Approximately 360-to-370 french-immersion students at a Yellowknife Education District No. 1 school may be dispersed throughout the school district when it comes time to rebuild in 2020.
One of two options presented by superintendent Metro Huculak and Yk1 board members earlier this week calls for 16 classrooms at J.H. Sissons School to be moved to other surrounding Yk1 schools, adding teachers and custodial workers will not lose their job if students are moved.
The Yk1 school board, partnered with the Taylor Architecture Group, devised four different options for building the school, however only two real options are being explored, explained Huculak on Friday morning following the meeting. The plan will either be building on the current Sissons site or building off the current Sissons site where the playground stands. The latter option would keep students at the school site, where portable classrooms would be installed in the interim.
Parent Daron Letts said if the school board decides to build the new school where it currently stands and move students elsewhere until construction is complete, it would disrupt students' French immersion education.
“Many parents feel this idea put forth by the Yk1 board will disrupt every student and every school in the district,” said Letts, who would have five children enrolled in Yk1 district schools by the time construction begins.
" In 2020 I will have three (children) at Sissons and two (children) at William Mac," said Letts. "My four year old would also have to go through being at four schools by the time he is in Grade 3 which would be a matter of four years.”
The proposal to move the 16 classrooms to other schools in the city comes after a parents forum on Thursday which brought parents and Yk1 administration together at Sissons to discuss the different options for building a new school.
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“We will come together collaboratively, parents and board members and stakeholders to make the best decision and cause the least disruption,” said Huculak who said he has been in this position before.
“We want to take care of our students ... In Alberta we had to take 100 students and relocate them to a mall for a year while we built another school in the meantime and it worked.”
Classroom space issues is a contributing concern to the school board as enrolment is projected to increase next year, putting the capacity at Sissons over 100 per cent. To that point, Huculak said it will be exciting to get a new school and barring the GNWT's approval of an allotted budget for the project, which is slated to be approved by October, he is eager to start building.
The announcement for building a new school was made in November 2017 and is part of the territorial government's capital plan, said Huculak.
The school board said they will meet again Tuesday to decide which route they will be take in regards to relocating students.