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HAY RIVER - Two court rulings released Aug. 21 have raised as many questions as they have answered for schools in Hay River.

In one ruling, NWT Supreme Court Justice Louise Charbonneau ordered the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) to temporarily accommodate overflow students from the French-language Ecole Boreale at two English-language schools - one classroom at Diamond Jenness Secondary School and two classrooms at Princess Alexandra.

The interim arrangement is until the government can find space elsewhere.

The court order is the result of the GNWT's request for a modification to a July 22 ruling in which Charbonneau ordered three classrooms to be set up in a secondary school in Hay River to accommodate high school students from Ecole Boreale.

GNWT lawyer Maxime Faille said the initial order created hardship for the public schools.

Faille noted the interim arrangement is only until a separate and distinct space can be found as soon as possible for Ecole Boreale students outside the public school system.

Philippe Brulot, superintendent of the Commission Scolaire Francophone, Territoires du Nord-Ouest, said the situation is not good for anyone.

"But what can we do?" he said.

"We would love not to bother anyone."

Brulot hopes the interim classroom arrangement is not for the whole school year.

"But we have absolutely no control over that."

It's up to the government to find the space, he said, adding that might be in rented space or portable classrooms.

Brulot noted the judge ordered the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to provide a written report on its efforts to find other space by Sept. 12 and other reports every three weeks afterwards.

The classrooms would be for about 25 students in Grades 7-11.

David MacDonald, chair of the Hay River District Education Authority (DEA), said it will be very difficult to accommodate the Ecole Boreale students in the two other schools.

"It will be extremely disruptive for scheduling, for staff and for students," he said.

MacDonald said there are no available classrooms at Diamond Jenness and Princess Alexandra.

"We want the government to appeal the decision," he said, adding the DEA also wants government funding so it can hire a lawyer and become a party to the court case.

In a second ruling, Charbonneau refused to grant a temporary injunction against a July 7 ministerial directive restricting admissions to the territories' two French-language schools.

Education Minister Jackson Lafferty ordered that no new students be admitted to Ecole Boreale or Yellowknife's Ecole Allain St-Cyr unless they are right-holders to education in French under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, or unless the minister has approved the enrolment of a student.

The constitutional validity of the directive will be determined at a later court date.

"We obviously believe the directive is perfectly valid constitutionally," said Faille, noting that view is based on a case in Quebec and previous rulings by the Supreme Court of Canada.

Faille said the directive will be in effect for this school year.

It is not clear how many students will be affected.

As for whether there will be an appeal for an interim injunction, he said that is something to be decided by the school board.

The directive is not retroactive to non-right-holders already attending Ecole Boreale, which has admitted non-right-holders as a way to create a viable school.

There are differing estimates on how many non-right-holders attend Ecole Boreale.

MacDonald said a majority of students were not originally right-holders. The former superintendent of the school board estimated the number at about 10 per cent.

MacDonald said the DEA is relieved with the ruling on the injunction request, but disappointed it took the department of education so long to deal with the admission of non-right-holders at Ecole Boreale.

"It's like closing the barn door after the horse is galloping around the countryside," he said. "It's far too late."

MacDonald noted the DEA has expressed concern about the admissions policy and how it negatively affects public schools since 1999.

Ecole Boreale was designed for 95 students in kindergarten to Grade 6.

It had about 93 students up to Grade 10 during the past school year.