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Still no answers on jr kindergarten
Education department continues to research schooling for children under four

Evan Kiyoshi French
Northern News Services
Friday, February 5, 2016

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
NWT superintendents gathered to discuss the recently-released junior kindergarten report but the education minister offered no answers as to whether school for children under four will be fully funded when implemented, or when that will happen.

Yellowknife Education District No. 1 (Yk1) superintendent Metro Huculak said the Wednesday afternoon closed-door meeting with Education Minister Alfred Moses and deputy minister David Stewart didn't answer the questions plaguing school administrators as they try to plan their budgets for next year.

The schools haven't yet been told how they'll be funded in 2017, since the department is working on a new formula that will change the way funding is allocated. Huculak said the added complication of waiting for answers about junior kindergarten is frustrating but, for the time being, the public district will continue to offer pre-kindergarten as a user-pay system.

Huculak said the review shows the merits of junior kindergarten. Students starting at a younger age are more likely to do better later on, said Huculak, which is something the schools have known for a long time.

"It makes a difference," he said.

Huculak said the minister and deputy minister have suggested the department wants to keep researching the concept and didn't offer a timeframe or indication of whether it will ultimately be funded. In October 2014, the GNWT announced it would complete an eight-month review of junior kindergarten before deciding how to introduce it in the city and other communities. But the controversial funding model the government used to implement the program still took $1.4 million from Yk1 and Yellowknife Catholic Schools (YCS) to fund the program.

Yk1 chairperson John Stephenson has repeatedly said the public district thinks the program is a good idea but wants the department to provide additional funding for what would essentially be another grade of students. Before the Wednesday meeting began, Moses told Yellowknifer the report has indeed found junior kindergarten to be a valuable program but the department has not yet met one of its directives: to continue engaging and consulting with superintendents, boards and teachers to "see what our strengths are moving forward in the communities."

"Our job is to continue that engagement and hear from people in the communities before we push the program. We want to do it right."

Moses did not give a timeline as to when the school boards will know what the department plans to

do and when.

"We want to get that out," he said. "We're coming to the end of the school year, the sooner we can get that information out the better."

Claudia Parker, superintendent for the Catholic school board, who also attended Wednesday's meeting, said while the district has been given no indication as to when the program might be implemented, she is certain it won't be happening this year.

"There's lots of decisions that have to be made before they look at the next stage of implementation. So we might be told differently ... but my guess is it won't happen for this school year.

Parker said YCS staff had another meeting with department staff on Thursday but won't know how they're going to be funded next year for "quite a while yet", because the education department is still ironing out its new funding formula. Parker said it's frustrating to be left waiting.

"We need to make decisions in February and March in regard to funding for next year," she said.

"But we're being told our budget will not be provided to us by those dates. It definitely makes the budget process a lot more difficult. We're going to bring our concerns forth at our meeting on Thursday but we're definitely worried about what might be coming down the line that we don't know about."

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