Chris Puglia
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 17/03) - Yellowknife Education District No. 1 is looking for ways to best tap money being donated by Imperial Oil. Yellowknife No. 1 received its first instalment of library funding from the Imperial Oil library funding initiative announced late last year.

The funding commits $50,000 to Yellowknife No. 1 over the next four years: $7,143 this year and and $14,285 annually for the next three.

Under the program, the board has until June to purchase the library resources (specific to the project criteria), stamp the resources with an Imperial Oil logo and report back to the corporation.

With that timeline in mind it was recommended that the board go ahead with the necessary steps and purchase the materials.

Board trustee Dan Schofield suggested the board should be more creative and try to expand the funds to increase purchasing power.

"I understand the urgency of getting the money out, but if we just do that we're not doing enough. The $7,000 could be grown to be $21,000 worth of books," said Schofield.

His suggestion was that administration develop a program that would see the board match funds and encourage donations from parent advisory committees and other third party contributors through a matching dollar incentive.

Schofield's argument generated a 3-3 tie vote on the issue, defeating the initial motion.

He then moved another motion to go forward with a literacy initiative that called for the district to match dollars with Imperial Oil, PACs and possibly a third party.

That motion passed 5-1.