was surprised and thought they were kidding when I was given the news. I was shocked...

TSAILE, Ariz. — A little more than a week into 2018, Diné College opened its doors to an educational touring group from Down Under.

The mix of five students and professionals visited the main campus’s “Hogan Room,” toured nearby Canyon de Chelly and walked the halls of the Ned Hatathli Building at the Tsaile campus.

The visit was set up so that the group could learn more about education methods around the Navajo Nation and acquire ideas about applying that knowledge to the Aboriginal Australians.

Note: Australia is commonly referred to as “Down Under,” a term recognizing the country for its position in the southern hemisphere. The Aborigines are descended from groups...

A collaborative environment connecting McKinley, Navajo Nation and Zuni Pueblo

The McKinley Community Health Alliance celebrated its twentieth anniversary Jan. 10 at the New Mexico Cancer Center. For two decades, the alliance has collaborated with various entities in McKinley County, Navajo Nation and Zuni Pueblo to address health disparities across the region.

Starting in 1998, the MCHA began with the mission of promoting the health and well being of all people in the county and neighboring area. Today, their mission is to affect and facilitate change in systems.

Building the alliance up to the position it holds today took decades of work and planning. Dr. Jana Gunnell and Jeff...