"We have 15 or so partnerships and they're all targeted at enhancing programs or giving students new opportunities and bridging into the community," said Kern Von Hagen, principal at St. Pat's.

The partnerships are the result of a program called Bridges.

Bridges is a co-ordinated effort between the school and community employers to further a student's personal development, career planning, occupational knowledge and skills as a worker for future training or education through experience opportunities.

"Schools can no longer afford to have all the wherewithal, equipment, resources, personnel to do all that kind of work," said Von Hagen.

"And in a community like Yellowknife you get very strong support. We find if we reach out most of the community business or industry or even government whether local or territorial they're only too willing to support, assist or help."

The more involvement there is to help the school reach its objectives, the more likely students are going to reach their goals and the more likely businesses are going to reach their outcomes, he added.

Partnerships with the school include the Yellowknife Guild of Arts and Crafts, the YWCA, which supports the school's day care, and NorthwesTel Cable, which helped set up the VideoLinks project.

Yellowknife's Emergency Broadcast System is located at St. Pat's to help students learn about shortwave radios.

Petersen and Auger, the city's Coca Cola distributor, has made donations to the school and provided basketball backboards, scoreboard and patio furniture for the foyer.

St. Pat's is making efforts now to bring further awareness to the school, if the partnerships are not enough.

A promotional package containing a school calendar and various paraphernalia describing the school has been released.

"This is our first conscious effort along with a Web site that we're putting out to publicly profile the school," said Von Hagen.

St. Pat's is going through a phase of more deep-rooted change, said Von Hagen.

"We're trying to fine-tune and re-tool the things we feel are now working. We had a school review last year and we're working at trying to be better. We're also working at trying to be very balanced this year. Wellness of staff is a very crucial one."