The Resource January 2014 Volume 1 Issue 001 | Page 4

L

ike all success stories, the Bee
Holdzil (Stronghold) Fighting
Scouts Events Center started with a
dream, a thought, a vision, or a simple seed of hope and faith. This dream
was magnificent
by
and beautiful surDr. Deborah
rounded in nature
Jackson-Dennison, to reflect posiSuperintendent of tively on who we
are and what we
Schools
believe in within
our community as Dine’ people. The
Stronghold will always reflect the future of our children for generations to
come. The process of practicing the
teachings and integrating the wisdom
of our Dine’ forefathers and leaders
to first to think, dream or positively
envision goodness; then to plan or
design what this will look like; followed by actually working the plan or
implementing the designs; and finally
reflecting or evaluating how we will
continue to improve, is the process we
used to bring about the Bee Holdzil
(Stronghold) Fighting Scouts Events
Center. At first there was that dream.
A dream for a bigger facility to better
serve the most accomplished girls and
boys basketball teams in the 4 corners region of the Navajo Nation, the
Window Rock High School Fighting
Scouts! Our dreams formed to include
such a facility that would parallel with
our District’s vision of “Becoming A
Student Centered Organization Reflecting The Dine’ Values of Life-long
Learning,” through being able to host
other culturally and community relevant athletics and activities, as we
believe that embracing our cultural
relevancy will bring about the Pride,

4

January 2014 issue 001

Honor, Tradition and Respect among
us all while enhancing community
progress and financial support to our
school community and especially our
student’s academic programs of Window Rock Unified School District.

Historically, there was a time
when the Veteran’s Memorial Field
House, or the “Thunderdome” as it
became known in the 1990’s, was considered the largest basketball facility
on the Navajo Nation with capabilities
to host all fans of our Fighting Scouts
and their opponents. In the latter part
of the 1960’s and early 1970’s, I was
in grade school and fondly remember visiting the Field House to watch
the Scouts play and practice as my
late father Dean
Jackson and my
uncle Jack Jackson, Sr. coached
on the basketball
programs for our
Window
Rock
Fighting Scouts.
The Field House
back then seemed
extremely huge especially in comparison to the “tin gym” that still sits adjacent to the old Ft. Defiance Elementary School.

Around the late 70’s our
school community began to see the
FIGHTING SCOUTS SPIRIT grow
vastly as fans began to emerge from
all directions, many times selling out
and filling the 1,500 seating capacity of the Veteran’s Memorial Field
House. As the Window Rock Fighting
Scouts pride grew, the number of state,
regional and conference titles also began to collect as displayed by the nu-

merous years of Columbia blue and
white flags now showcased in the Bee
Holdzil (Stronghold) Fighting Scouts
Events Center Heritage Hall. By the
late 1980’s and 1990’s our Window
Rock High School Lady Scouts won
several back-to-back state titles while
the Boys also won their first state title
after many conference and regional titles.

As a proud alumni of Window Rock High School myself who returned as Superintendent of Schools in
2002, it was clear to me from the onset
of my role as a leader that the Veteran’s
Memorial Field House, as wonderful
as it is, was no longer large enough
for our Window Rock Fighting Scouts
and Lady Scouts
outstanding athletic teams and
their fans! The
dreaming, envisioning and the
planting of the
seeds of hope
and faith as our
Dine’ forefathers
taught us for such a facility to become
reality started there through our facility master plan approved by the Governing Board in the fall of 2004. We
dreamed big and we dreamed bold and
our facility master plan was designed
for such because we believe with conviction that our children, our students,
our futures deserve nothing less than
the very best and that’s what we have
always intended to deliver on as leaders. Included in the facility master
plan was of course the financial plan
of how we would be able to afford
such a dream without jeopardizing the

“The Stronghold will
always reflect the
future of our children
for generations
to come.”

quality academic programs required
and expected of any school district.

Unfortunately in 2006, we
faced the first big challenge of not seeing our big and bold dream come to
reality with the change of our Governing Board and Administrative Leadership makeup. The facility master plan
developed by the District Architects,
Green & Green and the Administration and approved by the previous
Governing Board in 2004 was pretty
much dismantled and disassembled.
The facility master plan was no longer
followed and by 2009, upon my returning as Superintendent of Schools
again, we had to reassemble a team of
stakeholder representatives to work
toward fulfilling the community approved Impact Aid bond. Our team
first studied what cash reserves were
available and considering the cost of
remaining construction projects still
underway at that time, we studied
the Impact Aid bonding possibilities
available to schools like Window
Rock Unified School District. From
the onset it was always our goal