The Annual Report of the Confe4entec Tribes of Warm Springs
Th&
Business
The role of the Confeder
ated Tribes' Business and Eco
nomic Development Branch is
of increasing importance on
the reservation. The branch
was formed in 1989, when the
economy of the reservation
was declining.
Since that time, Economic
Development has accom
plished a number of goals, but
many challenges are still ahead.
Growing and diversifying the
local economy of the Confed
erated Tribes remains the over
all goal and purpose of this
and Economic
Development employs 13
people. Twelve of them are
tribal members.
The branch's Small Business
Center has three employees,
two of them tribal members.
The branch also includes an
administration office, employ
ing four tribal members.
Included in Business and
Economic Development is the
Simnasho Store, which em
ploys six people, all tribal
members.
The annual budget of the
A couple of years ago, the
ever-changing face of tribal
education and its components,
split the Education Branch
into two branches. The Essen
tial Education branch is com
prised of Higher Education
(tribal college scholarships,
etc.), the 509 J Jefferson
County School District (K-12),
the Tribal Trust Fund and
Early Childhood Education.
Early Childhood Education
includes Head Start, Early
Head Start, Child Develop
ment Center (infanttoddler
care and school age care), Early
Intervention and Early Child
hood Special Education, Child
Care Development Fund and
the Child and Adult Care Food
Program.
The Early Childhood Edu
cation Center has 74 employ
ees with more than half (45)
being tribal members. The an
nual budget for the entire
branch includes slightly more
than $1 million in tribal dol
lars. There are a number of
other funding sources for this
most important branch.
Julie Quaid, the Essential
Education Director, said the
downsizing efforts over the last
few years have had a dramatic
impact on the program. One
childcare classroom has closed,
resulting in fewer childcare
slots being available. There arc
two less Preschool and school
age childcare classrooms avail
able due to eliminating posi
tions. This has resulted in class
sizes reaching the maximum
allowed for this age group.
Routine office duties fall to
supervisors and non-teaching
staff due to the elimination of
the secretarial staff, This re
sults in less time for adminis
tration, planning, and fiscal
responsibilities. There isn't
enough money for groceries
for ECE meals because food
costs increased as the budget
decreased. This resulted in re
ducing other operational costs
to shift funds to buy groceries.
Another challenge is hiring.
The downsizing and the two
year hiring freeze have resulted
in lengthy delays in filling va
cancies. During the approval,
and Economic Development
Business and Economic
Development Director
Mike Clements
branch is $500,000. A chal
lenge for the long-term future
will be maintaining financial
resources sufficient to produce
successful results in strategic
economic areas, said Mike
Clements, general manager of
the branch.
Already, the downsizing of
tribal government, due to bud
getary limitations, has resulted
in the revising of one job posi
tion at the Small Business Cen
ter, said Clements.
Essential
advertisement, selection, and
hiring process, a temporary
replacement assumes class
room responsibilities. This
negatively impacts the quality
, of the early childhood educa
tion and care each child re
ceives. Quality is difficult to
maintain with an untrained
and inexperienced temporary
staff. Despite these many chal
lenges, the staff at Early Child
hood take pride in their work
and every day, good things hap
pen for children. The program
supports staff in pursuing their
higher education in an effort
to increase their own knowl
edge and abilities for working
with children. Regularly sched
uled in-service trainings pro
vide the entire staff with addi
tional knowledge and practical
information about supporting
every child's healthy develop
ment and early learning.
