Another school year is upon us.

Students across the Rainy River District School Board return to classes today.

Rainy River District School Board’s Education Director Heather Campbell is excited about their return.

“It’s always wonderful to welcome back staff and students to a new school year,” says Campbell.

“We’re really excited for the 25-26 school year. We have staff across our system learning together and working to kick off a great school year.”

Campbell says they will not know enrolment numbers for a few weeks as families and students themselves get settled and adjusted to a new year.

Staffing was an issue for the board during the last school year.

Campbell says all of their classroom are currently staffed as they start the year.

She welcomes the funding provided to post-secondary teaching programs to expand their enrollment and help address the shortage in the future.

In the meantime, Rainy River students will not be in their new school just yet.

Construction of the new K-12 school is taking longer than expected due to supply chain issues and other delays.

Campbell says they will look to make a move sometime in the new year.

“It’s moving ahead really well. But of course, we did have a little bit of delay, and we didn’t want to rush our staff and students into the building without ensuring that we had a lot of lead time to move everything over because we’re moving essentially two schools into one.”

Planning also continues on a new school for Nestor Falls.

Campbell expects they will be tendering that project soon.