Yá’át’ééh! Welcome to the Web site of the Kayenta Unified School District. We are located in the Navajo Nation of Arizona, and we are very proud of our heritage. An old Navajo proverb tells us that we do not inherit the land from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. It is our privilege and honor to be in the position to accompany our children on their journey to great heights and solid futures.

As you browse through our Internet home, we know you’ll catch our enthusiasm and appreciate our awesome past, present, and future. We believe that together we can accomplish great things!

We are all hungry. I would like to start this month’s article with a quote by Zig Ziglar, a consultant in leadership and professional development. His quote is this:

“Every night hundreds of thousands of kids go to bed hungry. But the truly sad thing is that every night millions of children go to bed hungry for someone to say something nice to or about them.”

Social psychologists tell us that the average person has about 60,000 thoughts per day, and of those 60,000 thoughts, two-thirds of them are negative. Do we stop and think before we say something to another person that is hateful, distrustful, or just plain untrue? Do we compare our children to other children by saying we wished they acted more like someone else? As teachers, do we say something to positively motivate every child in our classroom to become better and more successful?

Everyone needs to be told they are good at something or they have done something the right way. Children gain hope from this interaction and will strive to do better or continue to be better if we just will take the time to think about what we are going to say to them. Let us start the new year out by consciously trying to be more positive with our interactions with others – especially with children who are still growing and developing into productive members in our society. 

Sincerely,

Harry E Martin, Superintendent