District also decides switch to committee of the whole format
By Dave Fidlin
Correspondent
Dousman Transport Co. will continue busing students in the Waterford Graded School District through at least the next two years as part of a plan officials approved.
The WGSD School Board on April 24 issued Dousman a contract for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 school years. The proposal was first vetted early this month at the district’s Finance and Personnel Committee with a favorable recommendation.
Board member Matt Kranich, who has served on the committee, said he believed the district would be well served by re-upping with Dousman in the years ahead.
“There have not been any issues with them in the past,” Kranich said.
The School Board also made a policy change at its most recent meeting. Beginning this month, the board will no longer have individual committee meetings. As an alternative, the committee-level meetings will be rolled into one committee of the whole gathering.
WGSD has a long history of discussing policy matters and business items at the beginning of the month and then taking action on the items at the end of the month at a regular business meeting.
Discussion took place within the confines of a number of committees, including personnel and finance, policy and curriculum and building and grounds.
District Administrator Ed Brzinski, who recommended the change, said the thinking behind the transition to a committee of the whole format was procedural in nature.
“It does free up the board to do the work more efficiently,” Brzinski said.
Historically, WGSD has held the specific committee meetings back-to-back on the same night, meaning all five sitting board members are already in attendance since each serves on at least one of the panels.
The board’s previous policies, coupled with the state’s open meeting laws, also prevented board members from commenting on agenda items if they did not sit on the specific committee.
Brzinski said the committee of the whole meetings will continue to have a similar structure to the past committee-specific meetings. One portion of the COW, for instance, will be devoted to buildings and ground and then transition to policy and curriculum.
“I think it’s a great idea,” board member Dean Schrader said. “We’re all here anyway.”
WGSD’s first Committee of the Whole meeting is at 6 p.m. Monday.
See the May 5 print edition of the Waterford Post for additional coverage from the School Board.
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