By WESLIE STRATTON
Moapa Valley Progress
Local educator Della Frank was nominated and selected as the Johnson O’Malley Program Southwest Region Teacher of the Year. Frank works for the Education Services Division of the Indian Education Opportunities Program in Moapa as well as Las Vegas. She has been with the Johnson O’Malley program since 2007.
Frank was nominated by the parent of one of her many students.
“I oversee 650 students in the Clark County School District to make sure that they’re on task to graduate and are reading by third grade,” Frank said of her responsibilities. “We provide academic and cultural programs for students and families.”
Frank also trains teachers who tutor Native American students.
“It is really overwhelming sometimes,” she said, adding that she trains administrators and principals on the latest laws.
Frank said that she enjoys being a teacher even though she doesn’t spend all of her time in a classroom.
“I do all kinds of teaching,” she said. “At our native youth conferences I’ve done classes on native workshops, colleges and games.”
Frank also teaches adult education and said that seeing native students connect to who they are culturally is the highlight of her career.
Frank, who now holds a Master’s degree, spoke about her work with a 15-year-old student who has a baby of her own. “Just getting her to not give up and letting her see that I too was a high school drop out at one time,” Frank said. “I try to motivate them that if life doesn’t deal the best cards to you, you can still succeed.”
The National Johnson-O’Malley Association, Inc. was formed as a nonprofit educational organization. It has provided funding for supplemental educational programing for American Indian and Alaskan Native students in public schools across America since 1934.
