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INUVIK
Despite construction on the new super school being moved up one year earlier, both principals say they will be ready for students this September.

Natalie Noksana, a Grade 11 student at Samuel Hearne Secondary School, paints her locker at Samuel Hearne Secondary School. Students have a chance to leave a lasting impression on the school in its final year with personalized murals on their lockers. - Samantha Stokell/NNSL photo

Samuel Hearne Secondary School principal Roman Mahnic and Sir Alexander Mackenzie School principal Janette Vlanich say that they've already ordered furniture, fixtures and equipment for the new school and have encouraged teachers to plan ahead and think of what to toss in the garbage this June.

"It's been no issue for us. We've been able to get our order in," Mahnic said. "We'll be ready. Teachers will just need to get the boxes they need and look at preparing the classroooms and we'll be ready to go."

Vlanich and her teachers have also finalized choices and ordered equipment for the new school. Now they have to decide what can be used.

"We started last year with teachers doing a good clean of the classrooms," Vlanich said. "It's like we're cleaning clothes out of our closets. If we haven't worn it in a while, we'll pass it on to someone who can use it."

Packing up schools that have been operating for over 40 or 50 years and then organizing it in a new building will be a tough job for teachers, who are required to work only a certain number of days per year. The GNWT will soon hire a person to co-ordinate the logistics of moving each classroom into its new location at the super school.

"It's a huge deal. There's never been a move like that in Inuvik before," said Paul Watters, chair of the Inuvik District Education authority. "We can't hand it over to the school principals. We hope to have a professional to help with the move."

Expected completion date of the new super school will be in April and once the school year finishes in June teachers will have time to pack up. At Sir Alexander Mackenzie School the school year is actually shorter to allow teachers time to prepare for the move.

"Teachers have already put in countless hours preparing for the move," Vlanich said. "We had to alter the calendar because teachers can only work 195 days and in order to accommodate the packing at the end of the year, the teachers will have to work longer and have the students out earlier. That's one reason we had no school on Jan. 3."

What the schools will need to pack up is not much, Watters said. Every classroom will have new desks and chairs, he said.

Something else that will need to be done is choosing a name for the new super school. That job is done by the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, but the Beaufort Delta Education Council and District Education Authority have not heard from the department.

"They haven't given the school board any direction," Watters said. "There must be a policy."

According to a spokesperson from the department of Education, Culture and Employment, a committee of local aboriginal governments will decide the name with input from the community. How that decision will be made has not been decided.

As for the closure of Sir Alexander Mackenzie and Samuel Hearne Secondary Schools, both principals plan to celebrate the closures in some as yet undefined way. A committee has been formed at SAMS to decide how to mark the occasion.

"It's a big piece of history of people around here and there are a lot of mixed emotions. It's a different experience for different people," Vlanich said. "We hope with the new school we can redefine education in this region. It's neutral ground."

At SHSS, Mahnic would also like to do something for the students to commemorate the school. Possible plans include holding this year's graduation ceremony at the high school instead of at the Midnight Sun Recreation Complex so that students can have that special memory.

Students at the high school have also taken to marking their own history at the school by painting lockers in the school. It's a kind of way to commemorate their last year.

"I wanted to have murals decorating the walls," said Alexie Winchester, the art teacher at SHSS. "They're tearing down the school, why not make it fun?

"The locker is the students own personalized mural."

While the lockers will stay and be demolished with the school, Mahnic says decorated ceiling tiles won't be destroyed and could be transferred to the new school as a display or mural.

Further input from the community could be gathered by the DEA, who is considering having a public meeting before the end of January or in early February to receive input on more details for the new school. The date, time and location will be announced at a later date.

In the meantime, Vlanich is looking forward to the new school with a bigger gym, designated art classroom, direct access to the kindergarten classrooms for parents, better traffic flow and a beautiful library.

"We hope the playgrounds will be better than here," Vlanich said. "It's really important to children to have outdoor play areas.

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