MANCHESTER — Members of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen will be asked to create a special committee on education at its meeting Tuesday night.

The proposal comes from Alderman Dan O’Neil, who says he wants council business that affects education to go before the special panel.

“We’re asked by the public to be more involved in the education process right now,” O’Neil said. “We’re very limited by statute to what we can be directly involved with; we are the legal bottom line for funding.”

The proposal comes a week after the Board of School Committee approved a six-point school reform package proposed by Mayor Ted Gatsas, which provided Superintendent Thomas Brennan with a list of tasks to accomplish over the next 30 to 120 days. The list includes developing a redistricting plan and stepping up negotiations with the Hooksett School District to move high school students from that town to the underutilized Manchester High School West.

It also comes before the aldermen just a few days before the deadline for declarations of candidacy for the Charter Commission, which will be elected in November.

One big issue during the charter study is expected to be the authority of the Manchester School District and school board. Some advocates of increased school spending want the Board of School Committee to have final authority to approve a bottom-line budget, which would give the school district its own taxing authority.

Others say a mayoral veto over school board actions, or even making the schools a city department, would allow spending to be reined in.

In a letter to his aldermanic colleagues, O’Neil identifies seven areas in which the responsibilities of the board of aldermen include educational matters. In addition to health and safety, those areas include transportation, economic development, the impact of the schools on property values and financial budgeting issues.

“The only time we really see the school district is in the springtime when the mayor has presented his budget, although they have come in on occasion on different issues, as when they might be required to do bonding,” O’Neil said.

In the formal proposal to his colleagues, O’Neil said he’s not trying to “circumvent the responsibilities of the Board of School Committee or the school district administration.”

Gatsas had no comment on O’Neil’s proposal.

wsmith@unionleader.com