Arthur Milnes
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 17/98) - When you dial 983-2726 in Cambridge Bay a voice answers the phone with the following message: "Good morning, Kiilinik High School."

Normally, this wouldn't be news. However, it's only been two weeks since the school burned to the ground in a tragic fire.

Despite that, staff, students and the whole community have rallied to ensure the school year can get under way with as little disruption as possible. Teachers even came back to work a week early from holidays to help with the re-building.

During a break from frantic planning Thursday, principal George Illaszewicz took time out to discuss how the new school year -- slated to begin Aug. 26 -- is shaping up despite the tragic fire.

"We've now identified sufficient buildings (in the community) to go in on Sept. 8," he said.

"We're quite confident we can offer the full program in cooperation with Arctic College."

This will be good news to Grade 12 students in Cambridge Bay, some who feared their close-knit class would be broken up to attend their final year of high school in other communities.

In fact, Illaszewicz said the elimination of some staff meetings, a professional development day and other measures, mean that his students will miss only 5.5 hours over the total school year, due to delays from the fire.

Grade 12 students will begin classes as scheduled on Aug. 26 while other students will return Sept. 8.

By Christmas, it is expected that the school will exist in two buildings. Until then, about six buildings around Cambridge Bay, including the Arctic College Community Learning Centre, will be used to accommodate the necessary 10 classrooms.

"People are dropping by with donations of materials and indicating they will support us in any way possible," Illazewicz said when asked about community involvement.

The school was destroyed Aug. 3 and RCMP have announced that three youths were responsible for the blaze. They were playing with camp fuel stored in the school when the fire broke out.

On Thursday, acting NWT Fire Marshal Wolf Dautel said Kiilinik High School had been warned in the past about having such materials stored in the school. They were alerted to this in the past four years, he said.

"It's illegal to have those sort of materials stored (where they were in the school)," he said. "The improper storage contributed to the cause of the fire... That is all supposed to stored in a well ventilated room. (Instead) it was underneath a fire exit staircase right under the front door."

A full report from the fire marshall is still being completed.

Illaszewicz said the materials, used for school camping trips, use to be stored outside in a shed. It was brought in some time this year because of thefts.