The board of trustees for the Southeast Cornerstone School Division will begin to take a look at existing attendance areas for the division's schools, with a view to possibly erasing them and having open school attendance areas, or resetting them, following a discussion on the issue at their board meeting on Thursday.

The school attendance areas were in place under the former school division boundaries, prior to amalgamation which united all public school boards in the southeast region of the province into one huge mega-board.

With amalgamation came school community councils, and an erasure of school division boundaries across the southeast, including between urban and rural schools.

Trustee Bryan Wilson noted that Regina and Saskatoon school boards got rid of school attendance areas a long time ago.

Director of Education Don Rempel pointed out that open attendance areas may result in some schools losing attendance to other areas, with some schools at a critical attendance level in terms of viability.

"If you open it up, you have to provide transportation," added trustee Carol Flynn. "It's always a guessing game for each of the schools for their own operating budget."

She noted that open attendance areas, would mean a school doesn't have a guaranteed number who will attend, and they wouldn't really know until school actually starts how many students they would have.

Lionel Diederichs, superintendent of finance and administration, said having an attendance area can do a couple things for a school; one, it gives a school comfort if their attendance numbers are considered border-line, and two, it makes it clear to local residents which school community council they can join.

Rempel pointed out that another factor is transportation routes and the historical patterns of trade and travel for a given school area; in some cases, he said, the transportation routes bear no resemblance to a school area's trading patterns.

Trustee Len Williams pointed out the opposite is also true; under old school boundaries, determined by former school division lines, the buses are now travelling routes with extra miles on them that don't make sense given the new, current school areas.

"We have to be fiscally responsible. At the same time, I'm not so opposed to people going elsewhere; I'm opposed to the public paying for people to go elsewhere," said the Weyburn trustee, adding he would be afraid in certain schools which have low population numbers if a popular family or families moves to another school taking eight or ten families with them, which may affect the viability of a given school.

With the erasure of former school division lines, in some school areas it means there are three or four division lines which are no longer present. He suggested the board should have some discussions on what their guiding principles should be, and if attendance areas are used, what purpose they would be used for. In addition, the stakeholders of each school area would have to be consulted on whether they would want attendance areas maintained or not.