Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 16/01) - Housing for teachers was at the top of the wish list for school district chairpersons meeting with Education Minister Jake Ootes this week.

Representatives from all eight of the NWT's school boards met with Ootes Nov. 14 and 15 for their second regular meeting of the year.

Jean-Francois Pitre, president of the Commission scolaire francophone, said his main message for Ootes was to let him know how critical the state of housing and classroom space has become within his district.

"Housing is always a problem," said Pitre. "It's tight in Yellowknife, and the school (Ecole Allain St. Cyr) is getting really big, really fast, so we need to expand."

Pitre said when Ecole St. Cyr opened its doors in 1999, there were 49 students enroled. That number has grown to 103 today, with space for only 130 students.

"We're just trying to get our points of concern across to the higher government," said Pitre. "Everybody has a lot of the same problems... housing, teacher retention."

While Ootes was short on statistics, he acknowledged that housing is a serious problem facing teachers moving North to take up jobs.

"Housing certainly is of concern," said Ootes. "It's is a critical problem, especially in the smaller communities. We and the government are doing our best to address this issue, and also working with Housing Corp. to help find a solution."

Besides housing, Yellowknife Education District No. 1 chair Dan Scofield said finding funding for capital projects is also a major concern for Yellowknife public schools.

"We have some big renovations coming up at Mildred Hall, J.H. Sissons as well," said Schofield. "The (Mildred Hall) fuel tank facility is a very old building, but we can only budget on (GNWT funding) formula and that doesn't recognize some of these things."

Schofield added that minister/chairpersons' meetings were not merely gripe-and-groan sessions, but also a chance to showcase initiatives taken at the district level.

One of the examples he brought forward was Yellowknife No. 1's commitment to the Alberta Achievement testing program for grades 3, 6, and 9. Even though this year's marks were fairly modest, he is convinced the tests help educators identify learning problems at an earlier age, and that other school boards may want to follow suite.

"Our district believes in achievement testing," said Schofield. "It's too late to wait until Grade 12."