The Holy Family Separate School board delayed a decision on the grade configuration of St. Michael School and St. Dominic School for the 2007/2008 school year until their March monthly meeting after hearing that there are still some concerns by parents.

Trustees of the Holy Family board representing the concerns of parents from Weyburn said that the board should meet with parents of current Grade 4 and 5 students and present more information in answer to their questions.

The board will be meeting with current Grade 4 and 5 parents and along with Principal Darren Larsen will be giving as much information as they can with the specific programming initiatives and leadership roles awaiting the students to be moved to St. Michael School.

Since there will be School Community Council elections, for both St. Michael School and St. Dominic School, held on Wednesday, Feb. 28, parents of current Grade 4 and 5 students will have an opportunity to meet with board representatives at 8 p.m. in St. Dominic School.

"Holy Family wants to give the parents an opportunity to discuss their concerns." said Bruno Tuchscherer, chairman of the Holy Family board.

"If there was any question in my mind that we could not offer the same programs to the students at St. Michael School as they have at St. Dominic, I would have not recommended a move of the Grade 5 and 6 classes for the next school year," commented Shelley Rowein, Director of Education for the Holy Family School Division.

A decision to grade configuration has to be made at the March monthly meeting, "so that we can move the transition plan forward" said Rowein.

The Superintendent of Education for the Holy Family School Division, Lisa Kuntz, and principals from the school division, reported back on the results of the 2006 assessment for learning specific to mathematics.

"These assessments are intended to provide a snapshot of development in our school and promote quality excellence," commented Kuntz during her presentation.

Assessments of learning tests the level of skills of students at different grade levels and then compares these to the provincial standards. The results of the 2006 mathematics assessments were specific for students in Grade 5 and Grade 8.

Principals who made presentations of the assessment of their particular school included Denis Tremblay of St. Michael School, Darren Larsen of St. Dominic School, and Darrell Perras of St. Olivier in Radville.

All three schools had several successes to celebrate when they compared their scores to last year, as score averages were above the provincial average; these scores are still regarded as adequate, and the schools want to move from adequate to proficient in all areas.

To improve on this score, there were four areas of improvements that will be met as goals for St. Michael School for the next school year.

These included emphasizing the importance of literacy, encouraging communication between home and school so that the school can be held accountable, teaching students the importance of volunteerism and being of service, and improving math skills in regards to assessment of learning.

At St. Dominic School their students saw improvements in data management, geometry, and measurement skills as a result of in-school programs like Math-to-the-Max. In the next school year goals for St. Dominic will include working on improving problem solving as well as geometry.

Some of St. Olivier's strengths were in the areas of numbers and operations, data management, and succeeding in the goal to improve in the areas of geometry and measurement. Two of the areas that the school is targeting for improvement for this school year are estimation and calculator use.

The Holy Family board approved a budget of $2.9 million for the St. Michael School building project, with roughly $1.3 million of that being provided by provincial funding.

A decision was made to borrow money and use reserve funds to help fund the remainder of the project expenses.

Due to this decision, a repayment schedule for the loaned money will add an expense to the budget for the 2007/2008 school year, but it is uncertain at this time if this will affect mill rates as the school division has to await provincial budget decisions to set their mill rate.