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Preparing for the hammer

Lisa Scott
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 08/03) - Teachers at Mildred Hall elementary school are trying to take the shock out of the hammering and drilling about to descend on students.

Brenda Auge, a kindergarten teacher, heads the Millies Renovation Spirit Committee (MRSC), a project aimed at keeping school spirits up for three years of renovations.

Right now the student body is squished into the downstairs of the school. The upstairs is ready for renovations, with construction crews expected to start work late October.

Auge wants students to be positive before work begins.

"It makes them think of renovations in a very positive light, rather than it being a negative concept in their mind," she says.

"We're two steps ahead of the builders," Auge says.

The first day of each month students don one of five different coloured T-shirts (received by anonymous donation) and take part in a renovation-themed activity.

October's activity was an assembly, but Auge and teachers plan to surprise students with a different activity each month, from pancake breakfasts to outdoor games.

Grade levels mix into groups for the duration of the year, organized according to colour.

Music teacher Katey Simmons even drafted a song to the tune of YMCA, by the Village People.

Students know the words to the song already, acting out the actions with big smiles on their faces.

New principal Yasemin Heyck hopes the effort will take the sting out of the noise and dust on its way.

"We want to have some fun with it. So that the renovations don't take over everything," she says.

"People are concerned, but they are excited about what the new picture is going to be," Heyck says.

Heyck has noticed a benefit to renovations already -- younger grades are mixing with older ones for a change.

"We're all cosy down in half of the school," she says.