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French Immersion program expands in Lake Country

Grade 9 class added to George Elliot Secondary for 2023-24 year
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The French Immersion (FI) program will be expanding in Lake Country.

The Central Okanagan Board of Education has adopted a school district staff recommendation for a Grade 9 FI option for George Elliot Secondary (GES) beginning in September 2023.

The move follows the school board’s previous decision to introduce a FI program into Lake Country when the new École H.S. Grenda Middle School opened.

While Lake Country parents had begun aggressively advocating for the expansion, the school district staff report cited the GES option was both the most feasible option for budget and staffing implications, was an intended direction when the FI was established at Grenda initially and met the school district’s FI long-term vision to increase student accessibility and maximize enrolment sustainability.

The expansion cost will mean the addition of one full-time equivalent teaching position for the next two years, and an additional teaching position for the second two years, as the program is phased in from Grade 9 to Grade 12 over the next four years.

The alternative would have been for FI students to be bused to École Dr. Knox Middle for one year and then to École Kelowna Secondary for three years.

Stephanie Lawson, president of the H.S. Grenda parent advisory council, said the initial response to French Immersion being offered in the community has been positive from both FI and English curriculum students, because it allows kids growing up together in a community to go to school together.

Originally, as H.S. Grenda was being built, the school board had considered an option then of busing students to Dr. Knox as a more viable option from both a financial and teaching and learning resource perspective, but parents advocated to give Lake Country an opportunity to make the program work locally.

Lawson said there is renewed interest in FI for Lake Country parents knowing their kids won’t be bused elsewhere to remain in the program from Grades 1-12.

“The support of the community has been terrific,” said Lawson.

Kevin Kaardal, Central Okanagan Public Schools superintendent/CEO, called the FI expansion a ‘win-win’ situation for parents and the school district.

Kaardal noted the Lake Country schools have the space to accommodate the program, something high schools in Kelowna don’t have with the current enrolment spike seen in recent years.

In the report to the board of education, Kaardal noted program accessibility for programs of choice is one of the hopes identified by the 2016 French Immersion Task Force.

“If the program can be offered in a sustainable way with minimal or no extra costs in Lake Country, the district should do so,” Kaardal stated in the report.

A school district staff report says GES’s current enrolment as of Oct. 31, 2022, is 744 students, with the school enrolment projected next year to rise to 795 students.

With future enrolment expected to remain stable through 2032, GES is expected to be able to accommodate the additional student increase generated by a Grade 9-12 FI program.

French Immersion enrolment at H.S. Grenda is 71 students in Grades 6-8 and at École Peter Greer Elementary is 138 in Kindergarten-Grade 5.

READ MORE: School board commits to French Immersion for Lake Country



Barry Gerding

About the Author: Barry Gerding

Senior regional reporter for Black Press Media in the Okanagan. I have been a journalist in the B.C. community newspaper field for 37 years...
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