An organizational meeting for the new Holy Family School Division - which joins together the Weyburn Separate School Division, the St. Olivier School Division and the Estevan Roman Catholic Separate School Division - will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 7 at 7:30 p.m.

John Nikolejsin, chair of the Weyburn Separate board that will no longer exist as of Jan. 1, 2004, said the first meeting will elect a new chair and other executive officers.

The times of meetings, allowances and per diem rates to be paid trustees will be set at the meeting, said Nikolejsin.

Three members will sit on the board representing Weyburn, three from Radville, and three from Estevan.

Nikolejsin said the structure of the new board is totally different from the old board.

"As a trustee, I am as responsible for the people in Estevan as those in Weyburn now," he said., adding trustees will have to become familiar with all of the schools in the division."

Nikolejsin says he would not be surprised if a draft of a new operating policy is presented to the first board meeting.

Executive director Walt Morris has been directed to review all three policy manuals with a view to the board adopting those which are similar to all three, he said.

Changes will have to be made to run the new, much larger school division, he said.

"I'm really looking forward to it," he said. "It gives us the opportunity to provide students with things it would have been hard to provide if we'd stayed by ourselves," he said. "It takes a lot of dollars to do this."

Nikolejsin said times are changing and the board has to keep moving forward to provide the best possible services at the lowest costs.

"I'm thankful we still have local autonomy, which gives us the ability to raise taxes if we need to do so. School boards in some provinces don't have that any more," he said.

Nikolejsin has served as trustee for 30 years and watched the separate board grow from overseeing only St. Michael Junior High School and St. Dominic Savio Elementary School, both in Weyburn, to the new area encompassing students all the way from Weyburn to Estevan.

The new, larger Holy Family division also shares its executive director, treasurer, and Weyburn office space with the new, larger South Central School Division which amalgamates Central and Radville school divisions on Jan. 1, 2004.

The process of naming trustees to committees, depending on the time commitment they can make, will probably occur at a later date, he said.