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RANKIN INLET
The principal of Maani Ulujuk Ilinniarvik in Rankin Inlet says he has a great staff this year, all of whom are excited for the new school year.

Grade 7 students at Maani Ulujuk Ilinniarvik in Rankin Inlet, Ada Angidlik, left, and Jaydene Pilakapsi were excited to get back to school last week. - Nicole Veerman/NNSL photo

"We have some veteran staff that have been here for years and have a good knowledge of the community and the culture and the parents and students, and we have some great young teachers who come very well-recommended and who are gung-ho and eager to go," said Jesse Payne.

"We're very pleased with our team this year."

There are four new teachers at MUI this year. There are also a few positions that still remain vacant. The school needs two student support assistants and a school community counsellor. This year, the student support assistants will be full-time positions, as will the guidance counsellor position, held by Harold Peach.

"That will provide a lot more services for students," Payne said of the new full time positions. "One of the things we're responsible for doing from the Department of Education is to promote a positive school environment, so with adding Harold Peach, our guidance counsellor, full-time and with having our student support assistants full time, we have more time now to work on making a positive school environment a reality, even though we have a lot of positive things happening right now, we would like to do some other things."

One of those things is to implement the Respect Ed. Program. The details haven't yet been hammered out, but the purpose of the program is to prevent bullying and to encourage respect.

"Harold will be working on that," Payne said. "And to me that's a very positive thing because it will not only give us an opportunity to work with students, but Respect Ed. also does some work with parents."

Payne said one of the goals for the year is to get parents and the community more involved with the activities happening at the school.

Beyond that, Payne has a lot of other hopes for this school year, including an increase in the number of graduates.

"We have 30 graduates this year. The highest we had prior to that was 32, so our hope is to continue to increase the number of graduates.

"Also I hope that we are able to retain more of the students that are returning, to keep those students on track and in school and allow them to be successful."

Payne said one of the school's challenges is attendance, with rates fluctuating between 80 per cent at the beginning of the school year and the high 60s later in the year.

"We have been tasked through positive school environment to create a greater awareness of attendance to try and keep students in.

"If we can get them here, we can impact them, and we can encourage them and motivate them and then they're successful," he said.

"The problem with attendance is you develop a pattern of not attending school. When you get used to not attending, of course, it's hard, it's very difficult for

you to come back."

One way the school is working to maintain attendance rates throughout the year is by making house calls to let parents know their child isn't at school.

And for students who are returning to school after a long absence, school staff schedule follow-up meetings every two weeks to check in on their progress.

"The more monitoring we have the better because students realize that we do care and we are concerned about their well-being and that's a big factor, and when students see that they can be successful in school, you'll see the difference in how they perform and they start coming more often.

"Our goal is to continue to strive toward excellent attendance and also creating an environment where students feel very welcome and safe when they come here and they're able to learn in comfort."

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