Two major renovations to Yellowknife Education District No. 1 schools are taking a back-seat to the rest of the territory but a new J.H. Sissons school remains atop the GNWT Education Culture and Employment's priority list.
A new addition at Mildred Hall School is needed to accommodate the increase in population, William McDonald School needs a new roof and Sissons needs a new building all-together.
At a public meeting on Tuesday board trustees passed a motion which confirmed their projected budget.
The board's total expenses for its portion of the 2018-2019 budget is almost $36 million. Roughly $28.6 million of that funding comes from GNWT.
However, Education, Culture and Employment's assistant deputy minister of corporate services Olin Lovely said the money provided to YK1 does not equal the total dollar amount needed to fix the bigger issue – the outdated infrastructure.
“To build a new Sissons I've said it would take roughly $25 to $30 million dollars to complete the project,” said Lovely. “A new roof on William McDonald would cost an additional $1 to $3 million.”
Earlier this year, it was announced the funding needed to build a new J.H. Sissons school would not be allocated in time for the October approval of the 2018-2019 capital budget.
Although ECE plans to add the budget for building a new Sissons into the 2019-2020 capital plan, the two parties are hashing out other financial agreements to speed up the process of fixing Mildred Hall and William McDonald.
“We are working toward getting the funding for a new Sissons school into the capital plan for next year but we also have 49 other schools across the territory and there is just not enough funding to do everything,” said Lovely.
ECE is committed to completing the William McDonald and Mildred Hall School plans but other schools in the territory are taking precedent because they are already in the building process, added Lovely.
Funding for a study on the Mildred Hall project was initially stashed away by ECE but after a leak in the William McDonald roof they were forced to reallocate the money, meaning there is currently no immediate plan to focus attention on Mildred Hall.
Taking into account cost-of-living adjustments, what schools need to operate day-to-day and helping fulfill teacher salaries are some of the criteria which ECE considers when allocating funding for the board. Lovely said their driving force behind providing funding is enrollment.
This year, YK1 received more funding than it should have due to the high number of kindergarten students. ECE dedicated money to the board because they had 2,043 students in the system. Next year there is a chance that number will decrease. Despite the decrease in enrollment Lovely said funding to YK1 has dropped by $115,000 for the upcoming year.
Currently the board is $174,000 in debt however with a surplus of $1.3 million they are able to stay afloat.
NNSL file photo
At the annual ratepayers meeting on May 1, finance committee chair Terry Brookes said almost all of the expenditures YK1 have are being put back into the school and the education system.
This year ECE is dumping $300,000 into the boards inclusive schooling initiative and $300,000 into the Indigenous education curriculum.
ECE supplies 80 per cent of the district's revenue. The other 20 per cent comes from City of Yellowknife property tax allocation which the school district receives because its ownership of the Nordic Arms maintenance facility.