Superintendent to take on role of Riverside principal

At April’s Manchester Community School’s Board of Education meeting, action was taken to lay off three MCS positions effective June 30, 2019. These positions including High School Assistant Principal/Athletic Director, Mr. Lavell Blanchard; Riverside Intermediate School principal/Director of Special Education, Mr. Gary Puhl III; and Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent, Courtney McLennan. These layoffs, part of the district’s efforts to right-size the district, are a reflection of larger class sizes currently at the Jr/Sr High school compared to K-6 enrollment. In addition, decreased state funding goes along with fewer students overall in the district.

While some of these positions are being eliminated, Superintendent Steinmetz announced back in April that some of these positions–Riverside principal, athletic director, and director of special education–would be filled. At a school board meeting in May, Steinmetz stated that he would be filling the role of Riverside principal, although with some caveats.

This weekend Steinmetz elaborated, “As the district continues to right size, it is imperative that administrators take on more responsibilities. We want to ensure that programs are not taken away from students. One way to do this is by not being too ‘heavy.’ As a result, I will be taking on the instructional leadership component of the traditional principalship position. These duties will entail curriculum, teacher evaluation, community outreach, etc. Discipline will be handled by a newly created position, Dean of Student Success. This position has already been posted and will be filled by a certified staff member.

“Part of our board policies state that a principal (or designee) provide the first level of discipline. It can then be appealed to the superintendent and ultimately the Board of Education. I did not want to eliminate the appeal process by holding a dual role. Whitmore Lake has utilized a similar model for several years with great success. Their superintendent is also the 7-12 principal. I spent a number of years as an elementary principal, and I am looking forward to assuming some of those duties/responsibilities again.” 

Steinmetz went on to explain that the district special education supervisor position should be posted through the WISD in the near future. It will be posted as a full-time ISD position servicing exclusively Manchester and three Emotional Impairment classrooms. He stated, “Ultimately, this should allow the supervisor to spend more time on special education in Manchester than in the past when it was handled under a dual role. Special education can be very time consuming. Therefore, this was something that was very important to me.”

 News on the athletic director position will be shared by the district soon. 

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by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and founder of the Manchester Mirror.