French immersion program now includes Grade 11
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.”