By meadowlakeNOW

French immersion program now includes Grade 11

Jan 23, 2018 | 1:00 PM

After some recent uncertainty surrounding the program in the city, the Northwest School Division (NWSD) has hired not one, but two teachers, ensuring its growth into the 2018-2019 school year.

At its Jan. 11 meeting, the school board set an April deadline to determine whether the high school French immersion program could continue since the district faced teacher recruitment challenges. This year’s Grade 10 students were continuing their French immersion studies online without a teacher. 

On Friday, Jan. 19, the division announced the program would not only continue, but expand to Grade 11 after a successful interview candidate accepted a high school immersion teaching position. According to Davin Hildebrand, superintendent of human resources with NWSD, there were two strong candidates so the division hired a second teacher at Jonas Samson Junior High.

“We know that French immersion teachers are really hard to find. We’ve had positions posted in the past and haven’t had much luck with them,” he said. “It’s great for the kids, it’s great for the schools, and I know the administrators in both schools were really excited to move forward and start making their plans. We’re really excited about where we are with French immersion staffing.”

He said the class configurations have yet to be figured out at both schools.

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“The school administration will have to start looking at that,” Hildebrand said. “I’m not sure yet what kind of courses and combinations they’ll put together at the high school level but they’re thinking about it already. Having two teachers at Jonas will reduce the necessity in some cases to have triple grading, and will really reduce the stress level in terms of coordinating classes and timetabling there.

Board vice-chair Barb Seymour said the board is thankful for the hard work of the human resources and administrative team.

“We’re really fortunate on both of these hires,” she said. “We want to do what’s best for our students, so having a teacher in front of them is always the best way for them to learn. I’m thrilled to have not one but two [teachers] to help alleviate the strain that’s been on the division and on the program. We want to do it right for all the kids that are in immersion.”

kathy.gallant@jpbg.ca  

On Twitter @ReporterKath