"Quality early childhood
education is one of the best
investments Warm Springs can
make for our children's fu
ture," said Julie Quaid. Re
search shows that children at
tending high quality programs
are more likely to develop the
language, pre-mathematics and
social skills they need to suc
ceed in school. The Kindergar
ten teachers at Warm Springs
Elementary have commended
the I lead Start preschool pro
gram for the excellent skills
they are seeing in children as
they transition into the public
school system. If we value our
children, our families, our
schools, and our community,"
says Quaid, "we must make
accessible, affordable, high
quality early childhood educa
tion a priority." Warm Springs
ECE advocates a comprehen
sive effort to improve the qual
ity of early childhood educa
tion, including:
Providing professional de
velopment opportunities and
adequate compensation for
teachers and staff;
Improving the health and
safety of programs;
Using developmentally ap
propriate practices to encour
age literacy and learning from
birth; and,
In reviewing some of the
most recent accomplishments
of his branch, Clements men
tioned the following:
Establishment of Warm
Springs Ventures, a corpora
tion dedicated toward diversi
fying the economy of the res
ervation, and generating rev
enue for the Confederated
Tribes.
The tribal construction pro
gram was established as a new
enterprise.
Plans for Warm Springs
Environmental Services, a new
tribal business operation, were
finalized. This program has ,'r
been funded, and now employs
eight people. ,,v
The Small Business and the
Grant program have pro
gressed. In looking toward the fu
ture, Business and Economic
Development will be focusing
on the Economic Revitaliza
tion Initiative.
Part of this initiative in
volves planning ways to in
crease tourism and travel on
the reservation. Another part
of the initiative focuses on ,
Education
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Warm Springs Elementary School student enjoys recess.
Supporting the family's cru
cial role in early education.
When asked about accom
plishments in the last two
years, Ms. Quaid said she took
great pride in the fact that Es
sential Education branch orga
nized a successful campaign to
build a new elementary school,
maintained an effective part
nership with the Jefferson
County School District, and
held the first annual Education
Summit focused on public
school education in Warm
Springs. Other accomplish
ments include the Early Child
hood Education Center pro
viding high quality early care
and education programs to the
Warm Springs community by
collaborating resources with
tribal, state, and federal fund
ing agencies. The I Iighcr Edu
cation department provides in
dividualized post-secondary
and vocational education plan
ning and preparation activities
for eligible tribal members.
The Essential Education office
staff improved tracking of
tribal member high school
graduates in order to imple
ment the Tribal Council edu
cational requirements to re
The overall goals
of Business and
Economic Develop
ment develop-'
ment and diversifi
cation of the local
economy - are
identical to the
main goals of the
Confederated
Tribes, as set forth
in the Peoples Plan,
and by the Tribal
Council.
commercial and retail busi
ness, and development of
the downtown area of
Warm Springs.
The overall goals of Busi
ness and Economic Devel
opment - development and
diversification of the local
economy - are identical to
the main goals of the Con
federated Tribes, as set forth
in the People's Plan, and by
the Tribal Council.
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ceive the minor's trust fund.
The tribal organization fo
cused its emphasis on essen
tial education services from
infancy through higher edu
cation by organizing similar
programs under one depart
ment. This addressed the
need to maintain an effective
partnership , with the
Jefferson County School dis
trict for K-12 education.
In the future, Julie Quaid
foresees a number of excit
ing improvements. As an
example, there is a complete
new Warm Springs elemen
tary school project. She also
has plans to develop re
sources to open and main
tain a Warm Springs Library.
Another goal is to seek ad
ditional funds to maintain
delivery of quality early care
and education programs.
The branch will maintain a
student-tracking database of
middle and high school stu
dents to ensure participation
and completion of high
school.
Set ESSENTIAL EDUCA
TION on 1)
Compensation
ana Benefits
The Comp and Benefits
Managed Care Program has
eleven full-time employees and
a part-time physician who as
sists at the Health and Wellness
Center. The staff includes four
tribal members, three married
into tribe, one other Indian
and three non-Indians.
Group Benefits has a bud
get of f 1,245,000, Comp and
Benefits is $129,000; Workers
Comp $460,500; 401 (k) pen
sion $1,998,218 for a grand to
tal of $3,833,618. The Managed
Care Program is operated by
the Confederated Tribes, but
funding is through the federal
government. The budget at the
beginning of 2001 for patient
referrals for health care was
$2,605,830.
