Yellowknife (Mar 31/06) - A cancelled meeting has Yellowknife Catholic Schools (YCS) board members angry over what they call delay tactics from Yk District No. 1.

“It’s another delay tactic. We’re left to tell parents that they’ll face another year of overcrowding,” said YCS Trustee Jane Haley. “It’s unacceptable.”

The meeting was planned for today and was expected to be an important step towards completing a report on school facilities in Yellowknife. Members of the committee include representatives from Yk 1, YCS, and Aurora College.

The committee was to present a plan on how to address overcrowding at all three YCS facilities and Aurora College to Education Minister Charles Dent after its April 19 meeting.

The dates for meetings were scheduled in January and YCS chair Shannon Gullberg said it’s unlikely the committee will now be able to meet the deadline.

“This was a schedule that was agreed to. I’m really disheartened, any delay almost makes it impossible to plan for next year,” said board chair Shannon Gullberg at Wednesday’s YCS board meeting.

She said she was told the meeting would be cancelled because two Yk 1 members of the board had other commitments.

Yk 1 chair Reanna Erasmus did not return calls by deadline and Superintendent of Schools Metro Huculak refused to say what those other commitments are.

Options to address overcrowding are to limit the enrolment at the Catholic schools or to transfer or share a Yk 1 facility.

Yk 1 says it prefers to share a school.

YCS has publicly stated that sharing a school won’t work and that only transferring a Yk 1 school will meet its needs.

“This thwarts all our efforts to move forward. We need something to happen by September,” said trustee Debbi Ross.

Upset YCS trustees asked Gullberg to arrange to have the Friday meeting go ahead without Yk 1.

They also suggested submitting a YCS proposal to Minister Dent without approval from the committee.

As of yesterday afternoon, YCS said it had not been contacted by Yk 1.

Gullberg said she was expecting a phone call from the minister later in the day.