Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services
Tuktoyaktuk (Nov 27/00) - High school students are being crammed into a space built for elementary and junior high.
It's a cause of concern for both Magialuk school principal Janie Jones and Tuktoyaktuk mayor Ernest Pokiak.
According to Jones, the halls and bathrooms are inadequate for the older students.
"At noon and at 3:45 (p.m.) the hallways are very busy and the high school students only have a single door to go outside," she said. "It's really a pressure point."
She added the bathrooms used by high school and Grade 5 students are too small for the 70 students who use them.
"In the boys' bathroom there is only one urinal, one toilet and one sink," she said. "In the girls' bathroom there are two toilets."
To make way for a social studies classroom, one wall of the library is being knocked down.
But the physical set-up is not the only problem according to Jones. High school students don't have a high school environment.
"The students don't get the high school experience here," said Jones.
"They're mixed with younger grades and they don't get a chance to socialize in their own environment."
Paul Devitt, director of Finance for the GNWT department of education, said there are no plans in the works for changes at the Tuktoyaktuk school.
"(The school) is at 70 per cent capacity," said Devitt. "It's certainly within standards."
Under department standards, the school has room for 330 students.
Mangialuk school was built in 1990 for Kindergarten to Grade 8 and now houses K-12.
Mayor Ernest Pokiak said the GNWT's formula doesn't add up in Mangialuk.
"This year's total students is 233 but it's bursting at the seams," he adds.
Pokiak says the school population is growing every year and the problem is going to get worse.
Devitt says the school does not need to be renovated.
"We don't feel they have an overcrowding problem."
