Greensburg Salem school board could streamline its monthly meeting schedule.
The board meets twice a month — once to discuss agenda items and again to vote while three committees — facilities, finance and education — each have their own meetings, typically once a month.
Under a proposal by Superintendent Ken Bissell, the board would discuss and vote on agenda items during one monthly meeting and combine its three committee meetings into one.
This would allow all board members to hear important district developments at the same time, he said.
“The frustrating part is, and it’s not any of your faults, we have a good facility meeting and there’s a lot of good information,” he said. “If you’re not on that committee, we have to explain that to you. So now, we’re explaining these things two, three, four, five times.”
Board members presented mixed opinions on the suggestion.
Emily Miller expressed concern that the adjustment would result in a lengthy committee meeting or cut important discussions short.
“My biggest concern is that we’re actually going to have less time to discuss things,” she said.
Brian Conway said he is open to the idea.
“On the surface, it sounds good, but we need to make sure that we are giving adequate time to all of the needs of the district,” he said.
Kacey Byrne-Houser said it might be difficult to make an informed vote with less time to mull over discussions and comments from community members.
“I worry about losing that reflection period,” she said. “I could do it, but it would be a little bit of a shift.”
But Byrne-Houser is not opposed to tweaking the board’s meeting schedule.
“I think it can’t hurt to have the whole board there for those different committee meetings,” she said, “because we end up repeating and recapping anything that was said.”
Frank Gazze supported Bissell’s suggestion.
“I’ve always said, of all the things that we talk about, education is (discussed) the least,” he said. “To devote so much time each month, I think it’s a very positive thing.”
The board does not plan to adjust its schedule anytime soon. Bissell proposed revisiting the topic in August.
