ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – Federal officials named a new director Wednesday to head a troubled agency that funds and manages scores of schools for Native American students and has been beset by scandal, funding shortfalls and safety hazards at the facilities.
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell named Tony Dearman, who is Cherokee, to head the Bureau of Indian Education, a division of the U.S. Interior Department that has oversight of nearly 200 schools in some 20 states.
The bureau has faced scrutiny after a government watchdog report said in March that officials had failed to ensure regular inspections were carried out at dozens of schools, where safety hazards ranged from exposed electrical wires and broken windows to a natural gas leak.
At one school, Government Accountability Office investigators found four aging dormitory boilers failed an inspection and were blamed for high carbon monoxide levels and a natural gas leak but weren’t repaired until about eight months later.
The department has received more than $100 million in funding this year to begin bringing buildings to code and replace others altogether.