The St. Clair Catholic District School Board is ready and excited for the start of the new school year.
Director of Education Deb Crawford said there aren't any major changes.
"We're really happy about our enrollment. We have experienced a number of years of a significant decline in enrollment, and now we're seeing that has really eased off," she said. "In some schools, we're actually seeing an increase in enrollment, which is very heartening."
There are around 8,200 students across the board -- 6,000 elementary students and 2,600 secondary students.
Crawford said because that number is pretty much unchanged from last year, they've been able to increase employment.
"We've hired around 100 extra people all toll, teaching and non-teaching, to meet the needs of our students, so it's a good news story," she said.
Crawford said they will be engaged in a new multi-year strategic plan where parents, students, staff and other community members will give feedback on the Catholic board.
Crawford also said they're still in the process of finding a site for their new French immersion school.
At Lambton Kent District School Board, Director of Education Jim Costello said enrollment is down slightly by about 150 students.
"We are projecting 21,774," said Costello. "We typically get some walk-ins, we often have students move to the area from out of province and in many cases, we haven't heard from them. Parents sometimes tell us they're going to show up and sometimes they don't so we'll know a lot more in the next week or two."
Costello said they've also hired about 75 new teachers this year to replace retirees to bring the staff complement to about 1,400.
Some will be working at a remodelled and expanded Plympton-Wyoming Public School in Wyoming.
He also says teachers will be using a "re-issued" sex ed curriculum from 1998 to 2014.
