Hay River petitions for own DEA
Terry Halifax
Northern News Services
Hay River (Dec 04/00) - The South Slave Divisional Education Council may soon be divided between the east and the west.
The council met at the Chief Sunrise school on Nov. 16, to discuss a possible split between the Hay River DEA and the SSDEC.
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Students by district: Yellowknife #1 - 2,212.5 South Slave - 1873 Beaufort Delta - 1707.5 Yellowknife Catholic - 1404 Dogrib - 850.5 Deh Cho - 680.5 Sahtu - 636.5 Students in: Hay River - 940 Fort Smith - 681 Fort Resolution - 129 Hay River Reserve - 40 Lutsel K'e - 81 |
Malcolm Farrow, a special advisor, and Don Morrison, community education development coordinator, represented the minister at a recent council meeting in Chief Sunrise School.
Farrow said before any decision is made on the split, ECE must consult with all the communities and parties concerned.
Farrow said he and Morrison will tour Fort Resolution, Enterprise, Lutsel K'e, Fort Smith and consul with First Nations, health boards, and any other organization or councils. All meetings will be open to the public.
"Anyone in the community can come out and listen to our presentation and ask any questions they like," he said.
The Hay River DEA filed a petition Oct. 6 that seeks a split with the council. The authority has been struggling to gain additional powers and control since 1997, but their requests were turned down by the rest of the SSDEC.
"They feel that they want to call the shots," Morrison said. "They want to be more in control of what's happening in their schools."
ECE must view the situation as two issues Morisson said.
"One part of it is, Hay River's request to become a separate DEA and seeing if that makes economic sense and the other part is what do the remaining communities in the South Slave view as where they want to go."
Fort Resolution has protested the split and warned that the SSDEC might lose some economies of scale, and more money could be spent administration than school programs.
