Taloyoak’s new Pangniq High School unveiled with public ceremony

Metalshop students at Taloyoak’s new $90-million Pangniq High School crafted the qulliq that will be lit at an unveiling ceremony set for Friday.

The school overlooks the community from atop a raised plot of ground next to the airport.

Its stature in the landscape is mirrored by its name —  pangniq, an Inuktitut term for the most prominent bull in a caribou herd. Students helped choose that name as part of a contest last year.

“The school is outstanding — state of the art,” said first-year principal Rodney Drover Wednesday in a phone interview.

The school’s 16 staff members and 200 students from grades 7 to 12 began their fall semester in the 3,300-square-metre facility for the first time since construction, which was completed on schedule, began in 2023.

It’s the fifth school completed by Iqaluit-based general contractor Pilitak Enterprises Ltd., Winnipeg-based Accutech Engineering Inc., and Parkin Architects, which has offices in Ontario and B.C.

The building blends traditional learning with technology that includes smartboards, microphone systems, and screens in every classroom, Drover said.

“There’s not much that we don’t have,” he said, adding that the science lab is “what you would expect to find in a university.”

There’s also a culinary training facility and processing room, in which elders can lead students through lessons in skinning and breaking down country food.

Early in the semester, students used the brand-new stoves to cook muskox recipes. On Wednesday, they prepared seal dishes to serve at Friday’s public event.

The shop, overseen by instructor Bill Akerly, is equipped for carpentry, electrical, welding and other trades.

The building is designed to accommodate more than 400 students.

Friday’s ceremony includes two bands, accordian jigs, throatsinging and drumdancing.

The gymnasium at Taloyoak’s new Pangniq High School is set up in anticipation of Friday’s public unveiling, which Premier John Main is expected to attend. (Photo courtesy of Rodney Drover)

Those on Friday’s guest list, which will include Nunavut Premier John Main and other MLAs, will be greeted by the natural light that floods into the foyer through large banks of north- and east-facing windows.

Guests will be led on a private tour before doors open to the public at 2 p.m. A community feast is scheduled to follow at 3:30 p.m.

“[The school is] a wonderful gift to the community and, more importantly, the students,” Drover said.