BH Schools Advisory Committee Vote Slightly Delayed

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There’s been another slight delay in the creation of a new Community Engagement and Advisory Committee for Benton Harbor Area Schools. The board of education was scheduled to approve a memorandum of understanding for the body at a Tuesday meeting, but it was pulled from the agenda. Board President Joseph Taylor told us the reason is that State Superintendent Michael Rice wants to be included in the memorandum, but he has yet to read it.

“In the document, or the memo of understanding — the MOU — it was only the board of education and Treasury on that document,” Taylor said. “Now, the Michigan Department of Education, they want to be a party of that document, and so we’re allowing the state superintendent a certain amount of time to review those documents, and see if there’s an agreement there.”

Taylor said after Rice reads and agrees to the memorandum establishing the committee, then the board could approve it. That may happen at a Saturday retreat. The committee will have eleven members and was proposed by the Michigan Department of Treasury. Its purpose will be to come up with a report on how to turn the school district around in order to avoid a closure of the high school. The committee is supposed to have its first meeting this month.