New classrooms open in Aqsarniit

JOHN THOMPSON

After losing the equivalent of two weeks of classes, students at Iqaluit’s Aqsarniit Middle School returned to their regular academic schedule on Monday, Nov. 6.

Students attending the middle school discovered this September that the new classrooms and gymnasium, built by SNC Lavalin, were unfinished.

This is the first year that Aqsaarniit has taken in Grade 8 students, as well as Grade 7 and Grade 6 students. That makes a total of 15 homeroom classes, but the building only had eight finished classrooms this fall.

To deal with the classroom shortage, students were split into morning and afternoon shifts, giving them an hour and a half less class time each day.

Darlene Nuqingaq, principal of the school, said the school’s solution was to take out the “soft stuff” – activities such as creative writing – to focus on more traditional academic skills, such as reading, writing and math.

The school gym, which is also used by students at nearby École des Trois Soleils, remained unfinished until near the end of November.

“We’ve just been playing outside, in the rain and the snow,” Nuqingaq said two weeks ago.

With the gym now open, the school is left with an unfinished playground, and outside walls that need to be painted. That work, Nuqingaq said, will be done in the spring and fall.

SNC Lavalin pushed the opening date of the school back at least three times.

During the summer, school officials say the company told them the work would be done by mid-August. At the beginning of the school year, the opening date was pushed back to the end of September.

At the end of September, the deadline had been changed to the end of October. The new classrooms finally opened one week later.