Arthur Milnes
Northern News Services

NNSL (Dec 11/98) - Families of students from Yellowknife Education District No. 1 will soon be receiving a copy of the board's annual report.

Board members made the decision to provide parents with the pilot report during a regular meeting Tuesday night.

"This is information our parents need to know and they should know," board chair Dan Schofield said. "This annual report is a pilot report and was done a year in advance of what is requested (by the GNWT).

"It's part of our commitment to communicate and share."

While praising the 16-page 1997-98 report, trustee Bob Patterson said he did not like the way it was simply presented to the board by staff. "It's our window on the world," he said. "I'd just like to see it before the guy on the street sees it."

Superintendent Ken Woodley said board members were, in fact, the first to see a finished copy when it was given to them this week.

"You are seeing it first," he said to Patterson. "With the exception of the press, you have the first copy."

A copy of the report was given to a xxxYellowknifer reporter during the course of Tuesday's meeting.

Patterson also said parents, both locally and across Canada, are rightfully beginning to expect such information from their local school boards.

The annual report chronicles school activities, board mandates, provides overall financial data, outlines key accomplishments and provides key facts and statistical information about the board's seven schools and how its 2,300 plus students were served during the year.

Board staff will first examine overall printing costs before a date is set to provide the reports to families.