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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The territorial government's re-focusing committee in charge of amalgamating education, housing and health into regional super boards has confirmed the territory's French school board will not be included in the merger.

A committee list of the 67 boards and authorities to be amalgamated into six regional super boards by 2011 - obtained by Yellowknifer on Tuesday - excluded the Commission scolaire francophone Territories du Nord-Ouest.

Julia Mott, communications co-ordinator for cabinet, said the francophone board is considered a territorial board and the amalgamation applies only to regional-based boards and authorities.

Because the Commission scolaire francophone has a school in Hay River, they are considered a territorial board rather than a Yellowknife board.

Asked about the exclusion, francophone board superintendent Philippe Brulot said he had received no communication from Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger who heads the refocusing committee.

"That's new to me," he said. "We haven't received any official notice. If this proves to be the case then it's excellent news."

Brulot said they aren't against working with other education boards and the government to work toward bettering the education available to students in Yellowknife but wants to make sure they aren't being impeded on.

"We really want to work hand in hard with the Ministry of Education but within the guidelines of the constitution," he said. "We are more than willing to partner with the government and other school districts provided we can still protect the rights of our students."

Miltenberger was unavailable for comment at press time.

Catholic School board chair Mary Vane was surprised to hear about a list and hadn't heard of the French being excluded and wondered when the list came out. When told it was due to their recognition of a territorial board she responded that it was "interesting".

"I haven't seen anything," Vane said. "We've stated our case and we will stand by it. Until we receive an official announcement, we don't have any comment."

Duff Spence, board chair for Yk1 said he was pleased to hear the French were being excluded, but this underlined the lack of merger information from the minister. Spence also said he was disappointed with the lack of response from the Yellowknife MLAs who met with Yk1 and the Catholic board earlier this month.

"We're really disappointed in them," he said. "We hoped we'd get some type of response from them and we haven't. We hope residents will contact their MLAs to get things moving on this."