Portables until GNWT can be persuaded to expand
Dave Sullivan
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Apr 04/01) - The Yellowknife Catholic School Board plans to add at least three portables outside of Ecole St. Joseph school to deal with overcrowding.
The number of students will also be capped at the current 615 for the next two years. The 21-year-old school is supposed to hold just 585.
Moving three or four portables onto the school's grounds will "best meet the short-term needs of students and staff," says trustee Francis Chang.
Officials say what's really needed is a new $11 million school, but the Range Lake residential area is not yet on the territorial government's list of places to build one.
When the government looks at population trends, overall growth is projected without looking at needs of individual school boards, says Board Superintendent Kern Von Hagen.
The portables will be free, courtesy of the Yellowknife public school board
But it will cost about $20,000 to move and refurbish each one, says Von Hagen. They won't necessarily be used for class space. A science lab and administrative space are being considered and for now the portables won't be attached to the main building.
"In order for us to keep up the quality we've had to be creative," says vice-principal Carol Forget. "But now we're out of ideas on how to use the space."
"It's good to see they're doing something (but) everyone agrees this is a short-term solution," says Shannon Gullberg, chair of the parent's advisory committee.
She says Ecole St. Joseph's popularity indicates the quality of schooling taking place there.
Board chair Larry Purcka said while the board is "definitely looking at having an additional school," there are no immediate plans to construct a new school in the Frame Lake area.
At the same time "we don't want to see our growth stifled," Purcka said.
Von Hagen said the territorial government wants hard statistics on growth patterns in Frame Lake neighborhoods before committing to building an additional school.
About 45 per cent of students at the kindergarten to Grade 8 school are in French immersion.
