Joamie students to bunk in at Nakasuk School

PATRICIA D’SOUZA

Joamie School students from kindergarten to Grade 4 will share space with their Nakasuk School counterparts when school starts in September, the Government of Nunavut’s department of education said this week.

They will occupy seven classrooms and two office spaces in the spaceship-like structure in downtown Iqaluit until 2005, when a replacement school is expected to be ready.

Joamie school burned to the ground on July 4.

But where will Nakasuk find seven extra classrooms and two office spaces?

“That’s a question we knew we would get,” said Kathy Smith, chair of the Iqaluit District Education Authority. “If we can come up with nine classrooms, why do we need another school?”

To find the extra space, the IDEA enforced a strict policy of priority school operations. Classroom space was the highest priority.

The IDEA office will be converted into a classroom and the two staff members will work from home. Two half-time teachers will share one classroom instead of each having their own.

The computer room will be disassembled and the computers moved into individual classrooms to free up another space. Renovations planned to remove walls and make two classrooms into one will be delayed.

In addition, Grade 5 students from Joamie and Nakasuk schools will be split between l’Ecole des Trois-Soleils and Aqsarniit Middle School.

“We weren’t lying when we said we need more schools, but it’s an emergency situation,” Smith said. “We had to come up with a two-year plan. For two years we can do this. We can squeeze together a little bit, give up some extra spaces and let our kids be in school.”

The squished solution was really the only option, Smith added. Other locations, such as the FOL site, and even the fisheries and oceans building, were very quickly eliminated.

More serious options, such as houses or portable classrooms, could not be ready in time.

“The houses could not get here until next summer, so immediately that option was gone. The portables – the very earliest we could have used those would be the end of October, and that was if everything worked perfectly,” she said.

In addition, the portables would have cost $1.2 million at least.

“The existing facility-use is virtually cost-free,” Smith said. “There are going to be some costs, obviously, but nothing compared to the next available option.”

Kathy Okpik, one of two assistant deputy ministers of education, said that leaves more money for essential materials. The supplies, such as chairs, desks and school materials, have been ordered and will arrive on the September sealift.

Meanwhile, community fundraising efforts, such as a flea market and carnival in the parking lot of the legislature on Saturday, are bringing in thousands of dollars to help teachers rebuild stores of cultural materials lost in the fire.

“People are anxious to help, hence the fundraising, but we have at this stage received no limits from the department of education on what they’re replacing,” Smith said.

“I think people just needed to feel that they could help.”