Catholic families in the Weyburn area, living within the Queen Elizabeth School's attendance area, are taking the first step to form a rural Catholic School Division, which thereafter will join the Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division, the Holy Family board was told at their Jan. 19 meeting.

A notice of intent to form the rural Catholic division was printed in the Jan. 26 issue of the Weyburn Review, showing the affected areas in the RMs of Weyburn, Lomond, Brokenshell, Wellington, Griffin, Laurier, Scott, Cymri and Francis.

"There are a number of Catholic electors in the rural Weyburn and rural Estevan areas who are really moving forward toward amalgamating, and then joining Holy Family. It's happening all across the province," said education director Walt Morris, pointing out such consolidations are occurring in the areas of Yorkton, Melville and Saskatoon as well. He added that the purpose is to ensure all area residents of the Catholic faith will have access to Catholic education for their children.

In other board business, the Holy Family board approved the use of the Teen Aid program and their chastity-based resources in schools to help promote healthy lifestyle choices, said Morris.

Also, a negotiating date for the SEIU contract will be set, as the board combines the Weyburn contract with a new one for the Estevan-based support staff for one new overall contract for the school division. The board hopes to have the negotiations begin about mid-February.

Morris noted the Weyburn contract expired on Dec. 31, while the contract for the Estevan-area schools will be new for this school division. He estimated there are about 60 non-teaching support staff who will be affected by these negotiations.

The Holy Family board was also provided an update on the tuition fee agreement for Radville's St. Olivier School. As Radville is now part of the new collective area, a new agreement needs to be in place. Up until now, Holy Family and South Central had a tuition fee agreement in place for the school.

The renovations project for St. Dominic Savio School wasn't a part of the agenda, but Morris noted the board is considering making a change in their application to the provincial government for the project.