Return to classes delayed until Sept. 16 for heavy-hearted Nunavut hamlet

Grade 12 students at Peter Pitseolak high school are pictured listening to a talk in 2012. The school was completely destroyed in a Sept. 6 fire. (PHOTO COURTESY OF NAC)

Secondary students in Cape Dorset won’t return to class until Sept. 16, says the Government of Nunavut’s education department, to give the community more time to recover from a massive fire that destroyed its high school Sept. 6.

An early-morning fire, which police say was deliberately set, burned down the newly-renovated Peter Pitseolak high school, which hosted a population of 170 students. Three youth have since been charged with arson.

Students were originally scheduled to return to makeshift classrooms in the neighbouring Sam Pudlat elementary school Sept. 10, but education officials said that teachers and students need more time.

Education Minister Paul Quassa, who visited the Baffin community Sept. 9 and Sept. 10, said his department provided mental health counselling to the school community last week.

“Everyone is really heavy-hearted,” Quassa said Sept. 11.

“We needed to give them a bit more time to get back on their feet. They’ll take another few days to work out the schedule and get used to the new routine.”

In the short-term, students will do a split-shift at Sam Pudlat school, with elementary students attending classes in the morning and secondary students in the afternoon.

But Quassa says that move should only be considered in the short-term, so as not to disrupt the school year for either school.

The minister, with staff members, toured the community last week to look at potential spaces to house the secondary school for the rest of the 2015-16 year.

The department also needs a space for a childcare centre that was housed in the high school.

Quassa couldn’t give a timeline for when the new location would be secured, but committed his government to making the construction of a new school a major priority.

“We went to reassure the community that we would do everything we could,” he said.

“We’ll certainly have to build a school there, and we’ll have to fast track that project [in order to] build that school as soon as we can.”

In the meantime, Peter Pitseolak teachers and students are using resources from the elementary school, and ordering new equipment and classroom materials from the GN’s Iqaluit warehouse.

Support for the school community has come in from across the country; a fundraising campaign launched by a not-for-profit education foundation in Ontario last week has already amassed over $7,000 in cash donations, plus classroom equipment.

But Nunavut’s Department of Education says it will replace all the school’s curriculum-based resources.

The department has notified potential donors that any fundraising efforts should be coordinated with the District Education Authority in Cape Dorset, Quassa said, which could decide to use the funds for extracurricular material or to replace personal items that were lost in the fire.

And as residents of Cape Dorset adjust to the loss of the school, Quassa encourages the community to consider the value of education.

“Parental engagement is so vitally important,” he said. “It’s at the core of healthy community.

“We want parents to pass onto their children that education is important, and something that all students should pursue.”