A major accomplishment at
Comp and Benefits was the
establishment and implemen
tation of a 401(k) retirement
plan. The staff also managed to
maintain accurate records and
update data for all pension
plans. On-going support was
provided to the Tribal Pension
Committee, enterprises, and
current and former employees.
The staff monitored and
tracked all new hires and per
sonnel actions, while ensuring
Information Systems
The Office of information
Systems (OIS) has eight em
ployees and an annual budget
of $655,724. Two positions
have been cut during the past
two years, so branch employ
ees are extremely busy trying
to provide technical support
for the entire organization.
During 2001, OIS re
sponded to over 1,300 service
requests in support of eight
Local Area Networks, 480 mi
crocomputer users, 370 elec
tronic mail users, and 210
Internet users. The branch also
supported the upgrading to
network-based systems of the
Financial Management Sys
tem, Credit Office and Vital
Statistics appliances, which
enables the Confederated
Tribes to phase-out central
computer operations.
The Wide Area Network
(WAN) was expanded to in
clude Early Childhood Educa
tion, Housing and Commu
nity Counseling buildings.
Most of the tribal offices now
have the ability to share com
puter resources and files, and
communicate over the WAN.
OIS has managed and main
tained the Warm Springs web
site, expanded the Electronic
Tribal Library, and offered
starter web sites to local busi
nesses, so as to encourage e
Commcrce in Warm Springs.
The branch has been ex
tremely productive over the
past two years and the chal
lenge that lay ahead will be to
remain on the cutting edge of
technology. Goals for the im
mediate future are as follows:
Continue to maintain and
support the information tech
nology base of the tribal gov
ernment including PCs, net
works, database structures and
telecommunications.
Maintain and support the
development, implementa
tion, and operations of the
tribes' critical systems such as
Tribal Enrollments and Finan
salary administration compli
ance. They also monitored and
updated vacancy listings for
down-sizing efforts. Another
major accomplishment of the
department was to maintain
competitive benefits levels at
the least possible expense to
the Confederated Tribes.
Managed Care operated
within its budget while facili
tating the referral of eligible
patients to specialists off the
reservation without resorting
to deferred services. With dol
lars retained through efficient
operations the department was
able to pay for numerous on
site specialty clinics conducted
by specialists in the fields of
rheumatology, nephrology,
ENT, oral surgery and
endodonistry, and physical
therapy. Staff assisted IHS ef
fort to sign up all community
members eligible for the Or
egon Health Plan. The staff's
close perusal of bills and coop
erative efforts with a medical
claims auditor ensured that rea
sonable prices were paid for
medical services rendered.
In the future Comp and
Benefits hopes to implement a
Please see COMP and
BENEFITS on page 12
cial Management System.
Support the development
and implementation of the
Community Benchmark Re
porting System (Report Card
to the Community).
Support efforts to preserve
and maintain tribal culture and
heritages resources through the
use of electronic records stor
age and retrieval systems.
Enhance the usefulness of
the tribal web site and elec
tronic library by applying elec
tronic document management
methods and functions includ
ing imaging and full-text re
trieval systems.
To help reduce organiza
tional cost while improving
service, begin exploring appli
cation for e-Government (24
7 service to the community).
Pilot projects to include on
line job listing with job appli
cations and listing with appli
cation for bidding on tribal
contracts.
Information processing, re
porting systems, and commu
nications networks are valu
able components of the tribal
infrastructure. Tribal programs
and managers are better able to
support Tribal Council priori
tics through the effective use
of these technologies to sup
port sound decision-making.
By providing technical services
and support of these systems,
OIS indirectly supports all of
the Tribal Council priorities.
Computer and Internet
technology is an essential part
of the economic and employ
ment health of a community.
Its importance will continue to
grow significantly over the
next 5-10 years. Investing in
technical infrastructures today
is an essential ingredient for
future economic health. It docs
not appear this investment is
being given a priority at this
time. We need to keep pace if
we are to take advantage, but
with the budget cuts growing,
this will be difficult.