The committee will recommend that the board rescind its request for public hearings on the issue of repealing a Department of Education rule governing school closures.
A repeal would have lessened the amount of public feedback needed to make amendments and that action faced opposition by parents.
While parents may have won this battle, they haven't won the war to keep their schools open.
"In reality, it does need to be an option," said department spokesman Greg Knudsen. He said changing demographics would affect school enrollments.
Keith Sakata, chairman of the board's Committee on Support Services, said that over the next few months his committee will propose amendments to clarify the process of closing a school.
"So when we do start the process of closure people understand clearly why this school is being closed," he said.
Among the issues Sakata would like to take up is coming up with a standard definition of a classroom in use. Sakata said it is a gray area and he would like see everyone following the same guidelines.
"If a classroom is being used for Hawaiian studies for part of the day, some schools consider that classroom being utilized and other schools will look at it another way," he said.
Under the current policy, one criterion for closure is if a third of a school's classrooms are vacant. Defining classroom usage would then clarify the exact vacancies at each school.
Another amendment Sakata intends to propose is changing the vacancy criterion from one-third to 51 percent. He said it would be difficult to close a school if it would overload another school in the area.
He said another alternative to closure would be to allow other department offices to use the vacant classroom space.