Baffin school board considers lawsuit against Kakivak

Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — The Baffin Divisional Education Council is considering a lawsuit against the Kakivak Association, following a decision by the job training agency to withdraw $1 million from special education funding.

The school board “does not agree with statment recently made that deny a legally binding agreement was and continues to be in place,” a press release issued by the school board stated last week.

In May, Kakivak made headlines after vowing to spend a quarter of its budget to provide more Inuit cultural education and support staff in public schools.

The money was to be used to hire 10 new classroom support assistants, 17 Inuit elders, and two roving mental health consultants beginning next fall.

The grant marked a significant departure in the agency’s approach to distributing federal training dollars, and was hailed by the school board and Nunavut’s education minister as a welcome investment in Nunavut’s schools.

Underlying the initial agreement to invest in the public school system was the idea that such innovative programs could lower the drop-out rate among younger students, thus reducing the future cost of offering basic-adult education courses.

But a spokesman for Kakivak’s board of directors recently said that such spending would fall outside the agency’s mandate.

The job-training arm of the Qikiqtaani Inuit Association will not spend any of its federal dollars on public schools, said Jerry Ell, chairman of the Ulu Development Committee.

Ell said basic public education is the responsibility of the Nunavut government exclusively, and that Kakivak’s budget must be directed specifically at job-training programs for Inuit beneficiaries.

Ell also said Kakivak would have no way to account for money it spends on general educational programs for school-age children.

Kakivak is already embroiled in a legal dispute with one of its former employees.

Just two weeks after the $ 1 million grant to the school board was announced in May, the Ulu Development Committee — Kakivak’s board of directors — fired CEO Pat Angnakak during a meeting of the QIA’s board of directors in Resolute Bay.

Angnakak has since hired an Ottawa lawyer to pursue a wrongful dismissal suit.

The executive committee of the Baffin Divisional Education Council is planning to meet to consider their legal options in light of Kakivak’s decision to renege on the May agreement.

“The interests of students and staff, as well as fair practices, must be honored,” the school board said in a prepared statement.