The local catholic school board is moving to expand its french immersion programming.
The Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board is supporting a plan in principle to phase-in french immersion at the former St. Gregory Catholic Elementary School in Tecumseh and St. Joseph Catholic Elementary School in River Canard, serving the LaSalle-Amherstburg corridor.
Director of Education Paul Picard says a report is set to come back to trustees January 27 of the new year to outline the finer details of the plan.
"Is it going to be JK, SK? Is it going to be JK, SK, Grade 1? Is it going to be JK to Grade 2? What's it going to look like? What are the associated costs with respect to staffing, with respect to infrastructure?" Asks Picard, going through potential scenarios for the new programming. "We're now in a good financial place where we're prepared to say, 'yes we are going to offer this.'"
Picard expects the new french immersion programming to start at the beginning of the new school year in September 2015.