RANKIN INLET - Staff members at Maani Ulujuk Ilinniarvik (MUI) in Rankin Inlet are excited about the upcoming school year, said its principal.

Jesse Payne said there will be about seven new staff members at MUI this year, including two student support assistants and a new guidance counsellor in Harold Peach.

He said attendance was a priority during the past school year, and will remain so heading into the new semester.

"We got our school team up and running last year, and we want to try and do a lot more to improve attendance this year," said Payne.

"The school team did a lot of good work this past year, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us.

"One thing we're really focusing on this year is trying to retain students who decide to come back to school.

"Our new guidance counsellor should help with our school team's efforts in that regard, because he's a good person and really student oriented."

Payne said MUI had good success in retaining its returning students in the first semester this past year, but the numbers dropped significantly during the second semester.

He said a number of initiatives were launched to try and encourage regular attendance at the school.

"We post our monthly attendance numbers in the school's foyer, as well as the names of our monthly attendance and cultural award winners.

The winners have their names posted on ulu sheets so people coming into the school can see them. The statistics show the percentage of monthly attendance in Grade 7 through to Grade 12.

"We're also going to push more combined blue-step school assemblies this year, because that approach allows us to be more connected with the students throughout the entire school year."

MUI will have an extra Grade 7 class in the 2010-11 school year, with school registration set to begin on Aug. 20.

The school will now have three Grade 7, two Grade 8 and three Grade 9 classes.

Payne said the extra class will mean a little extra work for some teachers at MUI this year.

He said elder funding is also continuing this year, and he's looking forward to building on their success of the past school year.

"We look forward to having the elders involved in moving our cultural agenda forward. And the three schools in the community also plan to continue working together, which proved to be really helpful last year.

"The elders will be, for all intents and purposes, staff members, available at all times. We have to look at our elders pool, their skill sets, and who's willing to make that level of commitment before we decide exactly how to move forward with that program."

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