The St. Clair Catholic District School Board will have an increased staff complement when students to return to classes in a couple of weeks.
Education Director Dan Parr says they're adding up to ten teachers, educational assistants and secretaries.
"Normally, more hiring in those areas are a result of higher enrolment," says Parr. "In this case, there's going to be a bit of an increase in hiring of those employee groups as a result of provincial settlements with the unions."
Parr says that's good news for the board and the extra resources will be a benefit to students.
There are 160 secondary instructors and 380 elementary teachers with the board with a total staff complement of 1,484.
They're projecting 2,668 secondary and 6,208 elementary students which is a very slight increase from 2016-2017.
$26.7-million worth of work is planned to replace six aging schools in Chatham-Kent with a pair of new facilities.
That work, funded by the province, is expected to wrap up by 2019-2020.
Lambton Kent District School Board Director Jim Costello says enrollment at the public board is down this year by over 300 students. But, because of a large number of retirements, the board has hired 31 elementary and 20 secondary teachers.
Costello says improvements are planned at many schools within the district.
"Obviously Great Lakes Secondary School and the revision and the addition to Wyoming Public School are two major projects for this school year," he says.
The school year gets underway September 5.
