NORTH MANCHESTER, Ind. – For Manchester Community Schools (MCS), the going rate for an interim superintendent is slightly more than $100,000.
Interim Superintendent Mike Pettibone’s contract was approved 7-0 at the July 11 meeting of the MCS Board of School Trustees.
The contract is officially for a daily pay rate of $423, for a total of 245 days. It does not include benefits such as health insurance or retirement fund contributions.
The board also unanimously approved a stipend for Business Manager Scott Bumgardner’s time as interim superintendent, for a total of $6,500.
“This is something that we had discussed and agreed that, with Mr. Bumgardner taking on the superintendent duties, he would get a stipend for that time,” Board President Steve Flack said.
He calculated the stipend’s amount by multiplying the number of days Bumgardner served as interim superintendent by the daily rate paid to former superintendent Bill Reichhart.
“I appreciate the extra workload [Bumgardner] picked up. I know if you had a vote, it wouldn’t have been that way. It had to fall on someone, and I appreciate your willingness to take that on,” board member Brian Schilling said.
Brice Bedke, the board’s newest member, inquired as to whether Reichhart was still on the payroll, and where the money to pay his settlement comes from, before the vote on Bumgardner’s stipend.
“Bill’s agreement with us is that we will pay him $55,000 a year for two years. So basically, when we brought Mr. Pettibone on, we took the annuities, the health benefits, all the extras that Bill was getting and it was pretty much a wash. Mr. Pettibone is not getting all the annuities, benefits and extras that Dr. Reichhart did,” Flack said.
According to Bumgardner, the district is actually saving money through Pettibone’s contract.
“Just so the community knows, with the settlement of Bill’s contract, and the interim contract this year, we are net saving money by the benefits that are not being paid,” he said.
The board also approved textbook rental fees for the 2017-2018 school year, a topic which generated much discussion among the board.
Manchester Elementary School Principal Dr. Joe Rogers delivered the good news of the night, saying that fees for MES are down from last year.
“Mr. Bumgardner is helping us with consumables, and Sue Gnagy helped us wipe off a textbook fee by creating science kits,” Rogers said.
Textbook fees for MES students will range from $101 for kindergarten and $119 for second grade, and are down an average of more than $15.
Manchester Intermediate School Principal Randy Self had the task of reporting an increase in textbook fees.
“However, we are cutting the list of things students need to bring. We’re providing everything except writing utensils and gym shoes,” Self said.
Additionally, Gnagy’s science kits will replace textbooks at MIS as well.
Average fees for MIS are slightly more than $200 for each grade; $100 of that is the Chromebook rental fee, according to Self.
At Manchester Jr.-Sr. High School costs will remain about the same as last year, according to MJSHS Principal Dr. Jon Lippe.
“We’re pretty similar from one year to the next,” he said.
The fees presented to the board ranged from $187 for juniors to $257 for eighth graders, with some grades seeing a slight increase and others a slight decrease. Lippe said that the fees are estimated based on the average schedule for a student in that grade.