Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Holman ( Jun 05/00) - Holman will have to wait another year to bring its high school students home, as an extension to the community's high school has been postponed.

According to the tender register from the Department of Public Works and Services, three bids were received on the project and all came in $1.3 million higher than the estimated $3 million cost estimated for the project.

Education Minister Jake Ootes was in Holman on Thursday to explain the delay. He said the government had three estimates done on the Helen Kavlak school extension and all three estimated the project would cost about $3 million for construction.

"When the contract bids came in they were approximately 40 per cent over budget, or approximately $1.3 million, which was beyond our reach to be able to proceed with the school," Ootes said.

The project will still go ahead, Ootes said, but there will have to be some scheduling and design changes. "We have to discuss some revamping of the project, a bit of redesign, and also by tendering earlier, we can avoid some of the difficulties we experienced this year," he said. "The tendering was done quite late because the legislative assembly couldn't pass the budget until April and then the tendering was done in May, which leaves it late for the shipping season."

Ootes said the high bids were due to a number of factors -- but primarily resulted from the extra costs associated with winter construction. The government aims to get the tender out earlier to avoid the extra cost risks associated with winter construction.

"We're confident that we can bring this in line to proceed early next year, because the budget process will take place in early February/March and we can then do the tender the moment the budget is approved," Ootes said. "Then we can work with the summer construction season and go into the fall."

The project will still have to fit the budget, Ootes said, because there is no extra money available.

"We can't add anything more into it, because we just don't have the funds. The department's budget was already cut by $2.5 million. There is always a contingency (but) if you come over budget by eight per cent -- that's reasonable, but 40 per cent is unobtainable," he said.

Director of the Beaufort Delta Education Council, James Anderson, said the 20 Holman high school students now study in four different communities and the council has a plan in place for the students who will be affected by the project delay.

"There is one in Cambridge Bay, there are some in Kugluktuk, there are some in Holman and there are some in Inuvik," Anderson said. "The advanced stream will be accommodated in Inuvik and the general stream will remain in Holman.

The Holman students will be housed in a small boarding home while they attend school in Inuvik.

Anderson said the home selected is four-plex with three of the units about to get "an extensive renovation."

He said there has also been a request that the three students in Kugluktuk stay put until they graduate, but that comes at an extra cost of $20,000 to $25,000 per student, per school year for schooling outside their region.

"They've done their Grade 10 there, their Grade 11 and it may make sense for them to complete their program there," Anderson said.