WARWICK — Worried about the future of its local school, Warwick will be the first town in the Pioneer Valley Regional School District to establish its own advisory committee to the School Committee.
Membership of the new committee is still up in the air, though, and few have expressed interest in serving on it.
The idea to form an advisory committee came out of meetings of the Warwick Community School Preservation Committee, an informal group focused on Warwick-specific education issues.
Adam Holloway, one of the organizers of the School Preservation Committee, has been the loudest advocate of the idea, saying that it would give the town of Warwick a means for its interests to be represented to the School Committee. Some School Committee members, including David Young, who is also Warwick’s town coordinator, have argued that School Committee members are responsible for the district as a whole, and should not represent their towns’ unique interests.
“They have made it very clear they are not representative of Warwick. They are representatives from Warwick, for the School Committee,” Holloway said at a recent meeting of the School Preservation Committee.
Others have questioned the wisdom of forming another committee.
“We need to change the culture and the way the School Committee is operating,” said Tom Wyatt, who regularly attends School Preservation Committee meetings. “I feel that’s what needs to be addressed, rather than creating another body.”
So far Holloway is the only non-School Committee member who has expressed interest in being on the advisory committee. According to the district agreement, an advisory committee consists of that town’s three School Committee members and two other residents.
Warwick’s School Committee members are Sue O’Reilly-McRae, Martha Morse and Young. O’Reilly-McRae is running uncontested for re-election in November.
But Morse is leaving the School Committee when her term ends in November, and no one has registered to run for her position. The Warwick School Preservation Committee has discussed supporting a write-in candidate, but has not found anyone interested in running.
This leaves two of the five seats on the new advisory committee open: one School Committee member and one non-member.
And among the three members already now on the advisory committee, there are concerns about the time commitment the new committee will require. At a meeting on Monday (Sept. 17) when the Selectboard decided to support the formation of an advisory committee, Young suggested that O’Reilly-McRae’s involvement in the H.E.A.R.T. Committee and School Committee might limit the time she will have to devote to another committee. He guessed that the primary members of the advisory committee will likely be himself, Holloway and whoever takes Morse’s old seat on the School Committee.
The advisory committee’s means for interacting with the School Committee are also unclear. The district agreement does not address this question. Holloway has guessed that the advisory committee may have a platform of some kind at School Committee meetings; or that it will hold its own meetings, and that Warwick’s School Committee members will convey the content of those meetings to the full School Committee.