Maria Canton
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (Sep 20/99) - Staggered school times and an extended lunch hour are two ideas to make a bad busing problem better, says the chair of the Iqaluit District Education Authority.

"In order to get all of the students home for lunch, we had to extend the lunch hours and make up for it at the end of the day" said Kathy Smith.

"Right now we're only busing the middle school students with two buses that make two runs each in the morning, at lunch and after school."

Four buses, however, would ensure that the 180 students at the Aqsarniit middle school all arrive and leave at the same time.

Groups of students are currently having to wait up to 40 minutes outside of the school three times a day while the two buses make their first runs.

"Once October starts we'll have another two buses on the road and we'll be able to accommodate all of the schools and students with bus service and no waits," said Smith.

"Traditionally, we only bus students from October to May, but because of the location of the middle school, students living by the airport would have to walk more than two kilometres."

Smith says that although the situation at the middle school isn't ideal, it will smooth out once October starts and the extra buses are on the road.

Students at the middle school have adjusted well to the waits and Darlene Nuqingaq, who was acting principal last week, says things will be running smoothly in two weeks when October begins.

"The students seem to have settled down and are into the routine of staggered starts," she said.

"But we're all looking forward to Oct. 1. Things will be a lot easier and the days not as long for the students."

All of the schools met last week to co-ordinate morning start times and lunchtime breaks in preparation for the start of the October bussing schedules.

Times will be staggered, with Inuksuk high school having four buses running the morning route at 7:45 a.m.

The middle school, which also needs four buses, will follow with morning pick-up times at 8:05 a.m.

Nakasuk and Joamie schools only need two buses each, and will have pick-ups at 8:30 a.m.

"This is the first time that all of the schools had to come together and really work things out as a group," says Smith.

"The growth of Iqaluit and increased enrolment means the schools now have to work together as a whole."

Students at all of schools except the high school will be bused home for lunch, resulting in an extended lunch hour in order to get all of the students home and back using the four buses.

The extra time for lunch will be made up at the end of the day.

"Unfortunately there isn't enough funding for supervision during lunch time," says Smith.

"The teachers get a one-hour duty-free lunch break. Usually, some teachers volunteer their time, but not enough to watch all of the students."

Smith says the DEA is heading towards keeping students at school during the lunch hour.