High school classes back in Pikangikum

Pikangikum’s high school students are back in class as of Jan. 27.
“The high school teachers are staying in the newer trailers that were brought in last year,” said Kyle Peters, Pikangikum’s director of education. “A couple of (elementary teachers) had to move out of there to accommodate them so the high school can keep going.”
Peters said the elementary school teachers who had been staying in the newer trailers left the community to make room for the high school teachers.
“Some of (the high school students) have plans to go to college this fall,” Peters said.
New housing trailers for the community’s teachers are currently parked across the lake from Pikangikum, awaiting thicker ice conditions for safe passage to the community.
“There are already semis driving across,” Peters said about the winter road across the lake. “It was opened on Jan. 19.”
Most classes in the elementary school are still on hold until the new trailers are available for teachers.
Peters said some of the community’s teacherages have been cleaned up by workers.
“Now they are renovating the living areas,” Peters said. “It was mostly the basements that were mouldy.”
Most classes at Pikangikum’s Eenchokay Birchstick School, including all the high school classes, were closed Jan. 9 due to mould in the teacher’s living quarters.
Twenty-five of the school’s 31 teachers left the community or were in the process of leaving as of Jan. 11 after mould was found in their accommodations during an air quality assessment conducted by an independent consultant. The assessment was called for after a teacher became ill.
More than 600 students were left without classes due to the class closures.
As the teachers left the community, concerns were raised about whether the high school students would finish their school year.
“They are three to four weeks away from finishing up the first semester,” Peters said in early January. “We were anticipating our highest graduation number ever — 17 possible graduates. I don’t know what is going to happen.”
But after meeting with federal government officials in Winnipeg during the week of Jan. 9-12, Pikangikum Chief Jonah Strang said considerable progress had been made regarding the teachers’ accommodations.