Funding for Yukon First Nation School Board more than doubles

The First Nation School Board in Yukon has grown from eight schools and a budget of $13 million in 2022 to a budget of a little more than $35 million for the next 15 months. Another three schools will also join the board this year, with more funding for them to come.

Dana Tizya-Tramm, the school board chair, said the latest funding agreement is a step in the right direction — but it's less than what the school board had hoped for. 

"Sixty-four percent of this [agreement] represents funding that would have been there for any of the schools," he said.

"The remainder is not the full breadth of what we were hoping for, but it does represent a large movement forward on the initiatives we want to bring to our students."

Some of those initiatives include a new literacy plan, and hiring someone to work on issues surrounding low school attendance, he said, adding other ideas are still in a conceptual phase of development. One of them involves bringing elders into the schools and having their presence integrated into for-credit learning. 

"We can see learning not only from libraries and textbooks, but also the living libraries that are our elders," Tizya-Tramm said.

Education Minister Jeanie McLean said the Indigenization of the curriculum is an important part of the board's mandate.

"There's funding to develop specific curriculum, and those materials will be shared with the Department of Education," McLean said. "And there's also the sharing of knowledge that happens organically when we come together as a school community. This is a big step in advancing reconciliation and improving educational outcomes for all students across the territory."

McLean said the overall school budget for the Yukon has increased, and this money would support early learning and child care programs.