GREENFIELD — School Committee members joined Superintendent Karin Patenaude on Tuesday evening for the inaugural meeting of its new Community Engagement Subcommittee.

The new government body, chaired by School Committee member Stacey Sexton, will meet monthly with the intention of developing a stronger connection between the School Committee and the general public, and to create structures and systems to encourage community participation in the school district.

“There is a separation between the School Committee, and the kind of things that we can do, and the school system and school administration, and the things they do and the ways they are trying to engender community engagement,” Sexton said. “One of the reasons we have [Patenaude] here tonight is to try to talk through that and [figure out] the relationship between our two bodies, how we can work together and how we can delineate what kinds of community engagement we can work on.”

The hour-long meeting began with a public comment period, in which some community members urged the School Committee to reconsider its vote not to station a school resource officer in the district, and later included a brainstorming session as subcommittee members worked to draft a mission statement outlining what, exactly, the subcommittee intends to do.

Reading from the draft document, Sexton said the sub-committee intends to develop a “strategic communication and outreach plan” that can be used to engage with community members, analyze the feedback provided to the subcommittee, and work with school administrators to find ways to implement the feedback it receives.

As the subcommittee worked to determine its responsibilities, School Committee member Elizabeth DeNeeve said she envisioned the new body attending community forums and events, interacting with public officials and creating a “clear channel” for residents to provide feedback. She said she hopes to focus community engagement on interactions with students’ families.

“We really have to have clear communication about what it is we can do as a school committee, because we’re not the administration and we’re not in charge of day-to-day operations. Sometimes that can be difficult,” DeNeeve commented. “If we could find clear channels to work to encourage more family involvement and sort of facilitate a way for families to get involved … that seems like a good place to move forward from.”

School Committee member Melodie Goodwin suggested that the community input collected through the subcommittee could be used to determine the School Committee’s goals and decisions to best represent the public’s vision for the school district.

Goodwin added that she would like the new body to host public forums that families of Greenfield students can attend to give feedback.

“Serving on the School Committee, I feel challenged because I don’t feel like I get to hear from the whole community — I hear from pieces of it,” Goodwin said. “It’s not just feedback on communication, it’s what they would like to see us setting for goals.”

Patenaude noted that although she feels the School Department has seen some “positive shifts” toward community engagement so far, citing the presence of School Committee members at various public events and meetings, some of the strongest bonds she has made with parents and community members came from more interpersonal informal connections.

“I know the excessive opportunities to put yourself out there is sometimes time-consuming and hard, but I think it’s definitely worth it to try to give as many venues as possible for people to give their feedback,” she said. “We can’t fix everything all the time, but people want to be heard and people appreciate that if we listen and try to collaborate.”

The subcommittee will meet virtually on Nov. 19.

Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at acammalleri@recorder.com or 413-930-4429.