The South Central School Division will be watching a vote by rural Catholic parents, as the outcome may have a "significant" impact on Queen Elizabeth School, said the education director following their monthly board meeting on Wednesday.

Rural Catholic parents whose children currently attend Queen Elizabeth won approval from the Minister of Learning to hold a vote to form a rural Catholic school division, before South Central amalgamates with other public boards to form the large southeast school division in 2006.

Currently K-6 children go to Q.E., and then they have a choice whether to go on to St. Michael Junior High or Weyburn Junior High afterwards.

Education director Shelley Rowein said the implications include a possible "significant" decline in enrolment at Q.E., as well as a loss of those tax dollars which the rural parents could then redirect to the rural Catholic board.

When the school boards restructure and become part of the larger southeast district area, this could effect what the future of QE school might be. Rowein said South Central should know by the end of May what the outcome of the Catholic parents' vote will be on the matter.

The board also decided to hire Sask. Educational Leadership to do a review of South Central schools with an eye to improve them, starting with Midale Central School this spring.

The group will then do Radville High School and 33 Central School in Fillmore this fall, said Rowein.

"It's mainly for school improvement. They look at 10 areas for improvement, and collect data from teachers, students and parents. They identify areas of strength and areas you could improve on. It's a most interesting process," she said, noting she was at the Weyburn Comprehensive School when they underwent a similar review process a few years ago. "You get a good picture of where you strengths are and where you can make improvements."

The board is also looking at doing a profile of the school division for the benefit of the new regional school board when restructuring starts to take place.

The regional board election will be on June 15, and they will then start to put their pieces in place and work alongside existing school boards until they take over on Jan. 1, 2006.

Rowein said the new board, tentatively called the Southeast School Division, will be starting up by hiring their new education director and determining where their offices will be located.

The profile of the school division includes the agreements the school board currently has in place, and the financial picture of the division with the different schools in their boundaries.