Quileute Tribal School (QTS) is a

Quileute The Quileute , are a Native American people in western Washington state in the United States, currently numbering approximately 2,000. They are a federally recognized tribe: the ''Quileute Tribe of the Quileute Reservation''. The Quileute peo ...

, Native American school located in

La Push, Washington La Push is a small unincorporated community situated at the mouth of the Quillayute River in Clallam County, Washington, United States. La Push is the largest community within the Quileute Indian Reservation, which is home to the federally recog ...

. It is a

K-12 school K-1 is a professional kickboxing promotion established in 1993, well known worldwide mainly for its heavyweight division fights and Grand Prix tournaments. In January 2012, K-1 Global Holdings Limited, a company registered in Hong Kong, acquired ...

, serving students in

grades Grade most commonly refers to: * Grade (education), a measurement of a student's performance * Grade, the number of the year a student has reached in a given educational stage * Grade (slope), the steepness of a slope Grade or grading may also r ...

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

– 12. QTS is affiliated with the

Bureau of Indian Education The Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), headquartered in the Main Interior Building in Washington, D.C., and formerly known as the Office of Indian Education Programs (OIEP), is a division of the U.S. Department of the Interior under the Assistant S ...

(BIE). It has a compact with the state of Washington and receives a grant from the BIE. The school is accredited by AdvancED. The school was founded in 1979. There were ten elderly speakers of the

Quileute language Quileute , sometimes alternatively anglicized as Quillayute , is an extinct language, and was the last Chimakuan language, spoken natively until the end of the 20th century by Quileute and Makah elders on the western coast of the Olympic penin ...

in 1977, and "a few" in 1999. The Quileute Nation is attempting to prevent the loss of the Quileute language by teaching it to students in the Quileute Tribal School, using books written for the students by the tribal elders. The Quileute Tribal School is the most common way that Quileutes spread their language that only 3 people, two in their 80s, speak fluently.

Move to higher ground

The school building was constructed in 1992, on low ground, close to the Pacific Ocean. This proximity to the ocean made the school vulnerable to

storm surge A storm surge, storm flood, tidal surge, or storm tide is a coastal flood or tsunami-like phenomenon of rising water commonly associated with low-pressure weather systems, such as cyclones. It is measured as the rise in water level above the n ...

s as well as

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...

events. In 2012,

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

signed legislation that increased the size of the

Quileute Indian Reservation The Quileute Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation for the Quileute people located on the northwestern Olympic Peninsula in Clallam County, Washington, United States. The reservation is at the mouth of the Quillayute River on the Pacific coas ...

by 785 acres, including a tract on ground higher than the rest of the village. The Quileute Tribe decided to construct a new school on the higher ground. In 2016, the

Bureau of Indian Affairs The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior. It is responsible for implementing federal laws and policies related to American Indians and A ...

selected the school for replacement through the

No Child Left Behind Act The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) was a U.S. Act of Congress that reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act; it included Title I provisions applying to disadvantaged students. It supported standards-based education ...

. The tribe received a $44.1 million grant from the Bureau to relocate the school in 2018. Timber was harvested from the site and sold for some additional funding. Construction was estimated to cost around $500 per square foot for the new facilities. On 2 July 2020, ground was broken on construction of the new school. The new facilities are in a location safe from tsunami risk, and were designed to accommodate 175 students.

References

External links

Quileute Tribal School website
Educational institutions established in 1971 Schools in Clallam County, Washington High schools in Clallam County, Washington Public middle schools in Washington (state) Public elementary schools in Washington (state) 1971 establishments in Washington (state) Public high schools in Washington (state) Public K-12 schools in the United States Native American K-12 schools {{Washington-school-stub

Move to higher ground

See also

References

External links