Katie May
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, June 18, 2008

YELLOWKNIFE - Two of Yellowknife's school boards have officially agreed to share student space for at least a year.

Last Thursday, Yellowknife Catholic Schools (YCS) signed an agreement with the Yk1 public board to rent space from William McDonald school. The deal includes six classrooms - roughly 486-square-metres in total - the library and gym, computer labs and parking stalls to house 150 Ecole St. Joseph school students who will move there while their school undergoes construction until 2010.

For now, YCS will lease the space for a year, paying a $1 annual fee. The two parties will review the contract next year based on new enrolment numbers. St. Joe's students will attend school at William McDonald starting next September.

Under the agreement, staff from each school will discipline students according to their own school policies. Both schools will apply for joint funding for more library staff at William McDonald and either board can choose to end the agreement if one school doesn't uphold its part of the bargain.

The boards, which have had public disputes over school space over the past few years, have been working out a shared space agreement since May and both sides say they're happy with the plan.

YCS chair Mary Vane said the Catholic board was optimistic about the agreement when it gave St. Joe's parents details about the student move at the board's June 5 meeting. Vane said most parents were supportive of their children's move to William McDonald.

"By and large, most parents are understanding of the situation. The bottom line is we're all quite pleased that the retrofit is going forward," she said.

"In a perfect world, I'm sure everyone would like to stay on site, but that's just not possible ... We are very appreciative of YK1 for their cooperation and generosity for sharing their space with us and we anticipate a very good two years."

Duff Spence, chair of Yk1, agreed, saying the two schools share the common goal of educating students and that he's pleased with the agreement.

"I think people of Yellowknife expect us to work together and we're pleased to do that," he said. "I don't anticipate any problems."

St. Joe's retrofit construction, pegged at $31.7 million and made necessary due to damage caused by arson in August 2006, is scheduled to last from July 1, 2008, to June 30, 2010.