The flow of Syrian refugees into the Windsor area is beginning to show up in the local school system, but they are being supplemented by an equal number of immigrants from other nations.
From Jan. 4 to Feb. 4, the Greater Essex County District School Board has assessed 98 immigrant students with 49 of those being Syrians.
The Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board is updating its figures this week, but since Nov. 1 they have assessed 26 immigrant students with 15 of those being from Syria.
The new arrivals have required the public board to add 3.5 positions in its English as a Second Language program.
The Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board will decide shortly whether it will add more ESL teachers.
“We’re seeing the number of Syrian students increasing, but what’s interesting is it’s being matched one for one by newcomers from other countries,” said Sharon Pike, the superintendent of education overseeing the issue for the GECDSB.
“We had a few before Christmas. It’s picked up since then.”
Non-Syrian immigration is coming from other Middle Eastern locales along with China, Taiwan and African nations.
In 2014-15, the public board assessed 635 new arriving students. From the beginning of September until Feb. 4, the board has seen 395 immigrant students arrive.
“Those numbers indicate we will be above last year’s,” said Pike, who added the Ministry of Education has told school boards any expenses related to the arrival of Syrian refugees will be reimbursed.
![Students from General Brock Public School take part in an (E.S.L.) class on Feb. 10, 2016.]()
Students from General Brock Public School take part in an (E.S.L.) class on Feb. 10, 2016.
Cathy Geml, the WECDSB’s associate director, said similar patterns are showing up at the WECDSB.
Geml said the board is updating student counts this week with the pace of arrivals starting to pick up.
“We want to make sure we’re aware of all our new students and where they’re at,” Geml said.
“We don’t want to miss anyone in trying to determine what services they need and where we need that support.”
Geml said there’s no pattern to the students’ arrivals. It can be one student this week and then six or seven the next week.
John Howitt, GECDSB superintendent of education for the elementary panel, said so far most students are appearing in the city’s core, west end and south Windsor.
However, officials for both boards expect that to change as families find long-term housing.
“It’s a very fluid situation,” Howitt said.
“I think they’re initially staying near their sponsor or with family if they have it. That’s starting to change as they find permanent homes.”
Howitt said the board has been able to integrate the students pretty quickly into the classroom after they’re assessed for language skills and other potential needs.
“We’re seeing a range of language abilities from pretty good to no English at all,” Howitt said.
“We’re trying to minimize the time they’re not in school. In some cases, its taken only one day to get them into a classroom.”
Geml said because its unpredictable what schools students will show up at, the board is choosing to bring teachers and services to schools rather than set up a central site.
“We have one ESL teacher at Catholic Central high school because of the diversity of that school,” Geml said.
“Our elementary staff are itinerant. We have eight right now that travel across the entire system.”
Geml added how further resources will be deployed is largely dependent on where families settle.
“We expect in the next few months families will be on the move,” Geml said.
“They’ll go where they get work and find housing. We expect some will be on the outskirts of the city and into the county.”
Both boards said there hasn’t been any special programs set up to handle the increased flow of immigrant students.
“The difference is we’re getting more students in a shorter period of time,” Pike said.
“We’re using the programs we have set up because we know they work.”
Geml said what has stood out about the new arrivals is how well they have settled into the school system.
“They have to be resilient to have gotten this far based on what they’ve seen,” Geml said.
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