The Weyburn Roman Catholic Separate School Division has ratified a management agreement negotiated with four other boards in the region to share the cost of administrative services provided out of the Weyburn board offices. The decision was made at its regular meeting on Oct. 8.

The four other boards are the Estevan RCSSD, the Radville School Division, Weyburn Central School Division and the Radville RCSSD.

The Weyburn and Estevan Catholic boards will amalgamate, along with St. Olivier School in Radville, as of Jan. 1 to become the Holy Family RCSSD, while Radville RCSSD will join with Weyburn Central to become the South Central School Division.

Administrator Walt Morris said because the five divisions will become only two, an amendment was needed to the agreement to reflect the changes.

The board members also adopted a tender from Suncorp Appraisal Services of Saskatoon to appraise all assets in the new Holy Family RCSSD for insurance purposes. There are only three companies in western Canada who can do this work, said Morris. The lowest tender was accepted.

The board is still negotiating a tender for banking services for the amalgamated division.

One school board about to amalgamate on Jan. 1 has received a letter from the teacher's local bargaining committee about negotiations but Morris said some unanswered questions remain before negotiations can begin.

Three new school boards will be elected in the Oct. 22 civic election, before the Jan. 1 amalgamation into one board, so it may take some time before the larger, single board decides how to negotiate with its teachers, he said.

Some of the teacher's associations also have yet to decide to how organize themselves for negotiation, he said.