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Rempel said the division will redistribute duties among remaining superintendents and support services, and with student populations declining by 70 to 100 students annually for the last decade, it will be able to meet demand.

Education Minister Don Morgan said the ministry will look for ways to help divisions find savings, and he understands the process may be difficult, adding funding is based on enrolment.

“There is a lot of really good and really competent people within the divisions, so our expectation and our hope is that they roll up their sleeves and try and find efficiencies and economies and start sharing things,” he said.

“We’ve looked to them in the past to try and find efficiencies, and this year we’re doing it again.”

Morgan said divisions have autonomy to make staffing decisions, and job losses are “quite possible.”

He has not had any discussions within the ministry so far about dictating where cuts should occur, he said.

“We have never had to do that in the past. We’ve usually had divisions that have asked for (help) and wanted to work with us on things,” Morgan said.

When asked if the ministry might examine imposing such help, he said, “We certainly have the right to do it.

“We have the ability to do things like that. So I don’t hold it out as a threat or anything. I say to divisions, ‘Work with us,’ and they’ve been good in the past.”

Photo by Gord Waldner / The StarPhoenix

Saskatchewan School Boards Association president Connie Bailey said her organization has started asking divisions what the budget allocations will mean for them.