The Holy Family School Division board was updated on a SSDA forum attended in Saskatoon by director of education Shelley Rowein and chairman Bruno Tuchscherer, during their meeting on Oct. 12 in Estevan.

The forum was to offer support to the boards about policy governance because of all the restructuring that has been done in Saskatchewan.

"What came out of that is the Holy Family School Board is going to take part in a policy governance workshop developed by the SSDA," Rowein said.

The SSDA also had an association governance review presented and the schools were able to give input.

Minister of Learning, Andrew Thomson spoke about the initiatives the government is currently working on.

The initiatives that they are currently working on are the Local Accountability Panel. The panel made a report on how to work with their partners around local schools, with the input from the schools. The Holy Family school board received feedback from the panel but the government has not yet responded.

The government is also working on the Continuous Improvement Framework, which the board will be start implementing in the summer.

Holy Family wants to get the framework going to help improve the board's performance.

"The intent behind it is for the board to be able to assess how well they are doing in different areas of education," Rowein said.

The final initiative discussed was an operating grant which the government has been looking into, but nothing has been finalized yet.

Transportation was also discussed at the board meeting. There was a question as to whether or not busing would continue in the rural area around Weyburn.

The board decided that there was no advantage to stop the transportation services in that area, but they will re-evaluate the situation at a later date.

Also discussed was the amalgamation of the Queen Elizabeth Separate School Division when it is formed.

The Holy Family School Division was given an administrative order to form the new division in late September and an election will take place after Nov. 2.