After one meeting, it appears the School Committee’s subcommittee, charged with drafting the guidelines for a consultant, has a long, winding road ahead of them. Committee members can’t agree on much.

No one can even say for certain how many people are on this committee.

The task at hand sounds simple enough; the subcommittee needs to set requirements for an outside consultant to look at the school district as a whole, resulting in multiple options for the future of the system.

Yet, during the committee’s first meeting Saturday, it was hard to distinguish if they were talking about qualifications they wish the consultant to have or the recommendations they want the consultants to deliver.

There was also a lengthy debate as to when the panel should complete its work (the answer from Karen Bachus, who chairs the panel, was “as long as it takes”).

The committee was named in response to demands that an outside consultant with no personal stake in the Warwick School System be retained. That course of action was selected after a study group of school administrators, teachers, staff and parents recommended the re-purposing of Warwick Veterans Memorial High School as a junior high and the closure of Gorton and Aldrich Junior Highs. During public hearings, administrators were accused of using the committee to present the plan they desired, while others said the proceedings were not transparent.

So the School Committee voted to table the plan and passed a motion from Bachus to hire an outside consultant.

But Saturday’s meeting included discussion about specific hopes for the future of Warwick’s schools, including the need for a common curriculum across all schools, potential partnerships with colleges and businesses, the idea that smaller schools foster more dynamic and personalized learning environments, and safer bus and walking routes.

Correct us if we’re wrong, but aren’t those ideas that the consultant should address after evaluation of the system, not hopes determined by a group of Warwick residents with a stake in the school system? Isn’t that what caused this problem in the first place?

Granted it was only the subcommittee’s first meeting, but it is evident that some clarification is needed among the committee, or at least to the public, as to what this group is doing.

By the end of the two-hour meeting, what seemed like a simple task to create job requirements for potential applicants appeared to turn into a process that could take years.

For the sake of Warwick’s students, we hope we’re wrong.