Nunavut students to complete the year, despite losing school to fire

While a majority of the 320 students at Kugaardjuq have yet to return to class following the Feb. 28 fire, the school’s principal says he’s confident all the students will complete their school year on time. (FILE PHOTO)

A record number of eight high school students are expected to graduate from Kugaardjuq school in Kugaaruk this year, despite losing their school to fire in late February.

While students from Grade 1 to Grade 9 still wait for temporary classroom space to move into, school officials made it a priority to get high school students back to class as soon as possible.

Kugaardjuq students in Grades 10, 11 and 12 have been spread out in temporary classroom spaces across the community—from the wellness centre, the local business development centre, housing office and Arctic College campus offices, said principal Jerry Maciuk.

“We’re going to make sure they can all graduate,” Maciuk said. “This is a record number of grads for us and we’ll make sure we get them up on stage for everyone to celebrate.”

That’s the good news story this school year in Kugaaruk, a community of about 900 that lost one of its most important pieces of infrastructure this winter, when the community’s only school was destroyed by fire Feb. 28.

School and government officials are still finalizing renovations and inspections at hamlet offices and a church in Kugaaruk so students from Grade 1 to Grade 9 can return to class. That should happen by early next week, Maciuk said.

Pre-school and kindergarten students are already being housed at the community’s daycare centre.

Staff and teachers are back to work—if not teaching, then preparing their classrooms to welcome students back. Replacement materials are coming into the community every day, Maciuk said: all teachers have now been equipped with a laptop, printer, whiteboard and projector, while textbooks and other supplies continue to trickle in.

Maciuk said he’s already changed temporary offices three times since the fire; he meets with his teachers every morning and then works out of the hamlet office on a laptop.

“My role right now is make sure all these dots are being connected,” he said.

Maciuk, who’s in his fourth year at Kugaardjuq, was in Cambridge Bay at a regional principal’s conference Feb. 28 when the fire started.

He received a message from a co-worker at about 10:30 p.m. that night, with photos of smoke coming from the high school section of the school.

“At first, it seemed like they could put it out,” he said. “The fire fighters appeared to have it under control within an hour.”

But by 1 a.m. Maciuk had received a new message: Flames were engulfing the school. He didn’t sleep that night, staying up to hear updates on the fire. By 5 a.m., the school had been completely destroyed except for a stone arch that framed the entrance.

Maciuk was able to get a flight back to Kugaaruk March 1.

“The view from the airplane was really tragic,” he recalled. “But after the initial horror… there was immediate action.”

Maciuk credits his staff and Government of Nunavut officials for their quick response to the fire. The education department was quick to order in replacement materials and plan for six portable units, which are to be delivered to the community by sealift this summer.

Building morale among the school’s 320 students impacted by the fire has been a bigger challenge, Maciuk said.

Normally, Kugaardjuq staff organize a monthly gathering for the entire school; it’s a time to reflect on what’s happening in the classroom and to honour students’ achievements.

“Everyone’s missing this routine of getting up and going to school in the morning, so we’re trying to put some group activities in place,” he said. “Just to boost the spirit.”

The hamlet has been able to relocate its breakfast and hot lunch program—which originally ran out of the school—to the community’s wellness centre.

And two volunteers with the Canadian Red Cross’s Winnipeg office are in the community to help coordinate a spring festival, which includes kite-flying, cook-outs and igloo-building.

Community-building remains a touchy issue now that a local a 13-year-old youth has been charged with arson in relation to the fire.

Up to now, there’s been no urge to learn who that person is and the school has not approached authorities to find out, Maciuk said.

“There was an accident and some individual was involved,” he said. “But it’s important to remember that we’re living in an isolated community and we all have to live with each other.

“We don’t want anyone being ostracized.”

Administrators and educators at the school are now working to get elementary and middle school students back to class so they can finish the year, Maciuk said. They expect that will happen by the end of May.

For the 2017-18 school year, elementary and middle-school students are set to move into portable classrooms that will arrive in Kugaaruk this summer.

Looking forward, officials from Nunavut’s Department of Community and Government Services have begun hosting public consultations on how to construct the new school, which will be built at the site of the former one.

The new building is expected to be larger, with a capacity of about 400 students, to accommodate the community’s growing population. But the GN hasn’t yet announced plans for when the new building might be constructed.