WEYBURN - The former education director for the Holy Family school division, Gwen Keith, will be receiving the Julian Paslawski Meritorious Service Award from the Saskatchewan Catholic School Boards Association next spring.
The Holy Family board was told of the successful nomination of Keith at their November board meeting on Wednesday evening.
“She is quite excited about that,” said board chair Bruno Tuchscherer. “We were happy to put her name forward for that.”
The association gives this award to individuals who have “made a highly significant contribution to Catholic education in Saskatchewan.”
The award began in 1982 as the Meritorious Service Award, and was renamed in 2006 in honour of Julian Paslawski, who was the executive director of the SCSBA until his retirement in 2007.
Keith will receive the award at the SCSBA spring convention to be held in Yorkton in May of 2025.
Keith has spent over 50 years in education, including 27 years in CEO positions in rural, urban and northern settings, including at Holy Family since 2013 until her retirement as of Aug. 31.
She was presented with a Distinguished Service Award from LEADS at their annual conference earlier this year. LEADS (the Saskatchewan League of Educational Administrators, Directors and Superintendents) is the professional organization for all senior educational administrators in Saskatchewan.
• In other board business, Holy Family held their organizational meeting for 2024-25, and acclaimed Tuchscherer as the board chair for the next year.
In addition, Jerome Sidloski was acclaimed as the vice-chair.
Other highlights of the organizational meeting include that Holy Family will be putting out a Request for Proposals for being the school division’s auditor for next year.
Grant Thornton has been the auditors for the last few years, and the trustees felt they should put out an RFP to see if they are getting the best price for this service from the market.
In addition, trustee indemnity rates were kept the same as last year, and the mileage and meal allowances were aligned with the provincial government rates for the next year.
