Weyburn Central School Division No 73 has had to slightly increase its mill rate.

This year, it will be 15.45 as opposed to the 14.75 mill rate last year. That's a 0.7 increase that will affect Weyburn Central School Division ratepayers.

Donnett Elder, chairperson for the Central school board, said Thursday there were a number of reasons the mill rate had to go up.

One unexpected cost involved repairs to the roof of the old gym at Midale School.

While renovations were being done to the school, it was discovered "that the roof of the old gym had sunk in the corners and wasn't in good repair and it was in a hazardous situation," Elder said.

There was no immediate danger to the school, she noted, but "you never know. The fact that we found it was very, very fortunate and they were able to make these repairs before anything disastrous happened."

Those repairs cost about $240,000 and Elder said while it was fortunate the damage was discovered, "it's a huge additional cost."

Other additional costs to the school board include salary increases for both teachers and non-teaching staff, and coordination of technology between other school divisions.

Together with the Weyburn Roman Catholic, Estevan Catholic and Radville Catholic and public school divisions, the Central School Division will create a position for someone to help with coordinating technology.

While this position will be shared between the school divisions, "it still costs money, but it'll bring a lot of efficiencies to the whole system," Elder added.

The roof of the school gym at Fillmore is also in need of repair, Elder said, noting they are in early stages of getting estimates on the cost.

Elder noted the rural school division relies on ratepayers and the commercial assessment within the communities for funding and receives less than two per cent from the government.

The Central school board is also working on the upcoming amalgamation with the Radville Public School board, which will go into effect January 1, 2004.

The need for amalgamation was partially "to address declining student numbers. The student numbers are really, really declining, everywhere in the whole province," Elder said.