By David Fenker
News Editor
NORTH MANCHESTER, Ind. – The Manchester Community Schools Board of School Trustees unanimously passed its 2018 budget, as well as three additional budget-related issues, at its October meeting.
MCS Business Manager Scott Bumgardner presented the budget for final approval after last month’s uneventful public hearing on the matter. With no further questions, the board adopted the proposed $14,993,767 budget 5-0, with board members Brian Schilling and Brice Bedke absent.
The board also unanimously approved a 2018-2020 Capital Projects Fund plan, which Bumgardner said was a three-year plan that is revisited every year. The plan, which is required by the state, covers the needs of each building, as well as of the corporation as a whole.
“You mix it with a combination of things you need to maintain your facilities, along with utilities, property and casualty insurance, technology and our technology department, and it pretty much eats up the capital projects budget. We are required by the state to come up with a three year plan,” Bumgardner said.
Coupled with a 12-year bus replacement plan was the district’s tax neutrality plan, which Bumgardner said is how the district informs the state of its plan regarding retirement bonds.
“I have to let the DLGF know where I’m going to neutralize [our] pension debt each year. So, each year we’ve kept it the same; we’ve neutralized it through bus replacement,” Bumgardner said, referring to the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance.
“We’re now down to two payments left on our pension debt, and then I’ll quit having to bring this to you each year and quit having to tell you how bad our bus replacement fund is.”
An additional topic discussed was how to begin the board’s search a for a new superintendent. While the board did not determine how, let alone when, it will begin its search, the hiring process was discussed at length.
Pettibone led into the topic with a presentation covering the responsibilities of a school board, ending with a recommendation to begin the search as soon as January.
Board members asked questions regarding the costs of hiring a group to conduct the search (mileage costs for a university, $2,000 for ISBA and $6,000 for an independent group), and how the district has historically handled such a task.
“We have used the university search teams, and we have done it ourselves,” Board Attorney Al Schlitt said.
“When we hired Dr. [John] Eckert – in the late ‘70s, could have been early ‘80s – we did our own search. We sent letters out. I think we got names and addresses from ISBA of all the superintendents in Indiana. We had 70 applicants for our position.”
Schlitt also noted that the board had previously utilized the services of an independent group as well.
The board also asked Pettibone how a superintendent hears about an opening, to which he replied that the ISBA and other groups would be notified of the opening and post it, the news travels via word of mouth and that mentor superintendents would refer the opening to their mentees.
“People are already calling me and asking these questions: do you have a good group of administrators; do you have a good community; is the board good to work with; is the pay fair?” Pettibone said.
The consensus from the board was that it would hear presentations from different groups that assist school districts in searching for superintendents, including university groups, the Indiana School Board Association and independent groups, in executive session in November.
For more, see the Oct. 11 issue of the News-Journal.