The Reading School Board has agreed to form a committee to help guide the Reading Public Museum.
The board voted unanimously Wednesday night to create the ad hoc committee during a special meeting called prior to the regularly scheduled committee of the whole meeting.
It will be composed of community members, students, teachers and school administrators and will be tasked with providing guidance and support for the educational mission of the museum.
The school district, which owns the museum buildings and grounds at 500 Museum Road, is in an ongoing legal battle with the Reading Public Museum Foundation.
The foundation is tasked with running the museum while the Reading School District owns the buildings and grounds and the Reading Public Museum and Art Gallery, a corporation that owns the museum’s collection and is composed of school board members, have been engaged in a legal dispute for years to change the current operating agreement.
The foundation announced last month it plans to move parts of the collection stored at the museum, but not on display, to the Wells Fargo building, 600 Penn St., beginning in the spring.
The move is intended to protect the collection from environmental hazards, such as flooding, and building deficiencies that have affected the museum building near the Wyomissing Creek in Reading over the past several years, foundation officials said at the time.
The school district responded by saying it is seeking proposals for another entity to operate and manage the museum. The district also claimed the foundation is not fulfilling its mission.
The foundation is prepared to legally challenge the Reading School District’s plan to seek another entity to manage and operate the museum, John Graydon Smith, CEO of the foundation, said last month.
The museum will remain open to the public, officials said last month, as long as the facility remains legally accessible.
Source: Berkshire mont
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