Merci, Monsieur le President. [English translation not provided]. The Minister of Education is well aware that the addition of junior kindergarten has added increasing pressure on our schools here in Yellowknife. In my riding of Kam Lake, Ecole St. Joseph is nearing 95 per cent capacity. Yellowknife is currently assessed on the same level as everyone else, but has very different needs. Some of the schools have phantom classrooms, and the entire community is assessed as a whole rather than per district. I would like the Minister to tell me if he is willing to review the assessment for Yellowknife schools, and ensure that they are treated on an apples-to-apples analysis, and fairly, based on their needs. Merci.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, currently we have department staff that are working with the education authorities and the school staff to look at utilization rates, and to ensure that spaces that were developed when the school was made were actually being used for instructional time, and what other spaces aren't for instructional time. We are going through that review right now with schools in Yellowknife, currently. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am glad that the Minister is looking into this, but this isn't a new issue. I would like the Minister to commit to a timeline if he can, today, on when we are going to have a sense of when this needs assessment work has been completed.
Currently there isn't a timeline set in place. Obviously, we have to make sure that we do have appropriate time to go through the schools, with the staff, and have that idea of which classrooms are used for instructional hours and other classrooms that might be used for storage or other areas of use that were put forth by the school and together, collectively, decide which classrooms should be used for instructional classrooms, and identify that utilization rate. I don't have a timeline, but I will make sure the department comes back with something. I will share that with the Member.
It is difficult to get a clear answer on timelines from this government. Alas, this, with the addition of junior kindergarten, we have 95 per cent capacity reached at St. Joseph School. What does the Minister propose to do to assist the Yellowknife Catholic school board to manage this capacity crunch?
When we look at the utilization rates, we look at utilization rates as they pertain to communities, so the utilization rate here in Yellowknife isn't as high as it is by the school. Obviously, we look at school sharing. We are currently in discussions with YCS now, how we deal with that utilization rate and the high numbers that they are getting. We have schools across NWT that also are at certain levels that we need to have those discussions. However, the utilization rates haven't reached that peak within the Yellowknife schools, but we are in discussions with YCS on how we come up with solutions for that.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. [English translation not provided.] We have 78 per cent for Yellowknife and 95 per cent for this one school. Clearly the Minister can see that there is a problem here. If we are going to keep pushing grades onto our school boards, we need to have some flexibility here so these schools can meet the needs of our families and our parents. I will ask again if, in the rollout of the new junior kindergarten funding in the fall, when these needs are assessed, will there be additional money provided to the schools to provide for temporary accommodations or retrofits to their facilities in order to accommodate these extra children? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I had mentioned, we are in those discussions with YCS on how we deal with the situation. At those rates, we can't commit at that time. Yellowknife, as a whole, has some schools that have high utilization rates, but we also have schools that aren't meeting some of those high rates. We are trying to find a solution here in Yellowknife to accommodate all the students as well as staff.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
