Jennifer McPhee
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 28/01) - It's exploratory day at Mildred Hall and everywhere you look kids are hard at work.

In one area, students set up an obstacle course and conduct trust exercises by walking, blindfolded, across balance beams.

The exercises are part of a diabetes prevention program geared towards keeping kids active at a crucial age. The non-competitive games also subtly teach kids they don't have to be athletic superstars to lead healthy lifestyles.

Down the hall, students practise needlepoint. They sit, completely engrossed in their work, barely looking up when the camera snaps.

Elsewhere, kids are playing floor hockey, cooking, scrap-booking - the list goes on.

Along with a basic academic curriculum, the school offers a music and choral program, outdoor education, intramural sports, practical arts and a program for gifted students. Each year students produce a writing anthology.

Many programs at Mildred Hall aim to help kids develop a sense of community, culture and belonging.

It's a big challenge, considering the school's transient population.

Mildred Hall is Yellowknife's inner-city school. According to a mobility study which tracks the inflow and outflow of students in the district, it has a 150 per cent turnover rate. Not every child leaves. But many kids move in and out of the school, sometimes attending for as little as one month.

"Some kids come here for such a short time that seats in the classroom have a different person in it three times," says school principal Pam Petten.

Filling the need

Last week, 351 students were enroled at Mildred Hall.

"But it's not even close to the same 351 we started the year with," says Petten.

One of the reasons for the high turnover is because students attending Aurora College send their children to Mildred Hall while living in Yellowknife.

The school also picks up students when parents move to the city temporarily to access medical facilities.

Its downtown location also draws the children of women staying in short-term emergency housing, such as the Alison McAteer House (YWCA). A counsellor, shared between two school boards, helps these children and their families through the transition.

Staff at the school meet with each new student before placing them in a classroom. Classes are grouped according to student needs.

"It's a lot of work to support them. It's not easy," says Petten. "And, yet, it's amazing how easily kids in the school accommodate new kids."

Three educational assistants work inside regular classes with the students who have disabilities, such as autism and hearing impairment.

"They are a regular part of the school and the kids treat them that way," says Petten. "They play sports, they hang out."

The school is making an effort to educate students about the effects of bullying, a common but hurtful problem among school-age children.

Newly-elected student council vice-president Michael Kowalczyk, is also tackling the problem.

"If I see bullying I stop it from happening," he says. "It hurts kids mentally and physically."

Parent Advisory Committee (PAC) chair Stacy Ridgely raves about the school's ability to meet the needs of all students.

Many cultures

"It's a multicultural school and kids from all different backgrounds and experiences come to the school," says Ridgely. "It's a warm, open, secure place. The staff and administration are wonderful."

Vice-principal Di Ann Blesse is an active advocate for the school's aboriginal children.

About 51 per cent of students at Mildred Hall are aboriginal.

Blesse runs a counselling group for aboriginal female students called "Ladies Lunch."

She designed the group to create a place of belonging in an institution which is foreign to them.

The 19 students get together to hang out, cook, make crafts, or do anything else that may come up. Last year they cooked fish on a fire and twice a year they go to a fancy restaurant for lunch.

Blesse says to live in a society with two cultures one needs to learn the ways of both.

"We'll go out to a fancy lunch and the girls will see things they have learned to make ... they learn how to sit down at a fancy table with three forks," she says. "But they learn it in an environment of acceptance, not one of fear."

Since joining the group, the students' school attendance has improved. Non-attendance rates have dropped from 52 per cent to 26 per cent. In many cases, their grades have improved.

"In the beginning, these children were the ones in the office, fighting each other and in pain," says Blesse.

But this has changed.

"You don't see my girls isolated," she says. "You don't see them in the office now."

Past and future

- School teacher Mildred Hall moved to Yellowknife in 1939 and opened the town's first public school in a log cabin in Old Town.

- The log cabin now sits on Mildred Hall school property.

- Mildred Hall was constructed in 1965 with an addition built in 1976. In the 80's, more structural changes took place.

- The Department of Education, Culture and Employment plans to spend $6.3 million renovating Mildred Hall. The project will include mechanical and electrical upgrades.

- A project team including the principal, trustees, PAC reps, an ECE rep, the director of maintenance, teachers, one students will work on a vision for the renovations. Planning, design and construction will take place over the next five years.