Process should be completed by June
Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Nov 17/00) - A Yellowknife French school is setting the wheels in motion to separate itself from a city school board to create its own.
Ecole Allain St. Cyr officially struck its own "Commission Scolaire" on Nov 6 and is now in talks with the Department of Education and Yellowknife District No. 1 to draw up a transition plan which should be completed by Christmas.
"This is a transition year," said Commission president Jean-Francois Pitre.
By June 30, 2001, Yellowknife will have its own Francophone district which could eventually incorporate other schools throughout the NWT.
Before that happens there are a lot of details that have to be smoothed out.
At a District 1 school board meeting on Tuesday, superintendent Dr. Judith Knapp voiced some concerns.
"The situation with teachers and their contracts with us is a concern," said Dr. Knapp.
"We have to work those things out," she added.
Some teachers at St. Cyr belong to the Steelworkers Union and some are part of the NWT Teacher's Association.
Another concern is that the land the school is built on belongs to District 1.
The Department of Education has hired a consultant to iron these issues out.
"We hired a consultant a month ago," said the department's deputy minister Mark Cleveland.
"Both parities (District 1 and the Commission) will have things completed by the end of this school year."
An autonomous French school board has been in the cards since 1989 according to Pitre.
"Our structure is finally for real," said Pitre.
