SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Jennifer Debogorski resigned as trustee with the Yellowknife Catholic School Board by letter at a board meeting on Oct. 20.

"I will no longer be able to fill my obligation to the Yellowknife Catholic School Board," wrote Debogorski in her letter of resignation. "The past four years have been a great experience for me both personally and professionally. However, I feel I am not able to commit the time needed to be an active an engaged member."

Chair Mary Vane offered her thanks for the work Debogorski has done while on the board.

"Jennifer came to our board when I believe she was expecting her first child and since then she has gone on to have three babies," said Vane. "She has made a wonderful contribution with us over the four years. I have to say it is with sadness that she does resign but that other side to that coin is that she has three wonderful prospectives to increase our enrolment."

The board is meeting this week to discuss plans for filling the vacancy.

Highlights from the past school year

The Catholic board reviewed the previous school year and noted among its highlights were the development of a strategic plan with three major priority areas - spirituality, student achievement and aboriginal student success.

Board chair Mary Vane also stated the board's major accomplishment last year with regards to facilities was the St. Joseph School retrofit.

"We are very thankful to all those who were involved in providing our students an excellent facility which was developed with student learning in mind," said Vane.

Claudia Parker, superintendent for Yellowknife Catholic Schools, said the district was successful in obtaining a $7.1 million grant from the federal government as part of a $9.3 million set of programs that centre around crime prevention in the NWT.

"This provided us the ability to introduce our Do Edaezhe program in all three of our schools at the schools at the 6-12 level," said Parker. "This includes a leadership and resiliency program as well as a mentorship program."

Teaching and learning fund

The district has allocated $10,000 to the teaching and learning fund this year.

"As a school district we've set aside funds to allow our staff, our teachers to choose areas that are of particular interest to them," said superintendent Claudia Parker. "It has to be a group of teachers who have found an common interest area and are willing to work together doing action research.

"(The teachers are going to be) trying this out in the classroom, coming back and sharing how it went, what changes they saw, how students reacted to it and telling us how that went."

Three projects have been proposed so far.