NNSL (Mar 20/98) - In the last four years Yellowknife's public schools have undergone a technological transformation.

Last count, the district had more than 900 computers and 20 networks, all of which have been maintained by just one man, Gary Brittain.

"I started with nothing," said Brittain, 29, who moved from Fort McMurray, Alta., to the North four years ago. "It's really, neat, neat stuff."

Brittain was hired to wire and network Sir John Franklin high school to the Internet. He began by installing antennas on the school's roof.

Sir John was part of a pilot project, a project that has become bigger and better.

But growth has meant more responsibilities for Brittain.

"What keeps me going is having technology co-ordinators at the schools. Without them I would be driven crazy," he said.

Brittain was hired to work seven and a half hours a day, but because he's on call to troubleshoot, his day usually starts at five in the morning and ends near midnight.

To lighten his workload, Brittain has pushed the board for an assistant.

Last week, the district responded to Brittain's request and decided to look at next year's budget to increase the human-resource allocation in the area of technology.

Among the help being considered is a technical person to do entry-level maintenance and machine upgrades while leaving Brittain free to concentrate on network-related concerns.

Another possibility is to assign teacher time to the educational integration of a technology program.

"The board gave approval in principal to add some person-time to that area for next fiscal year," said Roland Ledoux, assistant superintendent at YK No. 1.

"We haven't determined, and we will have to do some more consulting with schools and principals and so on to see the nature of that help. It may be a technical support person added to that area or it may be an educator, someone with a lot of technology background who would assist with the training of teachers to integration of technology and to subject materials."