For the first time in nearly two years, city and school
officials sat down together in an official meeting to improve
communication and address common issues of concerns Thursday
morning.
Morgan Hill – For the first time in nearly two years, city and school officials sat down together in an official meeting to improve communication and address common issues of concerns Thursday morning.
Although Morgan Hill City Manager Ed Tewes and Morgan Hill Unified School District Superintendent Alan Nishino have been meeting regularly in private since the school chief was hired in June 2005, the City/School District Liaison Committee fell by the wayside near the end of former Superintendent Carolyn McKennan’s term. The once-monthly meetings had dropped to bi-monthly meetings, and some committee members questioned the productivity and value of the meetings.
But both board and council members have recently said they wanted to resurrect the committee.
“We recently had a retreat to set our goals, and this was one of them,” Councilman Larry Carr told the committee Thursday.
The committee was renewed with the same basic structure as it had in the past: two representatives and an alternate from each of the governing bodies, plus the city manager and superintendent and other staff from the district and the city as needed.
School Board President Peter Mandel and Trustee Don Moody are the regular representatives for MHUSD, and Mayor Steve Tate and Carr are the city’s representatives. They represented the city on the committee before it dissolved. Trustee Shelle Thomas, who with Moody represented the district on the earlier committee, attended Thursday’s meeting as an alternate to listen but not to participate.
Committee meetings will serve as a forum to discuss issues of interest to the city and school district. During Thursday’s meeting, members talked about what issues should be put on future agendas for discussion.
Some of the more pressing issues, committee members agreed, included use of the television channels available through an agreement with Charter Communications, the possibility of the city putting a test well on the Live Oak High campus and requirements for Measure C points for developers.
Standing items on the agenda will include public safety, recreation planning and facilities, facilities projects and joint planning.
Committee members agreed to meet bi-monthly, with the option to increase the frequency of the meetings, if needed, at 8:30am on the second Thursday of the month. The next meeting, however, will be on April 19 because April 12 falls during the district’s spring break.
