{"id":22784,"date":"2025-04-08T11:51:21","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T17:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ahead-of-rfk-jrs-planned-n-m-visit-gallup-charter-school-announces-special-guest\/"},"modified":"2025-04-08T17:51:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T17:51:21","slug":"ahead-of-rfk-jrs-planned-n-m-visit-gallup-charter-school-announces-special-guest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ahead-of-rfk-jrs-planned-n-m-visit-gallup-charter-school-announces-special-guest\/","title":{"rendered":"Ahead of RFK Jr\u2019s planned N.M. visit, Gallup charter school announces \u2018special guest\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Health
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during a press conference about Utah's new fluoride ban, food additives and SNAP funds legislation on Monday in Salt Lake City. Melissa Majchrzak\/AP Photo<\/span>dur-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Even though U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been unwilling to say where in New Mexico he will visit this week during a Southwest tour, a conservative charter school in Gallup announced Monday that a \u201cspecial guest\u201d in the \u201cnational spotlight\u201d who appreciates the school\u2019s approach to nutrition and physical fitness will be visiting Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Juliane Hillock, principal at Ho\u0301zho\u0301 Academy in Gallup, sent a letter Monday to staff and students that explains how the visit came about and expresses her hope that \u201cthis level of exposure will generate good will and support the work we are doing to benefit our students.\u201d The letter obtained by Source New Mexico also notes that the school has been asked not to reveal the visitor\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n

The academy is a publicly funded charter school with 667 students in grades K-11, affiliated with the Hillsdale network of charter schools and flagship university, Hillsdale College, in southern Michigan. The schools\u2019 curricula emphasize the \u201ccentrality of the Western tradition in the study of history, literature, philosophy and the fine arts.\u201d Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas called Hillsdale College a \u201cshining city on a hill.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Hillock\u2019s letter, a woman with local ties who works in President Donald Trump\u2019s orbit made the connection between the \u201cspecial guest\u201d and her hometown. That woman, Heidi Overton, was born and raised in the Gallup area, graduated from the University of New Mexico medical school and now serves as the deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council.<\/p>\n

Overton knows some Ho\u0301zho\u0301 parents and is familiar with the school\u2019s approach to nutrition and physical fitness, Hillock wrote.<\/p>\n

Overton \u201cheard about the work we are doing in our (physical education) program modeled after the John F. Kennedy President\u2019s Council on Physical Fitness,\u201d Hillock wrote, \u201cas well as how we have strived to offer the most nutritious meals for students, so she graciously offered to make this connection for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robert F. Kennedy\u2019s visit to Gallup comes as at least one Indian Health Service building in the Navajo Nation border town is on a list of lease terminations proposed by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.<\/p>\n

It also comes as prominent Indigenous leaders, including New Mexico gubernatorial candidate Deb Haaland, criticize Kennedy for deep cuts to services Indigenous patients rely on and for reassigning doctors to Indian Country who don\u2019t have any background working with Native populations.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear whether Kennedy will visit any Indian Health Service locations in New Mexico or elsewhere. A spokesperson told Source New Mexico on Tuesday all his events here would be closed to the press, though his announced schedule includes visits to health centers, discussions with tribal leaders and a noon visit on Wednesday to a \u201cPre-K to 11th grade charter school that integrates healthy eating and physical fitness into its daily student life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennedy\u2019s visit seemed inappropriate to Eirena Begay, the parent of two children who attend or have attended Ho\u0301zho\u0301. In an interview Monday evening with Source New Mexico, she noted how important the COVID-19 vaccines were to stemming the tide of virus-related deaths among Navajo people.<\/p>\n

The Navajo Nation was, at one point, the national epicenter for the virus, where it caused at least 1,800 deaths. So Begay deeply disagrees with Kennedy\u2019s vaccine skepticism.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely am not supportive of his views. I know that the vaccine is what saved us during a pandemic,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Her son, Colin Campbell, 16, said he ultimately left Ho\u0301zho\u0301 because it felt like the teachers were trying to push him to go to Hillsdale College and because he thought he had more coursework options at another school.<\/p>\n

He took classes like Latin and history at Ho\u0301zho\u0301, he said. He recalls that his history teacher wore a Make America Great Again hat all day once at school, but said he really liked his math teacher.<\/p>\n

He said the PE class, which is modeled after RFK Jr.\u2019s uncle\u2019s program and is a reason for his visit, was more intense than those at public schools. In the early 1960s, a council John F. Kennedy convened created nationwide curriculum to encourage physical fitness, and later became the President\u2019s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.<\/p>\n

The academy lays out its philosophy on physical fitness in a program manual on its website, suggesting that high rates of obesity and diabetes made Native Americans more susceptible to the COVID-19 virus.<\/p>\n

The other thing that made PE at Ho\u0301zho\u0301 different, Campbell said, was the shorts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of like a more active PE, I guess, more harder,\u201d he said. \u201cThe only thing that I thought about it was the little, like, hierarchy of shorts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Different physical feats earned points, he said, and the more points a student received, the better the shorts got. The best colors are gold, he said, and the worst is gray.<\/p>\n

As for the food, he said the school took efforts to make it both tasty and nutritious, with mixed results. The pizza, for example, had carrots under the tomato sauce and cheese.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe food\u2019s bad, because I guess they try to make it healthy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hillock did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday morning about Kennedy\u2019s visit or to respond to Campbell\u2019s opinion on the food, among other questions. A spokesperson for RFK also did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Source NM <\/a>is an independent, nonprofit news organization that shines a light on governments, policies and public officials.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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