The Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division held their organizational meeting on Wednesday in Weyburn before their regular board meeting.

Bruno Tuchscherer was re-elected as board chair and Lester Bill was re-elected was vice chair. Meeting times will remain the second Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m. Trustees voted to maintain indemnities and allowances at the current rate.

After a presentation by religion co-ordinator Therese Durston and superintendent of education Lisa Kuntz, the board passed a motion to implement the "Fully Alive" program. The "Fully Alive" program supplements Holy Family's religion program.

"Presentations will be made for the parents and school community councils in the near future," said director of education Shelley Rowein.

The board reviewed their Cancellation of Buses policy. The policy was amended to read, "No buses shall run when the temperature is below -40 degrees Celsius. Minus 40 degrees Celsius means -40 degrees with no wind chill as well as -40 degrees created due to the wind chill factor."

The board welcomed Holly Ruel, who was declared by acclamation in Subdivision #3 for the Spruce Ridge rural area.

A leave of absence was granted to Darren Larson, principal at St. Dominic Savio and St. Michael Schools, effective Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2008, to Monday, June 30, 2008. Larson will be pursuing his Master of Education degree.

Bruno Tuchscherer, Karen Melle, Jerome Sidloski and Ruel will be attending the Saskatchewan School Boards Association convention in Saskatoon from Sunday, Nov. 25, to Tuesday, Nov. 27.

The convention is an opportunity for the trustees to represent the Holy Family School Division in the business of the association.

Plans are underway for the Holy Family School Division Awards Night to celebrate the long service of employees. The Awards Night will take place in Radville in early February.

Bruno Tuchscherer, Teresa Van De Sype, Durston and Rowein attended a Catholic Connections forum. The forum consisted of representatives from the Saskatchewan Catholic Health Corporation, Saskatchewan Catholic School Boards Association and Catholic organizations from across the province.

The forum brought together Catholic institutions and stakeholders together to reflect on how they might work collaboratively to address mutual issues, challenges and goals.

Holy Family announced teachers Trina Verhelst will be joining the St. Olivier staff and Mary Lu Rheume will be joining St. Dominic Savio School.

Two groups of teachers from Holy Family will be presenting at the Learning from Practice workshop in Saskatoon at the end of November.

Jocelyn Olson, Lori Larsen, Lorrie Bolton and Sherrill Verhelst will be presenting "Guided Reading Strategies to Improve Students' Critical Thinking Skills in Grades 3, 4 and 5."

Sheila Eskdale and Michelle Prokop will be presenting "K to Grade 3 Reading Initiative." Both groups received research grants for the work they are doing from the Sterling McDowell Foundation.

Jannice Moore will be conducting a workshop for the board of education in March. Topics will include the application of servant leadership in policy governance and effective monitoring reports.

On Friday, Nov. 30, all teachers from the School Division will be involved in an inservice. The focus will be faith formation and reading. The inservice will be held at St. Mary's School in Estevan.