Lynn Lau
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Oct 01/01) - It was four weeks into the school year before Chief Julius school in Fort McPherson finally welcomed its most recently recruited teacher. In Tuktoyaktuk, Mangilaluk school wrapped up a promising interview Monday, and was hoping to have a Grade 7 teacher arrive by this week.

Faced with a difficult time recruiting teachers, principals in the Beaufort Delta found themselves relying on creative problem-solving to occupy children in classrooms without teachers.

In Fort McPherson, community members pitched in to take effected students on two day trips and an overnight camping trip. Johnny Kaye, a project manager for the school's crime prevention initiative, in one night organized the on-the-land training courses when principal Allan Pitcher found out one of his teachers was quitting on the Sunday before school was set to open.

"It was like an emergency thing that just happened on the spur of the moment," Kaye says. "In the evening, we found out and we just had to make the quick decision we were willing to help. That evening we put the plan together, the next morning we were grocery shopping, getting gas, and supplies and that evening we were on the river."

About 15 students participated in an overnight camping trip and another 14 students participated in two-day trip programs designed to teach them about skills on the land. In a short time, Kaye rounded up some three dozen people from the community, from elders, taxi-drivers and boat-guides to help run the course. Some students will even be able to receive credit for technical skills they learned during the project.

In Tukotoyaktuk, a substitute teacher from the community was recruited in to cover for a teacher who quit one week into the job. Oddly, a delay in the completion of renovations bought the school time to find more staff. School didn't open until Sept. 17. The time will be made up by adding time onto the beginning of each school day.

At Paulatuuq's Angik school, principal Bruce Chadwick ended up teaching for three weeks to cover for a vacancy of two teachers at the Grade 7, 8 and 9 levels. For the kindergarten-Grade 1 class, he found a community member to substitute while a new teacher was being recruited.

"I got more grey hair," Chadwick jokes. "We were really busy but it wasn't total chaos or anything. I'm glad the new teachers are here now."

At the Beaufort Delta Education Council, director James Anderson says the tough recruiting environment has meant many of the schools in the region have been hiring several weeks into the year. "It's not unusual in the Beaufort Delta. We hired as many as 13 new teachers over the course of the school year, last year. It's a managed crisis."