[November 21, 2009] Anniston city, school leaders agree to meet more often Tweet Nov 21, 2009 (The Anniston Star - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Anniston city and school officials said Friday they want better communication between the two groups, and agreed to begin meeting routinely. The leaders met to talk about putting school resource officers back in city schools, but Mayor Gene Robinson said that wasn't the most important aspect of the meeting. "To better relations between the school system and the city government should be our distinct purpose today," he said. School Board Chairman Richard Hooks said it's important the two groups have frequent discussions. "We need to know where you stand on education and how you can help us to achieve our goals," he told the council. "We need to talk about how we can work together more often." To that end, the City Council and the school board decided to establish biannual meetings. Beyond that, they said, work sessions can be called whenever issues arise. Meetings between the two groups have been infrequent over the last 10 years, ever since voters opted to change to an elected school board. That meant the board controlled how school money was spent, rather than the City Council. Board member Bill Robison, who's been on the school board since the first election in 2000, said that's probably when the separation between the two bodies started. "Sometimes past councils may have thought they were in control of things, rather than just there to give suggestions and help out," he said. "We have operated at arms length too much in the past." Robison said he looks forward to working more with the city. Councilman Herbert Palmore, who's also been in office since 2000, said he believes lines of communication have always been open, even if the two groups didn't meet. "When it came to getting something done, we did it," he said. "I encourage them to get proposals in, and we'll tell them what we can do." Palmore last year brought a proposal to the school board of his own. He wanted vocational training in the high school, so the city gave the school board money to implement the program. But examples like that over the last 10 years are scarce. Going forward, Councilman David Dawson said, the two groups need to operate as one. "It's not your school board, our City Council," he said. "We're Anniston. We're all in this together, and we've got to make everybody see that. It can't be 'us' and 'them' anymore." To see more of The Anniston Star or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.annistonstar.com/. Copyright (c) 2009, The Anniston Star, Ala. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]