The announcement last week that 12 health regions will become one mega health authority for the province of Saskatchewan has the local Prairie South School Division speaking out.

Board Vice Chair Tim McLeod is commenting on their own education Governance Review Report that was released in November, suggesting amalgamation as an option to save money and with the health care announcement, many believe the writing is on the wall for school boards. Prairie South was created through amalgamation in 2006 and McLeod questions it's effectiveness.

"All indications that we have are that, the amalgamations that reduced the school boards in the province from somewhere in the neighbourhood of 90 down to 28, didn't actually yield any cost savings at the provincial level and it's taken us about ten years since the last round of amalgamations to adjust to the new division.

Holy Trinity Catholic School Division also amalgamated over a decade ago as the result of a report from the province on efficiencies.  While exempt from provincial decisions, catholic boards decided to follow the recommendations at the time.

But what happens this time if the province pushes amalgamation? Director of Education Geri Hall isn't sure but they are paying close attention.

"What I saw in reviewing this, if the focus is on the quality of education that we can provide for our students and then the accountability to our local stakeholders, if we can keep that at an appropriate level, I believe then we have met the targets."

Hall says schools and parent councils have been told changes could be coming to their governance and they should take part in the review process.