The Southeast Cornerstone School Division recently received a letter from the Yellow Grass School Community Council (SCC), requesting a five-year moratorium for the Yellow Grass School, as it is one of the non-viable schools that will be reviewed by the board.

Yellow Grass School lost a full-time teacher at the start of the 2007-08 school year, due to the system-wide standard pupil-teacher ratio of 16 students to one teacher. Since the school only had a projected 106 students for the school year, this meant that their staffing is currently set at 7.0 teachers for a Kindergarten to Grade 12 school.

In a letter to the Cornerstone School Division, representatives from the Yellow Grass SCC expressed concerns on how staffing cuts would increase work loads on remaining teachers and to help halt the decline in quality of education.

"Due to the rise in population in Weyburn and the shortage of homes and available lots for building, families will be looking elsewhere for a home. Yellow Grass would be a great alternative for them," the letter stated, strengthening the SCC's case for the moratorium. "It is close to Weyburn, has a school, store, post office, bank, rink, two churches and many social groups and organizations."

The letter and the accompanying petition from ratepayers of the RM of Brokenshell, RM of Scott, Town of Yellow Grass and Village of Trossachs was accepted as read by the Cornerstone board. No action was taken at the meeting, since the board will be reviewing the situation of all non-viable schools in the school district at their October meeting.

Overall in the Southeast Cornerstone School Division there was some increase in student numbers, with normal hiring patterns for the fall. An internal monitoring report on System Goal #2 of the strategic plan of the board was presented. System Goal #2 states, "our division and its schools effectively use information to measure, monitor and report continuous improvement."

The review process of this System Goal was more detailed, as in the last year Cornerstone has established all their School Community Councils and completed Benchmarking Programs, both of which will continue to be an asset to the board and its continued improvement. The report was supported by the board with a resolution.

There was more discussion on school attendance areas by the board, with Director of Education Don Rempel requesting direction from the board as to what sort of information is required to determine if the board will be assigning attendance areas.

Saskatchewan Learning requires that school boards set school districts, to meet with legislative guidelines. The most common situation to set a school district is to use transportation routes, where students would be send to the nearest viable school in the school district.

"We should work it backwards, get the information on what are attendance areas and the purpose of those attendance areas," said trustee Carol Flynn. "Deciding school attendance areas will take some time, we should look at the old attendance areas and the transportation routes for buses before making any decisions."

The board adopted a continuous agenda for the 2007-08 school year, including planning time for budget principles and priority setting, school viability and the annual board and CEO governance health check. As well the board has identified expectations and timelines for the receipt of system monitoring reports and established opportunities for the board to link with electors, staff, School Community Councils and the provincial school boards association.

Southeast Cornerstone School Division has scheduled an annual meeting of Electors to be held in Carlyle at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 15. There has also been a public call for nominations and notice of annual general meetings for the school division's School Community Councils.

For SCCs in the Weyburn area, Pangman School meets on Sept. 25; Lyndale School and Ogema School on Oct. 9; Weyburn Comp on Oct. 16; Gladmar Regional, Radville High School and Redvers School on Oct. 18; Assiniboia Park, Queen Elizabeth and Stoughton Central on Oct. 22; Fillmore 33 Central, Haig Elementary, Midale Central and Souris Elementary on Oct. 23 and Weyburn Junior High on Oct. 30.