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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Yellowknife's two school board chairs are taking the motion from Wednesday's session at the legislative assembly with a grain of salt.

"We are cautiously optimistic that the government will take the advice of the motion and really start again," Yellowknife Education District No. 1 (Yk1) board chair Duff Spence said Thursday, speaking of the motion to shelve board reform and go back to the drawing board.

Paulatuk teacher Bill Hill, right, signs a petition for YCS protest organizer John Dalton on Wednesday afternoon outside the Legislative Assembly. More than 800 protesters gathered at two different times to voice their opposition to the proposed board reform. - Andrew Livingstone/NNSL photo

"We are not opposed to some constructive dialogue on this issue, but the ultimatum that he had previously provided to us does not allow for public consultation."

Catholic school board chair Mary Vane was pleased with the action taken by regular MLAs.

"It was off the table yesterday, but it's up to the ministers to decide where it now goes and we're not taking anything for granted," she said. "We're going to wait and see."

She said the gathering of more than 800 concerned parents, teachers and students Wednesday spoke loudly. "I think that the parents and stakeholders and taxpayers in Yellowknife have made it abundantly clear that these two school districts should remain as they have been for over 50 years," she said.

Yellowknife Catholic Schools staged the first of two protests at 1:30 p.m. with more than 400 people packing into the legislative assembly's Great Hall and the gallery to show their disdain for a proposed merger that would've seen the end of Yellowknife's two school boards - Yellowknife Catholic Schools (YCS) and Yk1. Almost two dozen signs lined the entrance to the assembly. Among them were some reading "Superboard, super stupid," "Don't super-size me" and "What would Jesus do?"

A.J. Zuber, accompanied by her three children, was among those holding placards.

Zuber, a teacher with YCS, said she has taught all across Canada, and Yellowknife was the fifth jurisdiction she'd worked in.

"Superboards don't work," she said, adding something always gets left out when so many considerations are taken into account.

Zuber said she came out to protest for her kids: Forrest and Storm - Grade 5 and Grade 1 students, respectively, at St. Joseph school - and Ocean, who will soon be starting kindergarten.

"When it's my children's future, I need to stand up and say something," she said.

Opposition has also appeared on the Internet, including two Facebook groups asking the government to halt the merger. One group was created by one of Premier Floyd Roland's sons, a Yellowknife Catholic school student. That Facebook group had more than 500 members as of Wednesday afternoon.

Protest organizer John Dalton said while the two school boards are different it is extremely important for a city the size of Yellowknife to provide options for education.

"By having choice, it fosters competition," he said. "Between the two boards they are able to play off the competitiveness and offer the best education possible for the kids in this city."

St. Patrick high Grade 11 student Stephen Giovanetto said he thinks combining three important departments of Education, Health and Housing would lead to less money and fewer choices.

"Students won't have the opportunity to go where religion is promoted," he said. "If they're going to cut funds from anything it's going to be education."

Catholic school Chaplain Brian Carter said it's not only the Catholics who are angry about the possible merger, it's the parents of the 35 per cent of non-Catholic students attending their schools.

"It's the fusion of values that our schools offer," he said. "People feel the difference in our schools. With all the people here today they have to stand up and take notice. They just can't ignore us."

At approximately 3:30 p.m., 400 or so teachers from the NWT Teachers' Association conference - arriving on foot, by cars and school bus - filtered in and staged the second round of protests, filling the Great Hall and the gallery. Duff Spence, Yk1 board chair, said protests took place at different times because their school board wanted to work with the NWT Teachers' Association and the teachers' conference to show their dislike for board reform.

- with files from Herb Mathisen