Inuvik parents want junior kindergarten at Children First daycare, not East Three school

Inuvik parents lobbied for junior kindergarten classes to be held at the Children First building, rather than at East Three School, at a meeting about the program's rollout Tuesday night.

About 50 people attended the information meeting held at East Three school.

During the question and answer period, attendees were vocal about their support of the Children First Society which already has programs for three- and four-year-olds.

"The facility was built for that age group and they currently are running at less of capacity than they can be," said Melinda Gillis, a mother of three East Three students.

"This community raised that building as it was a dream and it's not getting utilized to its full potential."

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The meeting attracted not just parents but community leaders including Barry Greenland, a Nihtat Gwich'in Council member. Greenlandsaid there were safety concerns over having junior kindergarten at the larger school.

"I can't imagine how a three-year-old is going to act coming to a facility like this," he said.

"And we do have the Children First Society To have them come to the school, it's unrealistic."

Some also voiced concerns about what impact junior kindergarten at East Three would have on enrolment at Children First.

East Three Principal Deborah Reid said the school is expecting about 60 junior kindergarten students to enroll next year, along with the usual 60 kindergarten students. There are currently about 400 students on the elementary side of the school, and 270 on the high school side.

Reid said that although both kindergarten and now junior kindergarten are optional programs, they find that most parents choose to enroll their children.

After its originalplan to roll out junior kindergarten classeswithout increasing funding to schools stalled, the N.W.T. government has since pledged some additional funding but is still asking education authorities to re-allocate a portion of their existing budget in order to offer the new program.

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"What it means for us to put junior kindergarten here inInuvikis quite a big deal just because of the numbers that we have," said Reid. "So it will take a bit of planning."

'Too cost prohibitive'

Chris Gilmore, acting superintendent of schools for the Beaufort Delta Education Council, said there had been talks about about having junior kindergarten at Children First since the beginning of discussions with Department of Education, Culture and Employment.

"There is an additional cost to having the junior kindergarten run out of Children First and in the fiscal environment that the government is in right now, the response has been that it's too cost prohibitive to be going over there."

Gilmore also said the GNWT told them that the school environment is the better one for students long term.

Lesa Semmler, chair of the Inuvik District Education Authority, said she will continue to advocate for what the community wants.

"We'll send concerns and anything that came from the meeting tonight on to our MLAs and on to ECE. That's what our MLAs are there for so we can go to them and so hopefully they advocate for us."