Willoughby-Eastlake School Board creates committee to prepare in case levy fails

May 27—The Willoughby-Eastlake School Board has created the Strategic Planning Committee in an effort to have the community actively participate in identifying potential modifications to current district operations should the board need to reduce its budget by $4,745,186 later this year.

Specifically, the committee is charged with developing and presenting to the board recommendations concerning reductions to the district's operating expenses should the renewal levy fail in November.

The committee will have no involvement in advocating for or against the passage of the renewal levy, but could be compromised of individuals who are against the levy or for the levy.

"This committee's job is to help understand the impact to the district with these funds if they're not voted on to be in favor of the levy in November," said Board President Krista Bair. "We would have to look at our budget, our district and find ways to continue operating without those funds. The committee would help identify what those decisions could potentially be."

The committee, consisting of 30 community members in addition to the two co-chairs from the current board, will meet monthly through September. The committee's meetings are expected, on average, to conclude within two hours each, and all members are strongly encouraged to attend every meeting to ensure the purpose of the committee can be accomplished, according to the Board.

Fifteen members of the committee were selected through a lottery that took place May 19. The board then selected an additional 15 community members from those who applied but were not selected via lottery to ensure the committee contains a diverse group of stakeholders — homeowners, parents, retirees, renters, business members and alumni.

"Why would we do 15 chosen and 15 invited?," Blair said. "Lets say we select 15 people and 12 of them have student athletes, that committee is going to have one perspective and not all perspectives. We want to really ensure that we can have all voices so that all options could be considered."

The committee is subject to the Open Meetings Act so it will have to notify the public just like the School Board does for all of its meetings, as well as have an agenda set and would require meeting minutes.

"The community could attend these meetings, but only committee members can participate just like our meetings," said Bair, who also recommended that the meetings be live-streamed and posted on the district's website so the community can view them.

The committee's board representation is intended to ensure the requirements are followed and provide direction in the agenda, Bair said.

"It would put the work on the two board members on the committee to orchestrate and operate the committee as it is," she said.

The committee is tentatively scheduled to have an organizational meeting during the last week of May. In June, the committee would then have an administrators meeting where Superintendent Steve Thompson and administrators from other schools in the Willoughby-Eastlake Schools system would be invited to provide insight.

"We would conduct another meeting in July, inviting in parent student booster organizations," Bair said. "These are all just ideas to ensure the committee is considering all perspectives in the process. In August, there would be a recommendations approach meeting and a collaboration meeting with administrators. This is a tentative timeline."