Jason Unrau
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Sep 16/05) - Seven days after officials were left scrambling for space to accommodate 400 staff and students from the closed-down Samuel Hearne secondary school, students finally resumed their studies at the converted curling and hockey rinks at the Midnight Sun Recreation Complex Wednesday.

While the massive move caused the cancellation of two grade three classes at Sir Alexander Mackenzie school Tuesday so room could be made to host grade 7s and 8s, over at the rec centre Samuel Hearne secondary school staff joined the town staff and public works and services' people to prepare spaces there.

Last Sunday, a meeting was held by public works, the District Education Authority and Beaufort Delta Education Council to explain to parents and students of what was being done.

"There have been a heck of a lot of meetings since last Tuesday's meeting," said BDEC Superintendent Dennis Parsons to the assembled crowd. "And as many options were put in front of the DEA as possible."

These included double-shifting SAMS, busing kids to the Forward Operations Location base at Mike Zubko Airport, using MacDonald trailers as temporary classrooms and what was eventually settled on; using a combination of SAMS, Aurora College and rec centre space.

When asked if the school year would be extended to make up for lost time, Parsons said that teachers would be able to catch students up in class time remaining.

Public Works minister Floyd Roland says that he expects to make a decision by the end of the week (Sept. 16) regarding what repair option will be made for Samuel Hearne and anticipates the work to be done by December.

"I made a commitment (at Sunday's meeting) that we were going to target December to have this work done so when students come back from holidays, they can return to school," he said adding that initial reports from the contractor who did the recent piling assessment is that the problem is fixable. "That's what we'll be pushing for at this point."

Roland expects the cost of making repairs to be, "In the hundreds of thousands."

"You can't have a one-size fits all," said Education minister Charles Dent when asked why there was no contingency plan for dealing with emergency closures of education facilities. "We're working with the DEA at every step of the way."

Dent then gave the example of the government's and community's response to school fire in Fort McPherson in the late nineties.

"Some kids went to Inuvik, some to the community hall (in McPherson) others to the church," he said. "We have to work with the community to see what's best for them."

When asked why the option of trucking portables up the Dempster was not explored, Dent says it was but there were none available.

"It's certainly something we talked about but not a single portable was available," he explained. "I know this because we were ordered by the courts to bring some up for the French school in Yellowknife but couldn't."

Dent adds that he's asked the minister for public works to check all the schools with pilings.

"My concern is does it exist anywhere else."

With one school down, concerns from Dent and parents wondering about the structural integrity of SAMS - also on piles - has prompted Roland to re-examine the elementary school's foundation.

"It's been looked at in the past and a large number of piles were repaired or replaced," he said.

In total, 118 piles were replaced in 2004 and, "More thorough testing, like what was done as Samuel Hearne will be done at SAMS this fall."

"We're going to reexamine every building with piling concerns," he added.

In explaining how public works authorized the construction of the $ 1 million foyer for a building that was later deemed structurally unsound, Roland says that newer testing methods revealed piling deficiencies that old "carpentry" methods could not.

The carpentry method involves banging a chisel, nail or screwdriver into the piling until resistance is encountered, then measuring the depth of the instrument against the diameter of the piling.

Based on a test of this nature in 2003, a five-year certificate for the building's structural integrity was issued on the condition that 94 rotted pilings be blocked, which was done in 2004 and yearly testing occur in the future to ensure stability and renew certification.

"From that test and the one done this summer, we didn't anticipate the degree of rot that occurred," said Roland explaining the rationale behind building the foyer.

It was new "microscopic" testing method done this past summer, involving multiple core samples taken from pilings (some from 12 inches under the ground), which revealed the extensive deterioration not detected in 2003.