GUILDERLAND — The school board will move ahead with setting up a task force — of citizen volunteers and staff — to investigate ways to use excess space in the district’s schools.

The move comes more than six months after a consultant, Paul Seversky, presented a report that concluded with six scenarios: One would have maintained the status quo — five elementary schools, a middle school, and a high school — at no savings. Four would have closed Altamont Elementary School and one would have closed Lynnwood Elementary School for a savings between $1.2 million and $2 million annually.

Seversky had been hired by Guilderland to study its building capacity in light of declining enrollment as the district faced several years with multi-million budget gaps, leading to 228 jobs cut since 2009.

Massive protests, particularly from the village of Altamont, led the board in August to set aside Seversky’s scenarios and try to find other solutions.

On Tuesday, the board considered a draft proposal from its communications committee on how to create a task force, which Superintendent Marie Wiles said would “flesh out logistics, the need, and the feasibility for a variety of potential re-uses.”

“I keep saying, this is the beginning of the discussion,” said Wiles. For each possible use, such as for pre-kindergarten programs or for commercial use, Wiles said, the task force would have to ask, “What is the need?”

Wiles went on, “This task force would be charged with doing the legwork to see which possibilities have real potential.”

Once the task force had done its homework, Wiles said, it would report back to the school board and another committee would be formed to look in further detail at the most promising options.

“In June,” said Wiles, “the board should have the sense we looked at a lot of different things and here is ripe territory for investigation.”

Board members raised concerns about capping the size of the task force, about not immediately listing the possible options, and about the timing and mission of the task force’s work.

Concerns answered

Christopher McManus, joined by others, objected to limiting the number to serve on the task force. “Why should we cap?” he asked, stating it would cause “bad feelings” as people would “feel excluded.”

“Part of it, Chris, is trying to get balance,” responded Judy Slack who chairs the communications committee.

“I’d look at the applications, and then come out with a balance,” responded McManus.

“There’s a lot of work,” Jennifer Charron said of the job task force members would do; she favored not setting parameters.

“It would be great if we had a lot of people who want to be active,” said Charron.

Ultimately, Wiles said, “We can take all the numbers out.” No caps will be listed.

On timing, McManus suggested skipping the first task force and moving directly to groups that would investigate.

Charron agreed. “If we wait for June on ‘this is what we could do,’ who’s going to work over the summer?” she asked.

Wiles had given an example of pre-kindergarten programs as having to be examined in two different ways — one as rental space to private nursery schools and the other as a district initiative under state regulations.

“The whole point of this study was to save costs,” said Allan Simpson, the board’s vice president, indicating he believed adding a district pre-kindergarten program would increase, not decrease, costs.

Gloria Towle-Hilt responded, “We need to answer that ‘I believe’ thing — that we’ll increase our costs.”

“That shouldn’t take very long,” returned Simpson.

McManus cited a nearby district that received $500,000 from the state for a pre-kindergarten program, which he said would attract people to a school district.

He also said, “I don’t think we need to wait till June” to start studying the matter.

McManus also said more interest would be generated if the district listed the topics to be explored.

An earlier draft included a list of topics, such as pre-kindergarten, adult day care, and an incubator model for business, but Wiles stressed the initial task-force research is not to be in depth. The basic question to be considered, she said, is: Is there a need for this or is it even feasible?

Simpson responded that such unanswered questions were “cut and dried” and the district could pay a consultant or have someone find such answers in-house without involving a task force.

Wiles said that the same basic questions would cut across all the potential adaptive uses.

“This is your group, folks,” she told the board.

Catherine Barber recommended paying attention to the scheduling of task-force meetings. She said she’d served on an earlier task force that met at 3:30 p.m., which was convenient for teachers but not others, skewing the membership and participation.

Christine Hayes suggested the form have boxes that applicants could check to show the best meeting times for them and also the topics in which they were most interested “with the understanding the entire group would be looking into bigger issues.”

Wiles said there would be six to eight meetings; two or three of them would be for all task-force members and the rest would be subcommittee meetings. “The work is going to happen between meetings,” she said as members visit sites, do research, and make phone calls. “ ‘How is the work going’ is what happens around the table,” she said.

Wiles also said that it is important members attend the vast majority of the meetings.

“We want people that are going to actually sign up and do the work,” said Simpson.

He also asked, “Who’s going to manage the task force, providing support and assistance?”

Wiles said “areas we’re exploring” could be listed.

Board President Barbara Fraterrigo concluded, “I think the collective wisdom has risen to the top.”

Other business

In other business at its Jan. 6 meeting, the board:

—Heard from Wiles that a “Community Conversation” on the 2015-16 budget will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 4, at 7 p.m. at the high school, with a snow date of Feb. 10. Citizens are invited to share their views on budget additions and reductions. The superintendent will release her proposal on March 5.

“It really does make a difference,” said Slack of citizen participation in the budget process. “We do listen to what people say.”

“We hope we get hundreds,” said Wiles;

— Heard from Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Demian Singleton that Guilderland’s graduation rate has increased steadily over recent years, according to data released by the State Education Department. The 2010 cohort achieved a 95-percent graduation rate in four years, the highest since the department has provided reports;

— Heard congratulations for McKenzie Murphy, a student in Lisa O’Brien’s fourth-grade class at Westmere Elementary School, who was chosen as a winner in the “Words Can Hurt or Words Can Help” campaign developed by the Albany County District Attorney’s Office to discourage bullying.

Murphy described how she, as a bystander, helped stop bullying on her school bus by using kind words. Singleton said that supporters can vote on the district attorney’s website for Murphy’s entry;

— Heard Wiles thank the Guilderland Elks for once again donating a paperback dictionary to each third-grader in the district;

— Reviewed changes in policies on student wellness, student records, Medicaid compliance, and purchasing;

— Approved agreements for this school year to provide services to students with disabilities from Education Inc. and Crossroads Center for Children;

— Approved an agreement with The College of Saint Rose to accept a student intern;

— Declared a list of property as obsolete or surplus. If the items are not purchased, said Assistant Superintendent for Business Neil Sanders, they can be donated to a not-for-profit group or disposed of; and

— Accepted a donated trumpet from William Aube, a house principal at Farnsworth Middle School.