WILLAMINA, Ore. — Members of an Oregon tribe and a Willamette Valley school board are at odds over a request to hang a tribal flag in the school gymnasium along with state and national flags.
Leaders of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde have pressed the Willamina School Board for a decision on their request, calling it a positive gesture in a district where about a quarter of the students are Native American.
It was greeted in April by a counterproposal from the board’s chair, Craig Johnson: The tribe should pay the district $25,000 over five years to display the flag. Another board member, Ken Onstot, said displaying the tribal flag could be “semi-divisive” because only a quarter of the enrollment is Native American.
After three meetings on the question, including one with a pair of state Department of Education officials, the board is expected to make a decision at a meeting June 23, the Yamhill Valley News-Register reported Friday.