Introduction
Kayenta, Arizona is located in northeastern Arizona, 30 miles from the Utah border on the Navajo Reservation. The town of Kayenta has a population of 5,189 people, according to the 2010 census. The majority of the population (92.27%) is Native American, and the remaining population include Whites, Blacks or African American, Asian, Pacific Islander, and other races.1 Kayenta is a small town, but one of the larger towns on the Navajo reservation. The small town is served by two different governments: Kayenta Chapter House, which is a division of the greater Navajo reservation government, and Kayenta Township, which is a municipal style government. It has a number of gas stations, churches, restaurants, and one shopping center to serve the community and the surrounding communities. The town also has a hospital, and a Police station. What’s more, the town has several hotels and motels to serve visitors and tourists that pass through the town to get to Monument Valley or Navajo National Monument.
In Kayenta, two schools serve the community as well as the surrounding communities: Kayenta Unified School District and Kayenta Boarding School. Kayenta Boarding School is a K-8 school that is a part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which serves both day and dorm students.
Kayenta Unified School District (KUSD #27) is a Preschool-12 Public School that serves the Kayenta and communities within a 50-mile radius. KUSD includes four schools: ABC Pre-School, Kayenta Elementary School, Kayenta Middle School, and Monument Valley High School. Monument Valley High School is the only high school within a 50-mile radius, and often serves as a feeder school for other schools from the communities of Dennehotso, Chilchinbeto, Rough Rock, Shonto, and Kayenta Boarding School. For the school year of 2020- 2021, KUSD had over 1,522 students enrolled: MVHS 562, KMS 456, KES 386, and Preschool-K 118, according to the June 9, 2021, Regular School Board Meeting. KUSD serves 94.64% Native Americans, 1.81% Hispanics, and 3.09% Multiple races, according to 2019-2020 School year data on AZ School Report Card from Arizona Department of Education.2 Most of the data for the current school year have not been updated on the website due to Covid-19 Pandemic cancelling most of the state assessments for the last two school years.
Kayenta Elementary School serves students from first grade through 4th grade. According to the Arizona Department of Education’s 2019-2020 School Report Card, of the 571 students enrolled, 97.72% were registered as Native American, a majority of them were Navajo students. At the time, there were 109 fourth grade students; 95.4% were Native Americans. This year, there were about 22-24 students in each of the 6 fourth grade classrooms.3
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