Wrangell’s School Advisory Committee formed decades ago to support the middle and high school principal with managing the school in an impactful way. Committee member Brian Ashton said the committee advocates for students, staff and the involvement of the community. The principal appoints the committee.
“The idea is to simply get the community more involved in the educational system and be there as a resource for the community,” he said. “You know, if they have issues or that they also simply just have questions.”
Normally, the committee’s questions go through a chain of command. First they go to the principal, then the principal goes to the superintendent, then the superintendent goes to the school board. But the advisory committee wants a more direct route — they’d like to advise the school board directly, but the board opposes the change. They said that’s not really what the committee is for.
School board said that advisory committee should not steer the board
School Board President David Wilson said at a recent school board meeting that the advisory committee does not steer the board. He said they should only help the principal with goals and things that happen at the middle and high schools.
And he said that the chain of command works.
“To me, that’s pretty clear,” Wilson said. “That’s the way it’s always been. That’s the way it is for every committee.”
But Ashton said that hasn’t always worked – he said sometimes the committee raises issues that never get past the principal or superintendent. One example includes safety with transporting student athletes during stormy weather.
“There was a few things that we weighed in on that would have, should have been considered very valuable during COVID for them to be able to get that kind of input,” he said.
School Advisory Committee Chair James Edens agrees.
“Part of the mission and vision and goals of the school board is community engagement,” he said. “Now there’s a committee made up of community members that there is no way to ever access the school board except by being a persons to be heard.”
The public can directly communicate concerns at school board meetings during the meeting’s ‘persons to be heard’ portion.
“We sat down for two hours and discussed some of their concerns…”
Wilson said the board doesn’t ignore the committee’s concerns – that the board has responded in the past, sometimes directly and sometimes at board meetings.
“Two of the members that were wanting to reach out to the school board came to my house,” he said. “We sat down for two hours and discussed some of their concerns or some of the things they wanted to discuss. I tried to enlighten them on why some of the things were happening. They were upset about the mask issue and some things like that.”
Wilson — who said he joined the committee soon after it formed — said that it wasn’t until the last three or four years that the committee even wanted direct communication with the board.
Board sent policy back to be reviewed again
But the dispute intensified earlier this year when, as part of a regular review, the board revised the policy that governs communication between the board and the committee. The revision clarifies that all of the committee’s recommendations should go solely to the principal, who decides whether or not to pass them on.
The revised policy also changed the committee’s name from Community Advisory Committee to School Advisory Committee.
But committee member Ashton said the board didn’t use the correct process when it reviewed the policy.
“When it did go to the policy committee, and I was there for that, we did not get through the whole thing before the chair of the policy committee shut down the conversation before the policy was completely reviewed,” he said.
At the September 16th board meeting, Ashton asked the board to send the document back to the policy committee for another review.
Wilson, the board chair, said he didn’t think the board needed to go over it again. But in a 3-2 vote, the board returned it to the policy committee, which reviewed it again last week. It contains the same chain of command and the school board accepted the second reading of the policy on Monday. Essentially no change was made to allow direct communication between the committee and the school board.
