School board President Laura Waters said the change will allow more oversight from the board.
By: Lea Kahn
The Lawrence Township Board of Education, which has operated with three committees for the past two years, has reverted to its former six-committee format at the suggestion of the school board president, Laura Waters.
The reorganization of the subcommittees was discussed and agreed upon at the school board’s May 11 retreat. The six committees will meet monthly, and a seventh committee the Negotiations Committee will meet on an as-needed basis to handle contract negotiations.
The six newly reconstituted committees are the Finance Committee, the Community Relations Committee, the Personnel Committee, the Policy Committee, the Educational Programs Committee, and the Enrollment and Facilities Planning Committee.
In 2003, those committees were collapsed into three committees the Resources, Educational Program, and the Planning and Legislative Relations committees in an effort to manage the workload for school board members by reducing the number of meetings they had to attend, said Superintendent of Schools Max Riley.
Fewer committees also meant quicker approval for new programs, Dr. Riley said. For example, a new educational program would be discussed at the Educational Programs Committee. Since a new program may involve hiring new personnel, it would be sent to the Personnel Committee, he said.
But Ms. Waters, the school board president, said she decided to bring the idea of reverting to the six-committee structure to the board because voters "sent a pretty clear message" that they were looking for more oversight from the school board.
Three committees do not provide for adequate oversight of the issues because there are too many areas under one committee’s purview, Ms. Waters said. For example, the Resources Committee was responsible for the budget, technology, facilities and construction, she said. Now, there are separate committees for those areas.
Ms. Waters said the new structure also allows every board member to chair one committee except for herself and school board Vice President Michael Brindle. It is a "real, working school board" that has given everyone on the board some measure of authority, she said.
"I am sure there were really good reasons (for the prior model)," Ms. Waters said. "I looked at other school boards in Mercer County and in districts comparable to our own, and the vast majority had at least five committees. It allows a committee to set realistic goals and focus on a topic."
The school board president said she has asked each of the six committees to meet and articulate their respective goals in time for the school board’s June 8 meeting.
Meanwhile, Mr. Brindle, the board’s longest-serving member with 14 years of service, said that some committees have been more active at one time than at another time.
"For a long time, the Facilities Committee wasn’t busy, and then it was busy," Mr. Brindle said. "It ebbs and flows as different boards have different philosophies. Every year, there is a new school board. Circumstances change, even if the members don’t change."
Mr. Brindle said it "felt better" to reduce the number of committees from six to three. He agreed with Dr. Riley that fewer committees meant fewer meetings for board members, which meant an increase in efficiency.
"There are as many variations to run a school board as there are boards," he said. "Each one finds a system that works for them."
Mr. Brindle said he liked aspects of both formats, but allowed that three committees may not be enough and that six committees may be too many. There is no "right" answer only an answer that is right for a given situation and for a given school board, he said.
Ms. Waters, meanwhile, said that while she expects that the six-committee structure will work, she said she would be open to re-evaluating the system if problems arise.

