SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A mother chairing a parental advisory committee says summer break should start earlier at Yk1 schools to take advantage of the nice weather and to better co-ordinate with Catholic schools.

Tina Drew, chairperson of the N.J. Macpherson School parental advisory committee (PAC), suggests Yk Education District No. 1 schools start summer holidays at the beginning of June instead of at the end of the month. The Yk1 start-up dates in the fall school year is currently scheduled to wrap up June 29 next year, while Catholics school start their break June 18.

"It's the nicest month of the year usually, and most of the kids aren't really learning a huge amount at that time," said Drew.

She said the week's difference in the start-up dates between the two school districts is causing problems for parents.

She said many parents had to take time off work to stay home with their kids during that week at the start of the school year, with Catholic schools back on Aug. 26 and Yk1 schools starting Sept. 2.

"Many parents came to me complaining they found it very difficult to find a place for their kids to be minded," she said.

Drew, who is an employee at the Centre for Northern Families, said the centre could not cope with the number of children needing supervision during that week because the other child care centres had closed.

"I think we were the only group that was open for that week, because you've just split the number of children in half so nobody wanted to stay open for that," she said.

"We had a lot of calls from parents, but we just didn't have a space to take all the people who wanted it."

"It never occurred to any of us that the Catholic schools were going back so much earlier," she said.

While she would love to have the kids off from school for all of June, Drew said she would not be pushing strongly for the change as long as the start and finish date disparities are a one-time glitch.

"It's about communicating with the two boards," she said. "But it will be interesting to see when (Catholic schools) get off next year, because they went back quite a bit earlier," she added.

Claudia Parker, Yellowknife Catholic Schools superintendent, said her district's school year start date is nothing out of the ordinary.

"We went back earlier than Yk1 but that's usual, but not really any earlier than normal," she said.

She said her district bases its yearly calendar on Alberta's diploma exam schedule.

"Our teachers are contracted to work 192 days, so based on the Alberta diploma exam schedule we look at the last exam date and count back from there to get the beginning of the school year," she said.

Metro Huculak, superintendent for Yk1, said a calender change, "would have to be a Education, Culture and Employment decision - a government decision."

He said, however, that he thought such a move would be well supported.

"Up North, in my own opinion, it would be fairly popular because June is such a nice month," he said.