Richard Caplan is looking for a few good men and women to do something he says school boards don't do enough of: planning for the future.

Caplan, president of the School District of Lancaster board, is forming a committee to help the district prepare for the drastic changes ahead for education.

Thursday night, he outlined how the new Planning and Special Projects Committee will function and discussed some of the issues it might tackle.

Unlike other school board committees comprised solely of board members, this one will include parents, teacher representatives and influential community members, Caplan said.

The group will be tasked with making recommendations on how SDL can operate in future years with less funding while having the least detrimental impact on education programs.

Among the topics Caplan said the committee might tackle are:

•How to continue the district's music and art programs while cutting costs in other areas.

•How to increase collaboration with other school districts and among SDL schools to avoid duplication of services.

•How to plan for using more technology — using iPads instead of textbooks, for example — in classrooms in the coming years.

•How to get local businesses and industries more involved in the district's schools and curriculum.

•How to plan for a possible transition from a middle school system to a kindergarten-to-grade-eight model if a pilot K-8 program at Martin Elementary School proves successful.

Caplan said school boards are too often consumed with making decisions on immediate concerns, leaving little time to plan for the future. The planning committee would help SDL prepare for what are likely to be continued major budget challenges in the years ahead.

The district is facing a nearly $10 million revenue shortfall in 2012-13, and that gap is expected to grow to about $18 million in the next couple of years.

"Costs are going up, which we don't control. We don't control (pensions), we don't control health care, and we're getting to the point we can't tax any more," Caplan said. "If we don't change, it's going to be disastrous."

One of the first tasks of the committee will be to assess how the district can preserve music and art programs with reduced funding, Caplan said.

"I think a majority of the board and the administration believes that music and art are integral to educational accomplishment and the fabric of the school district," he said.

Preserving those programs will require cutting other expenditures, Caplan said, so discussions on the district's priorities need to take place.

"It's inevitable that we're going to cut things, and you have to admit that. Then you have to say, 'What are the things we could cut and still maintain the delivery of education? What are the things you don't want to cut?'"

Caplan wants those discussions to be held in the open, with proponents on all sides able to express their opinions.

"If we expose those areas in financial danger and try openly to minimize the danger, everyone should be happy about that," he said. "What it says is the administration and school board want to preserve these things."

The committee's goal, he said, "is   preservation — it's not streamlining the process to the point that education suffers."

In addition to Caplan and board member Stacey Marten, the committee currently includes superintendent Pedro Rivera and assistant superintendent Matt Stem.

In the coming weeks, Caplan will be  soliciting parents, teachers and business and community leaders to join the panel, which likely will include 10 to 12 members.

Anyone with an interest in serving on the committee can contact school board secretary Colleen Marshall at crmarshall@lancaster.k12.pa.us or Caplan at schoolboard@lancaster.k12.pa.us.

The group's next meeting has yet to be scheduled.

bwallace@lnpnews.com