SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Come June, students at J.H. Sissons School will have a bigger, better playground.

Paul Bennett: JH Sissons principal says the $32,000 grant from the GNWT for a new playground is good news. - NNSL file photo

Thanks to fundraising efforts from members of the school's parent advisory committee (PAC), and a $32,000 grant from the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, the school now has about $50,000 to work with.

Bernie Giacobbo, assistant superintendent for Yellowknife Education District No. 1, highlighted the grant from the department and the progress of the PAC during the April 8 board meeting.

"I'd like to mention the gym teacher (Stephane Sevigny) who managed to scrounge together $32,000 from ECE," Giacobbo said.

Paul Bennett, principal at the school, said the work Sevigny and the PAC have done is incredible.

"It all started in the 2012/2013 school year trying to raise funds for our preschool playground," Bennett said.

"Now it's gone beyond the preschool playground into our main playground as well. We'll have an improved soccer field, outside fitness equipment to run stations with our phys-ed program, trees, and more."

New audit committee member approved

After months of searching, the Yk1 audit committee has finally found a member to fill a vacant seat.

David Lemire was approved by trustees last week to serve on the committee for a three-year term.

"He has 20 years experience in leadership and senior management, he's got some good background and a variety of backgrounds," explained trustee Terry Brookes. "We want him as a person who knows the language of audits and we're looking forward to him being on our committee."

Lemire is the manager of extended care for the department of psychology and social work at Stanton Territorial Hospital, and according to Brookes has been an executive director with three different social services and medical health organizations in Yellowknife.

The audit committee will work with MacKay LLP chartered accountants for the summer audit of the district's finances.

2015 school trip approved

Sir John Franklin High School students will be taking a dive in Cozumel, Mexico in April 2015.

Approximately 16 students will go to Cozumel with a number of chaperones to participate in activities that will earn them credits toward their marine biology course.

"I know it's not just a field trip, it's a whole marine biology experience that these kids get and they get their certification in scuba they can take with them wherever they go," said board chair John Stephenson. "It's an incredible program."

Trustees joked about wanting to add a few more chaperone spots, which they would happily fill but all jokes aside, trip was approved unanimously by trustees. The approval in principle is the go-ahead to further plan the trip and nail down the details, which will then be approved once more by trustees next year.

Along with learning how to dive, the students will learn about various marine species which live in the environment and will become able to identify them while diving.

Finance troubles

As the deadline to present a budget for the 2014/2015 school year looms closer, the finance committee has been working with tighter budgets than usual.

"It's no mystery that it's been a very difficult budget process so far," said Terry Brookes, chair of the finance committee.

"We've done a lot of work on the expense side of the budget and we've taken a very conservative view on the revenue side. That's the big mystery, though, we're still not finished with it because we don't know all of the details."

With the implementation of junior kindergarten in smaller NWT communities next year, Yk1 will experience a reduction of $569,000 over the next two years, according to Metro Huculak's superintendent report for April. Budget figures for the upcoming school year haven't been released yet but last year's budget amounted to $32.1 million in expenditures.

"We have a draft budget document from ECE that outlines our funding from ECE for 2014/2015, but we could see some further cuts," Huculak states in the report.