2018 will hold a lot of new changes for the Prairie South School Division, but it will also have a lot to look forward to.

In comparison to last year, the second half of the school year and heading into the 2018/2019 schedule will be significantly different for some schools.

Many rural schools in the province have begun adopting an alternate school calendar, which features 14 more long weekends than the normal school calendar used here in Moose Jaw.

"That calendar came into play mostly because of the distances involved down there. When you've got a little person, who's six years old, who's riding the bus ninety minutes one way for fourteen days, that's forty hours of their life where they're on a bus," said Prairie South School Division Director, Tony Baldwin. "Now, we're at the point where most of our rural schools are on a different calendar from the schools in Moose Jaw and Assiniboia."

Aside from a change in the calendars, there is also some big talk surrounding a joint Holy Trinity School Division and Prairie South School.

"The Ministry has a capital list of projects in education and a school on South Hill has been at or close to the top of that list for several years," Baldwin said. "We're going to be doing some work with the City of Moose Jaw and with our local MLAs and with both school divisions working together there is very little that we can't get done together so it's an exciting time."

This new school would have two separate but attached buildings, with some facilities such as the gym being shared.

Baldwin also said that with immigration staying strong, kids going to the school are benefiting heavily by learning more about culture and the world from friends rather than presenters.