Lisa Scott
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 15/04) - The public education district has a bit more flexibility when it comes to professional development content, after a regular board meeting Tuesday.

Trustee Terry Brookes brought forth a motion to "allow flexibility in the focus of school improvement professional development (PD) strategies." The PD days for teachers currently deal strictly with literacy and numeracy, as per the district's strategic plan.

Several trustees expressed concerns that this move might open up the possibility of drifting away from the education standards of reading, writing and arithmetic.

Brookes assured the board that wouldn't be the case, that the motion would offer the opportunity to include other areas of interest, such as special needs training into PD days.

After that assurance from Brookes and an agreement to move forward with caution, the motion was passed unanimously.

An aboriginal aim

Aboriginal education is taking off in Yellowknife's public schools.

The district's strategic plan calls for a bigger emphasis on aboriginal language and culture for all students. Approximately 29 per cent of students are aboriginal.

Barb Cameron joined Marianne Bromley at the helm of the aboriginal education team this fall and the district is sporting mobile culture camps to transport traditional and camping equipment.

Each school now has its own tents and teepees for on-site culture camps as well.

The emphasis extends to teachers, as well, who hung out on the land at Pontoon Lake Oct. 2, for an aboriginal orientation session.

French under scrutiny

Superintendent Judith Knapp told trustees a review of the current French programming in schools should be in report form in the next two weeks.

A contract for the review was awarded to Evaluation Plus Inc. earlier in the school year.

Wally Lazaruk, the consultant for the project, has finished the data collection phase and is now preparing a report for the district.

A series of recommendations for French programming will be then be reviewed.

No numbers yet

Registration numbers for the district are still being tallied, according to superintendent Judith Knapp.

Administration staff are still chasing enrolment numbers for Sir John Franklin high school before submitting the info to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment (ECE).

ECE uses the data to calculate funding for each district.

Enrolment at the public district was down for the last school year.