With French Immersion seeing success in Sarnia and Chatham, the St. Clair Catholic District School Board is expanding its programming.
The board is phasing in the new curriculum at Wallaceburg's Christ The King Catholic School starting in 2016.
Director of Education Dan Parr says parents and even students are starting to see the added value of speaking both English and French. "In these economic times we live in, parents are seeing that the development of a second language seems to open up doors for students."
With the phasing in starting with Kindergarten students, Parr doesn't anticipate staffing to be negatively affected. "Because we're putting our start date over a year in advance, we're confident attrition and retirement will eliminate the needs for layoffs."
A survey from the board shows at least 23 students could enroll in the French Kindergarten program in 2016.