Sentence:  Dr. Melvin W. Barnes , superintendent , said he thought the schools were waiting for some leadership , perhaps on the national level , to make sure that whatever steps of planning they took would `` be more fruitful '' , and that he had found that other school districts <WSD>were</WSD> not as far along in their planning as this district . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  happen, occur, take place; this was during the visit to my parents' house"