by Jennifer Pritchett
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jan 22/97) - Students at Ecole St. Joseph have a new multi-purpose room to help ease the school's overcrowding problem.

"It will mean more space for student activities," said Merril Dean, assistant principal at the school.

The addition, near the rear of the school, will be used as a small gym and activity room for the school's 600 students.

"The room is currently booked 75 per cent of the time," Dean said.

Before the addition was built, crowding was so bad that classes were taught on the stage of the gymnasium with two other gym classes going on at the same time.

Dean said she even had to teach a class in the hallway every Wednesday because there weren't any classrooms available.

Built for a student population of only 450, the school is already 30 per cent over capacity and becoming more crowded every year.

Ringing in at a cost of $95,000, the expansion was made from a portable classroom that used to be situated near the board offices. The portable was cut in half and a new section built in the middle.

Loretta Foley, superintendent of the Yellowknife Catholic School Board, said that the addition of the mid-section was an inexpensive solution to the crowding problem.

"We thought about how we could be creative without a lot of money," she said.

Foley said that the overcrowding at Ecole St. Joseph is indicative of the rest of the district. "We're turning people away, we're so crowded," she said. "We need another school."

Dean called the addition a great asset to the school. "We're all excited about it and it's made a difference," he said.