Christine Grimard
Northern News Services
Wednesday, May 23, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - The Yellowknife Catholic school board has hired Earth Tech to conduct a traffic study of the streets surrounding St. Joseph school.

The study will make recommendations to improve traffic flow and safety in line with the construction of the new wing of the school.

The construction of the wing is set to begin in January or February of 2008 and should be completed by the fall of 2008. The remainder of the retrofitting will begin in 2008 and should be completed in 2010.

Life goes on at St. Joe's

St. Joseph school Principal Flo Campbell introduced a group of students to the board to show off what they had accomplished this year.

"I think it's important for people to remember that life is going on at this school," said Superintendent Kern Von Hagen.

Grade 6 students Paulina Brooks, Julianna Neudorf and Kylie Burbridge entertained the staff on the xylophones, accompanied by music teacher Jacquelin Boersma.

Grade 4 students Ben Beland and Reid Tait showed the board that they were still active at their N.J. Macpherson site, raising money for World Vision projects as part of the school's Living the Faith initiative.

Beland told the board how his class helped raise $450 through hotdog and bake sales to buy housing in Africa.

Tait and his class held raffle draws where the students could buy their chance at winning one hour as a teacher or as vice-principal. Campbell said they've raised almost $600 so far.

Board members also had a chance to check out some of the Historica fair projects of students who will be going to the Territorial fair at Fort Simpson.

Campbell said 12 of the 50 projects picked from the regional fair were St. Joseph students.

Campbell also said the school has organized a display in memory of their teacher Carmen Gobeil who died last summer.

French school board budget passed

The Commission scolaire francophone de division passed next year's budget at a board meeting May 14.

The school board is expecting enrolment to increase at around eight per cent a year. The Department of Education, Culture, and Employment doesn't expect the number of students in Yellowknife to increase.

However, the board's director general Gerard Lavigne said that with the new wing offering an appropriate place for high school students, and as awareness of the francophone school increases, they should be able to attract more students.

Lavigne also said that the school has 16 students already registered for kindergarten next year.

School under renovation

Construction is underway on the extension at Ecole Allain St. Cyr.

The project, which should be finished by next Christmas, will see a new classroom, science lab, library, more washrooms and an additional administrative area for staff to support high school students at the school.

The five high school students who will graduate from the school June 2 will be the NWT's first students to graduate from a Francophone high school.