It was created as part of the
James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (JBNQA), and in 1975 the school district came into existence. The district began operations in 1978. The district headquarters were placed in
Dorval so the administration would be in proximity to the Quebec government. The headquarters were later placed in
Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (NDG),
Montreal. In 1998
Quebec Minister of Education Pauline Marois stated she would support the headquarters moving to Nunavik. In 1980 there was a community boycott against the Kativik School Board in
Ivujivik and
Povungnituk as people there disliked the James Bay Agreement and therefore shunned the school district as they perceived it as close to the people who accepted the agreement. That year, the government of Quebec planned to open its own school there. The provincial education ministry requested that the district adopt certain reforms in its mathematics and science programs by 2012; when this did not happen, in 2014 the ministry stopped the district's ability to issue regular high school diplomas effective June 2015; instead "attestation of equivalence of secondary studies" became available. The district did not inform the students and community of the change until 2017. President of the district board Alicie Nalukturuk accused the ministry of ignoring requests for help on issues in the community. The school board and
John Abbott College jointly established some post-secondary sources. ==Schools==