Arthur Milnes
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jan 22/99) - Staff at Yk Education District No. 1 are already working to ensure the year 2000's much-vaunted Y2k computer fears are not realized in Yellowknife.

"We appear to be in good shape," an upbeat board superintendent Ken Woodley told trustees in a report on the subject at a recent board meeting.

"At this point, we're looking okay."

There have been widespread fears across Canada and around the world that Jan. 1, 2000, could bring with it both a new millennium and chaos as computers, not designed to read the double 00s in 2000 properly, could crash, throwing everything from company payroll records, banking, air traffic control and just about everything else involving computers in today's world into a dangerous flux.

Yellowknife's school boards are no different. Because both rely on computers so heavily, it is not an issue either has taken lightly. Yellowknife Catholic Schools' staff gave a similar report at last month's Catholic school board meeting.

Woodley said the board's computer experts and other staff have been looking into the issue for some time.

"We are accomplishing a lot of this in-house. We have the in-house expertise," he said.

They have already identified the computers which will need repairs and upgrades to deal with Y2k, he said. Software is also being examined.

Woodley also promised to continue to keep trustees updated on Y2k as the year progresses.