Students return to Kugluktuk school damaged by fire

Students at Kugluktuk High School returned to their school this morning.

That’s after a Sept. 3 fire, which police say was due to arson, caused about $100,000 worth of damage and meant students were shuttled to temporary classrooms in the community of about 1,500.

Due to concerns about air quality in the school after repairs were completed, students continued to attend classes in the hamlet’s recreational centre, dubbed the “south campus,” and at the elementary school, known as the “west campus.”

The Education Department had initially said, early last week, that classes at the school would resume on Sept. 19.

“The school’s air quality test found the air to be safe right away, but the school was closed while waiting for six air scrubber filtration systems that had [been] ordered to be delivered to purify the air,” the Education Department said in an email sent on Sept. 18.

“They were received yesterday (Tuesday) will run 24 hours without students in the school today and then students will return to school on Thursday.”

But on Friday, Sept. 20, the Education Department said in an emailed statement that “the time frame we sent you earlier this week has been advanced by two days.”

The re-opening of the school was delayed because the air scrubbers that were expected to arrive on Tuesday were only received late Thursday evening due to delays in shipping and receiving.

It then took the air scrubbers 24 hours to purify the air, before students could return.

One parent of students at the school told Nunatsiaq News last week that the high school was in disorder.

“My panik said school is a mess and barge order is not put away,” said the parent.

But that’s not so, the Education Department said: “the school remains closed not because it needs a big cleaning. Only the air inside the school needs to be cleaned.”

On Sunday afternoon, parents received the news that classes would resume at the high school on Monday morning.