CHESTERFIELD INLET - Transformer problems had staff and students at Victor Sammurtok School in Chesterfield Inlet nearly at their wits end for almost three weeks earlier this month.

It was business as usual for instructor Angeline Simik and students Keneisha Sammurtok, Joanni Putulik and Adrianna Putulik, from left, after almost three weeks of power woes at Victor Sammurtok School in Chesterfield Inlet earlier this month. - photo courtesy of Glen Brocklebank

Principal Allan Pitcher said the school had to work at about half-power until the problem could be corrected.

He said his main concern was for those in the school with delicate health.

"If everything had been checked thoroughly to begin with, the problem would have been isolated instead of having to go through everything inside the building," said Pitcher.

"Children sitting inside of a cold building is much worse than when they're dressed properly to be outside.

"I was very concerned about children developing an illness.

"That concern also extended to staff, even though, as adults, we're in a better position to

take care of ourselves."

Pitcher said it's very difficult for students to give a teacher their full attention when they're cold.

He said the power woes played havoc with the students' daily routines.

"Another difficulty was not always knowing when the situation was going to force us to close.

"It was often bewildering and quite difficult for parents and children to determine if there was school.

"Even though we only have about 100 students, people, generally, have to phone at the same time to find out if the school is open.

"Local radio can help get the word out, but there were times we had trouble providing an update because of the volume of calls coming into the school."

Pitcher said they could never predict which areas would lose power, causing something to crash.

He said that had a big impact on school computers.

"Thankfully we had an electrician in the community and, along with hamlet staff, they did try their best to respond to the most serious issues in the school.

"It's mighty important for your lighting to be available, especially in rooms with no window access.

"You can switch something to another breaker to respond to a more immediate need, but that can cut-out something else.

"It's very important for us to have our servers working properly, not only for our programs, but, because of the setup here, the health centre also comes through them, so staff there could face some huge

issues if they lose that communication."

Pitcher said things were further complicated by days of bad weather interfering with incoming flights.

He said it can be quite difficult to choose between when it's too uncomfortable versus the loss of class time for the students.

"To get through it we cut, basically, everything that was of a non-

teaching nature.

"We won't be doing any of our scheduled workshops from now until Christmas, nor the teacher-and-

parent conferences we normally hold during report card time.

"We're eliminating those things in an attempt to make up for the lost time.

"We don't know what the winter weather will bring, so we're trying to ensure the kids get their proper allocation of teacher-learning time."

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.