Coast Mountain School District #82

Many Gitksan and local First Nation students attend the public schools which are within School District #82 – Coast Mountain. There are a number of schools in the area: Kitwanga Elementary School, New Hazelton Elementary, Majagaleehl Gali Aks Elementary and Hazelton Secondary School.  The local First Nations High school information is listed under the Giksan Wet’suwet’en Education Society website at https://gwesschool.ca/

The local trustee for the Hazelton/Kitwanga is Julis Sundell. The First Nations District Principal is Robert Cliffton.

The Ministry of Education provides enhanced funding to school age students of Aboriginal ancestry.  Enhanced funding provides culturally appropriate educational programs and services to support the success of Aboriginal students with focus on career, culture and educational supports with collaborative funding decisions made with the local First Nations of the district.  Program 1.31 (Aboriginal Education Program) specific information is not available on the Coast Mountain School District website.

Within the BC Aboriginal Education approach a collaborative working relationship can be reached  by negotiating a  local education agreement between the local Bands and the School District.  For more information contact your Band Education Coordinator.

For BC public schools: How are We Doing? (scroll to bottom of the list) is the annual aboriginal education report published by the Ministry of Education. This provides a provincial overview of how well aboriginal students are doing in the public school system.  For more local district information regarding aboriginal student outcomes, and use the same link for local school aboriginal student outcomes. Each year there are school satisfaction surveys that are available for parents of students in certain grades to fill out online. The most recent report is available in the district information – under ‘satisfaction survey’ of the report. Parents can also get involved in parent advisory committees, check out some of the School health resources  here.

Thank you.