Yellowknife Education District No. 1 (Yk1) will have more than $3 million to spend on Indigenous students for the 2020-2021 school year through Jordan's Principle funding.
Jordan's Principle is a federal legal obligation passed by the House of Commons in 2007 that helps ensure Indigenous children living on and off reserve receive equitable access to government-funded public services.
Tram Do, Yk1's director of corporate services, made the announcement on funding during the school board's trustees meeting on Sept. 8.
Blair McBride/NNSL photo
“We have $614,461 carried over from last year, and this year we got additional approval for $2.4 million for a grand total of $3,052,116 to date for our schools,” Do said. “Kudos to our principals for working hard over the summer to send in applications based on the needs of their school populations.”
The funding roughly breaks down into $1.2 million for Mildred Hall School, $786,000 for Range Lake North, $521,000 for N.J. Macpherson, $338,000 for Sir John Franklin and $128,000 for William McDonald.
Most of the $3 million will be spent on staffing, Do said, and so far 30.5 educational assistant positions have been filled.
The rest of the funds will go towards technology for students, tutoring services, private counselling, transportation to school and student-specific equipment and services.
For the 2019-2020 school year, Yk1 received about $2.2 million.
Jordan's Principle is named after Jordan River Anderson, an Indigenous boy from Manitoba who died in 2005 after his case for medical care funding was caught in a dispute between the federal and provincial governments.