As Fort Providence, N.W.T., reopens its doors to residents Thursday, one school principal says she's ready to return. Whether that's the case for the rest of her staff and students remains to be seen.
Terry Sapp, the principal at Deh Gáh School, said the school is set to reopen its doors Monday, with classes ideally being back in full force by Wednesday.
"There's a few of us that are ready to be there on Monday because we will have some kids that need that support of the school system, that may just need to be connected with us," said Sapp.
The school has about 105 students spanning between junior kindergarten and Grade 12, she said.
People have been displaced from Fort Providence since Aug. 31, days after the school year started, as a large wildfire bore down on the community.
For some, there hasn't been much time to process the past two weeks. The hamlet of about 700 people officially downgraded its evacuation order to a notice on Thursday at noon, meaning residents should still be aware the nearby wildfire poses a potential threat.
Earlier in the week, essential workers including grocers, health and school staff were allowed to return. The community's health centre is open but will be on reduced hours until the end of the week, the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority said in a notice Thursday. It's expected to be back on regular hours by Monday.
Sapp said her community has had a lot of different traumas, and evacuating was huge.
"We've never had to be completely removed from our community due to wildfire," she said.
But for some students, access to education could be just what they need right now.
"Some students come to the school because that's their safe space or they enjoy it," said Sapp. "Some of them are in high school and they're eager to continue that journey and be done and move on to something bigger."
Sapp said she has also been looking to have a counsellor available to students when school starts, but there's still no word on whether that will happen.
Evacuation put strain on teachers, says MLA
Dehcho MLA Sheryl Yakeleya put out her own news release on Wednesday, slamming the N.W.T. government for how it handled her hamlet's evacuation. Speaking to CBC News on Thursday, she said evacuating the community has also put strain on its teachers.
Yakeleya said she's been living in Fort Providence for three years. She said she spoke to some of her hamlet's teachers while staying in Hay River during the evacuation.
"They're saying, 'Well, we're going to be back now, there's going to be a lot of work for us to do when we get back.'"
Going forward, Yakeleya said she wants the school to have some counsellors who can help students process what's happened.
"Kids have a lot of questions: 'Why were we in Hay River? What were we doing here?' So they have a lot of questions and they're wondering why they're not in school."
CBC News contacted the territorial government for comment, but did not hear back before publication. However, it has responded to criticism before.
When former MP and MLA Michael McLeod slammed the N.W.T. government, Premier R.J. Simpson responded with a statement saying his government would learn from this experience and improve its firefighting efforts.
Environment Minister Jay Macdonald also said that every safe opportunity to put resources in place has been taken while fighting fires in Fort Providence. He added that the territory has the expertise and resources needed to fight fires.