School Board mulls cooperative effort with city

The Hutchinson District 423 School Board discussed a plan to form an advisory committee with the Hutchinson City Council for facilities planning.

The board didn’t vote on the resolution Monday night, but intends to take action at its Dec. 14 meeting. The City Council approved a similar resolution Tuesday night.

The proposal is to establish and maintain “a permanent advisory committee that will consist of City Council members, School Board members, associated staff, selected community members and others deemed appropriate … ”

The advisory committee’s mission would include:
• long-range comprehensive joint facilities planning,
• suggesting future public facility priorities, possible collaborative service agreements, and ways to maximize shared use of existing and future public facilities, and
• identifying financing options to minimize the tax impact of future public facilities.

Superintendent Daron VanderHeiden emphasized the proposed committee would only serve to advise the City Council and School Board and would not have authority of its own to enact its recommendations.

VanderHeiden compared it to shared maintenance agreements the district has with the city and the shared role of Dolf Moon, who serves as both community education director for the district and parks and recreation director for the city.

If approved by the School Board in December, VanderHeiden hoped to determine the committee structure and appoint members in January.

(Jorge Sosa is a staff writer for the Hutchinson Leader. He can be reached at sosa@hutchinsonleader.com)