Two months after oil spill Pang school stays closed

The furnace at Pangnirtung’s Alookie School first malfunctioned Sept. 19, spilling anywhere from 95 to 200 litres of fuel oil from its combustion chamber. The school has been closed since October, while elementary students share the community’s high school. (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE HAMLET OF PANGNIRTUNG)

An elementary school in Pangnirtung remains closed — more than two months after a fuel oil spill in the building’s furnace room forced education officials to send staff and students home.

And officials at the Qikiqtani school operations say they’re not sure when Alookie School will re-open.

Meanwhile, elementary school staff and students continue to use classrooms at Pangnirtung’s high school, as they have for the last four weeks, as part of a shared schedule with local high school students.

The furnace at Pangnirtung’s Alookie School first malfunctioned Sept. 19, spilling anywhere from 95 to 200 litres of fuel oil from its combustion chamber.

Although the initial spill was immediately cleaned up, vapours from the spill were strong and the local District Education Authority moved to close the school until early October.

But even when they returned, staff and students reacted to the strong smell, forcing the school to close once again Oct. 18.

“I’ve seen the furnace room, it’s very clean and there is no sign of oil,” said Paul Mooney, the superintendent of schools in the Qikiqtani region. “But staff and students were reacting to the vapours, people could smell it and they were reporting that they didn’t feel well.”

Since then, the Department of Community and Government Services has taken over responsibility of the school by doing further clean up and testing of the air quality in the building.

Mooney said he has not received the results of the latest tests conducted at Alookie and no date has been set for the school to re-open.

In the meantime, the community’s roughly 200 elementary students have been sharing Pangnirtung’s secondary school facilities.

Since Oct. 28, Attagoyuk Ilisavik High School has been hosting Pangnirtung’s elementary students each morning, while secondary classes are scheduled from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. each day.

Mooney said the school calendar is padded with extra days to make up for missed classes.

The community’s 250 high school students have yet to miss any class time since they began sharing their classroom facilities, Mooney said.

But Pangnirtung’s elementary students will require extra days to catch up, although no decision has been taken about how that will happen.

“Our priority is making sure students are going to school everyday,” Mooney said. “And getting Alookie re-opened.”