When the 12th grade student, Tasha Napoakesik, fled forest fires in northern Manitoba this summer, thought she would be at home before the school year began. Instead, he is preparing to attend school in Brandon, while he hopes to return to Lynn Lake sooner rather than later.
It’s hard to be in a new city, with new teachers and students, Napoakesik said. She is adjusting, but the idea of the home is always close.
“I don’t like worrying until it happens,” said Napoakesik. “Things change all the time, so I only leave it and do my best.”
The Napoakesik community was evacuated in May, then returned briefly in July for 10 days before being forced to evacuate Brandon.
Napokesik is one of the more than 70 fire evacuation students registered in Brandon School Division, and the division is prepared to make space for up to 200, says the superintendent of the division of the Brandon School, Mathew Gustafson. The planning began in June, when the scale of forest fires made it clear that families could be displaced in the long term.
The Winnipeg school division had Srgent Park Elementary that welcomed 20 students before going home. The Division of the St. James-Assiniboia school has been associated with Mathias Colomb Cree Nation to provide space for instruction in up to three schools, and has several students evacuated from other communities currently registered.
“We know that there will be a variety of emotions of families,” said Gustafson. “Some families … they will be nervous because it is a new community, new school, and they want to make sure they want the best for their child.”
Brandon School Division has never seen this level of impact on forest fires during the school year, said Gustafson.
Kindergarten to Grade 8 students will be placed in King George and Riverserview Kindergarten to Grade 8 schools, while older students will attend the secondary schools of Ecole Secoleire Neelin or Vincent Massey.
The division has established a flexible intake, more educational assistants and has created contingency classrooms to manage fluctuating registration this year. With 16 more classes that need the space in the available classroom, he says, libraries, music rooms and personnel rooms are becoming learning areas.
The division is creating class configurations that reflect the class configurations of students’ origin schools so that they have faces and family friends in class.
Normality is needed
Marcel Colombia Nation Cao Don McCallum says that many students have registered in Brandon schools during evacuation, but uncertainty remains. Students need a sense of normality when their lives have turned, he says.
“They miss the home,” he said. “It is not the same as returning home because this is a strange environment, a strange system.”
A transformer failure in the community’s water treatment plant is delaying re -entry. McCallum expects families to return soon, although it may seem “start again” when classes resume in Lynn Lake.
Marcel Colombia collection’s boss, Dehlia Hart-Francois, says that adapting to life in Brandon has been difficult for young people. They are having strange experiences such as catching the bus outside the hotels, going to new schools and navigating a big city.
His four grandchildren are being installed in Brandon’s classrooms, but he is concerned that the return home will interrupt that progress. Many students can face another delay before returning to the West Lynn Heights school.
Hart-Francois wants a better planning for long evacuations, including learning packages to take home.
“Education is the key to successful students,” he said.
Waiting to go home
Napokesik’s mother, Belinda Merasty, says that planning the future feels “how to walk in eggshells.”
Around a third of the 200 West Lynn Height School students are now registered in Brandon. Merasty says that school stability is key after a summer of uncertainty.
She says that agitation has forced families to make difficult decisions about the education of their children. Although he appreciates the efforts of the school divisions of Brandon and Frontier to provide consistency, it has still been difficult.
Keeping children together at school has relieved anxieties, he says, and adds that he helped his daughter feel comfortable.
“I was quite nervous at first and once we discovered that our children are together in the classrooms, that relieved a lot of stress for her,” Merasty said.
Merasty is planning that her daughter attends school in Brandon this week, but says that everything depends on when families can return home. She wants students to continue learning despite the interruption.
“At least we know that children who go to school get the education they need while they are here,” he said. “They can take that with them. They can take what they have learned from here and then continue [in] Lynn Lake. “
For now, Napoakesik says he would prefer to be at home with his friends and students with whom he grew up. His friends go to Neelin, the school in which he has registered, and she says it makes it easier to know that there will be friendly faces.
Napokesik says they constantly talk about going home, but they have to wait for re -entry.
She expects this week to be.
“It’s good here, it’s, but I’m fed up with that,” said Napoakesik.
Tasha Napoakesik is one of the more than 70 fire evacuation students registered in Brandon School Division, and the division is prepared to make space for up to 200, says its superintendent. The planning began in June, when the scale of forest fires made it clear that families could be displaced in the long term.
