Yellowknife (May 21/04) - As the 40-year-old original section of one Yellowknife school is prepared for demolition, memories of the building are seeping to the surface, some dating back to its inception.

Nancy Kapicki still has the picture of the Grade 3 class she taught in the original Mildred Hall school -- then called Yellowknife Public school -- which opened in 1965.

The nine-classroom school was innovative for its time, featuring an open courtyard with trees and natural rocks... and a pet rabbit running around. That area is now two classrooms. The industrial arts section was state-of-the-art for the city, which had just two public schools, a high school, plus St. Patrick Catholic school.

A second wing was built in 1970. The building was renamed after Mildred Hall --the first teacher in the NWT -- in 1975.

"(Teaching in) that little school were probably my best years. Everybody knew everybody," says Kapicki, who is retiring this year.

"It's a good time to retire. It'll be sad to see that little school go," she says.

Yasemin Heyck, current school principal, was part of the first class in the kindergarten teepee in 1970.

The sunken floor was supposed to be a wading pool, but was eventually covered over, she says.

Toni Auge, her teacher at the time, is still teaching kindergarten at Range Lake North school.

"It was so different and it really gave Mildred Hall its uniqueness," she says.

Heyck left the school to go to the newly opened J.H. Sissons school, but eventually returned to teach in 1989. She came back as principal in 2003.

A new front facade will be built where the 1965 section was, after the old block of classrooms Kapicki still teaches in is demolished this summer. Two storeys of classrooms will take the place of the current single-storey structure.

Goodbye Millie

Staff decided to hold a "Farewell to ol' Millie" event to bring Yellowknifers together to share memories and pictures of the school on May 28.

Those memories will go on a wall, along with signatures and handprints going back four decades, during the evening event.

Nostalgia is sure to be rampant among former students and staff.

The renovated 1970 wing of the school will feature a multi-layered library with a balcony, natural outdoor lighting and a colour scheme that eases the minds of children with learning difficulties.

The $9 million project is slated for completion in Jan. 2005.