The South Bend Common Council and the South Bend Community Schools Board held a first-of-its-kind joint meeting Tuesday night.
The two groups wanted to create a more formal partnership and solve problems that impact them both.
“We come together for this exciting and historic meeting to begin a dialogue between our two bodies so that we may continue to move our community forward,” said School Board President John Anella in his opening remarks.
There were suggestions to use school buildings for other purposes outside school hours, rewrite the compact agreement between the city and the schools and invest in neighborhoods to help struggling schools.
“If you look at economic development, you look at quality of life issues that we address on the Common Council, it all stems to that basic education within our city,” said Council President Tim Scott.
The group also talked about creating several working groups to tackle specific issues.
Scott said they haven’t set their next meeting yet, but plan to meet about once a quarter.