By David Fenker
News Editor
NORTH MANCHESTER, Ind. – Mike Pettibone will serve as interim superintendent of Manchester Community Schools for the 2017-2018 school year.
The MCS Board of School Trustees voted 4-0-1 to hire Pettibone at its Tuesday, June 13, meeting.
Pettibone’s education experience spans five school systems and nearly three decades.
“Mike comes to us with many years of experience,” Board President Steve Flack said.
“Interim superintendents aren’t just floating around out here, looking for jobs. We felt very, very fortunate to come across an excellent candidate in Mr. Pettibone with his years of experience not only as a teacher, but as a principal, interim superintendent and superintendent.”
After 23 years in various roles at Plymouth Community Schools, including teacher, coach and principal, Pettibone worked as principal of Clay High School and Wilson Elementary in South Bend. He then spent 11 years as superintendent of Adams Central Community Schools, retiring from that position at the end of the 2012-2013 school year. He has also served as interim superintendent at LaPorte and Mishawaka.
“This feels very positive, and I just want to say that I appreciated the board’s open conversation that we had. I spent my freshman year in college at Manchester College, and graduated from Ball State,” Pettibone said, noting that he has maintained the Church of the Brethren connection throughout his life.
“I get up each day asking myself how I can get better for the benefit of others. Hopefully I can bring this much experience and become a teammate of the administrative team, the board and the community. Those are my goals. Those are tall orders, but that’s what I hope to accomplish.”
Community member Kevin Kling questioned the board regarding their transparency during the process of selecting Pettibone for the interim position.
“It’s been very important from [the community’s] perspective that you guys have that open communication with us, tell us what’s happening, what’s going on. I’ve not seen any board notes that you guys were going to have a meeting about this hire, for the interim position… so I just want to get an idea here on how you plan on going from this point here to six months, a year down the line, whenever you decide to hire a new superintendent, what’s the process you’re going to use and how are you going to allow the community to have a voice in who we bring in to that position?” he asked the board.
Flack said that the board has been “extremely transparent” and “very forthright” with their recent actions. He noted that the board had an executive session on May 3 to discuss an interim superintendent, the minutes of which were approved at the June 13 meeting.
Board member Brian Schilling added that the point of the interim superintendent was to allow the board to take its time hiring a new superintendent, and that the process for hiring a new superintendent has not yet been determine.
Flack said that the board may look at doing community roundtables during the hiring process, but that the interviews would be closed-door.
“Unfortunately and respectfully, the board is the superintendents boss, and the board is who he reports to. The community does not have a voice when we’re having interviews,” Flack said.
Board member Sally Krouse thanked Kling for his input, and reiterated that the process has yet to be determined.