Cherokee Immersion Charter School principal bypasses Human Resources to hire and fire Cherokee language program student
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – She got the call a week before the first day of school. Principal Holly Davis offered her a job teaching kindergarten at the Cherokee Immersion Charter School.
Hayley Miller, a student nearing the end of her studies in the Cherokee language program at Northeastern State University, was ready to start her career. She went in, filled out an application and turned in her identification cards.
She reported for duty Aug. 7 for classroom preparation and was given a catalog and a $2,000 budget to order supplies. Her name was published in the school handbook as the lead kindergarten teacher.
School started Aug. 13, but Miller still hadn’t received a copy of her contract.
“I was worried about not having that contract. I didn’t even know how much I would be getting paid,” she said.
She took her concerns to Davis, who assured her she was working on it and to just keep track of her hours.
Less than seven weeks later, Davis fired her.
“She told me it was because I’m not Cherokee,” Miller said. “My card did not say I was a Cherokee Nation citizen so I did not qualify for the position. And they agreed - Leroy Qualls (school superintendent) and Neil Morton (Cherokee Nation Education Services advisor) - agreed to let me go.”
“Holly (Davis) had to know I wasn’t Cherokee when she hired me,” Miller said. “It’s on my CDIB (Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood) that I’m Choctaw. I turned in my card with my application.”
Upset, she went to Cherokee Nation Human Resources.
“HR said there was nothing in the policy that stated it was Cherokee only. Debbie Rhea (a Human Resources analyst) told me there is a Cherokee preference but it’s not Cherokee only,” she said.
Then Miller asked about getting paid and was told her application had not been processed.
“I asked, ‘can somebody start working if they haven’t been processed?’” Miller said.
Rhea told her it wasn’t the policy. According to Miller, Rhea said all employment applications must be processed by HR and no one can start working unless they have been processed by Human Resources.
“The situation is that I was working for almost seven weeks and they let me go,” Miller said. “I expected to be paid for my work.”
She went back to Davis to see if they could hash something out. After all, she still had to do her final internship to finalize her Cherokee language degree.
“I asked Holly (Davis) if she would keep me on at least until they found a qualified teacher to take my place,” Miller said. “She told me ‘We can’t do that. They (Qualls and Morton) agreed, we need to just sever ties.’”
Next Miller asked if she would be able to get a job after she had completed her internship and was certified.
“She (Davis) said ‘No, probably not,’” Miller said.
Miller enrolled in the Cherokee program at NSU in 2009. She is married to a Cherokee Nation citizen and their three children are students at the immersion school.
“When I first enrolled, I just wanted to take a couple of classes and learn a little bit. Then when I learned what the program was for, I thought, ‘wow this is cool, I want to do this,’” she said.
Her oldest two children had just started immersion classes and Miller wanted to learn along with them. That desire evolved into a love of the language and a desire use it at home with her children and to teach it.
“It wasn’t just Cherokee Nation citizens in the program,” she said. “There were Keetoowahs (United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians) and non-Native students as well. I didn’t think not being Cherokee mattered. My children are Cherokee and I was doing this for and with them.”
Miller has completed 136 hours and the coursework for a Cherokee Cultural Studies degree, which she didn’t apply for to continue pursuing the language and early childhood teaching certification.
“I owe $44,000. I tried to work here and there while going to school, but it was just too hard,” she said. “I took out the maximum amounts just for us to get by each year.”
Her husband is a student, too. He’s a graduate student working on his Ph.D. He earns little as a teaching assistant, but with three children and both parents in school, Miller said it is tough to make ends meet.
In addition to loans, she qualified for the Pell Grant and a $1,000 per year Choctaw Nation education scholarship. But all that has gone away. She dropped her hours to accept the job Davis offered her at the immersion school.
“I’m not a full-time student now, so I don’t qualify for the financial aid I did before,” Miller said. “We won’t have my financial aid coming in and I don’t know what I’m going to do. All the time I’ve spent and the money I’ve borrowed for an education I may not be able to use is very disheartening. I was counting on that job. I wanted to work there. I still do.”
The immersion school teaching position was posted on the tribe’s website Sept. 30 and closed Oct. 7. The advertised salary is $39,240.00 annually.
As of Oct. 17, the Native Times has not received a response to queries regarding the proper hiring procedures for teachers at the tribe’s charter school as well as the proper procedures for firing a teacher. In the request, Native Times also asked Holly Davis for the reasoning behind the abrupt hiring and firing of Miller and whether there is a properly certified teacher currently in the kindergarten class.
The request was submitted to the school via the tribe’s communications office on Oct. 1.
To date, Miller has not been paid for her work as the lead teacher in the kindergarten class. She did speak with Nason Morton, executive director of Cherokee Nation Human Resources, on Oct. 2 and he made her an offer she rejected as too low for the work she performed.
Nason Morton is the son of Dr. Neil Morton, who reportedly supported Miller’s firing.
Miller received another phone call on Oct. 9. She was offered a higher amount, although not equal to lead teacher pay, by budget analyst Jennifer Pigeon. Miller accepted.
