In the midst of the wrangling over how student needs will factor in school budgets, a modest yet encouraging opportunity for improved schools has emerged.

Educators now have funding that could strengthen school-community councils as players in the campaign to bolster public education.

School community councils were established as part of the Act 51 education reform legislation; by law, each public school (except charter schools) was to have a council in place by the start of the last academic year.

Now that the first year of growing pains is behind them, the councils have added funding that should be used on a continuing program of training for new council members. In much the same way as newcomers to nonprofit boards need help understanding their role, school community councils often draw on members of the public who, until this point, never had a voice in how their neighborhood children are educated.

Of course, principals function as chief executive officers of the campus enterprise; the relationship between top professionals and the councils can be delicate.

Still, the councils have shown in various communities to have great potential, and school administrators should embrace the network of community councils as necessary support systems. Just to cite one example from the pages of The Advertiser: Kekaha Elementary School's council has helped to attract donations from businesses and the military to supplement spending on student needs. Principal Carol Shikada points with gratitude to the partnership and support from the community.

Each council is made up of the principal and representatives of faculty, staff, students, parents and the broader community. With training, the new members can be empowered to better collaborate in setting priorities for spending.

For their part, principals must be held accountable for forging a productive working relationship with council members: Too often, the school/community-based management groups of the past lapsed because this relationship wasn't nurtured.

Everyone benefits from a healthy school system, so education should be a communal effort. Hawai'i can't afford to leave schooling solely as the job of a closed bureaucracy.