Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

Iglulik (Nov 22/99) - The wheels are turning on the second part of Iglulik's goal-setting project.

Perhaps the most positive aspect of the undertaking is that the students of Ataguttaaluk high school will end up reaping most of the rewards.

Following an initial October meeting that brought about 60 staff and community members together to discuss ways of making their relationship a more cohesive one, a concrete plan for action was drawn up.

Principal Greg Storey said a smaller group of 24 teachers, parents and community members met last Friday to further dissect the matter and to look at specific ways to bridge the gap between the school and the hamlet.

He said the exercise began by looking at the school's goals.

"We want to have a strong and effective community partnership, literacy in English and Inuktitut and numeracy, and to promote student's self-esteem and self-knowledge," said Storey, the principal for the last three years.

The larger body then split into six smaller groups that examined what strategies were being used by both the school and the community to achieve those goals.

"The second question we then looked at was how well what we do now is working and what else could we do," said Storey.

During the afternoon the six groups formed three collectives, comparing notes and highlighting what should continue, what needed to improve, what could be added and what had to come to an end in order to meet the goals. The day wrapped up with the group coming back together and comparing notes.

Storey said a concise action plan with a few new techniques was being written up, but he cautioned against trying to do too many new things at once.

"We don't want to keep reinventing the institution because often you drop things that you are doing well when you add too much new. We're only going to add three to five new things and then keep concentrating on doing things well," said Storey.

The plan is expected to be reviewed by the District Education Authority at the meeting scheduled for tonight, Nov. 22.

Depending on how the plan is received by DEA members, direction will be provided for continuing to promote a better relationship between the community and the school.