HAY RIVER - Some francophone students in Hay River will not have to spend a second school year in a hotel basement.

The territorial government will be providing modular classrooms for the overflow students at Ecole Boreale, the French-language school in Hay River.

Shawn McCann, the manager of public affairs with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, said three modular classrooms will be erected at the school site at an approximate cost of $1.2 million.

McCann said the classrooms are scheduled to be in place before the beginning of the coming school year.

In September of last year, 21 students were moved to the Ptarmigan Inn because of overcrowding at Ecole Boreale.

The Commission Scolaire Francophone, the NWT's French-language school board, is pleased the students will no longer be at the hotel.

"It's not the final solution to the problem we have with space at Ecole Boreale, but it's better to have students in modular classrooms than it is in a hotel," said Suzette Montreuil, president of the Yellowknife-based school board.

The Ptarmigan Inn basement, normally an area for banquets and meetings, was divided into three classrooms and a small student lounge for Grades 7 to 11.

Last summer, the Commission Scolaire Francophone took the GNWT to court to find a solution to Ecole Boreale overcrowding.

The NWT Supreme Court ordered the government to temporarily accommodate the school's overflow students in three classrooms at two English-language schools, until space could be found elsewhere.

The department proposed using space at the Ptarmigan Inn and the idea was accepted as a short-term solution by the school board.