Newly elected Ryan Novess chosen as president of MCS Board of Education
The Manchester Community Schools Board of Education held its organizational meeting on January 25 and of the four officers elected, three offices were filled by newly elected members, including the school board presidency by Ryan Novess.
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Alternating every two years, three or four of the seven school board seats are up for election. This past November, four seats were up for election and all four incumbents chose not to run again. The two most recent board presidents, Chris Fegan and Tom Mann, were among those four. Three board members remained — Mike Austin and Rebecca Harvey, both of whom have been serving since 2014, and Michael Tindall, who has been serving since 2019. Ryan Novess, Corey Horky, Brandon Woods, and Kody Naylor were elected to the four vacant seats.
Novess ran against Harvey for the presidency and was elected by a vote of 4 to 3. Austin was chosen as vice-president. Horky and Woods were selected as treasurer and secretary respectively.
Ryan Novess
Ryan Novess explained that he sought out the vacant board president’s role as it represented an opportunity to become as involved as he possibly could. He stated, “I look forward to the coming year and working with my fellow board member colleagues making decisions that help position Manchester to succeed on many different levels.”
When asked, he laid out his vision for the direction he would like to take the district: “The direction of the district will always be centered around our students, along with our educators, coaches and administrators. It’s great knowing that everyone is ‘all in’ in that sense. When I envision the direction going forward, here are some thoughts that come to mind: Are we providing enough curriculum pathways for all of our students? Are we pursuing net positive results when we consider how we save and spend money? Are our educators, coaches and administrators being properly supported and equipped to drive our students’ achievements? These are all big picture questions that drive direction at many smaller levels within the district.”
“I do know that whatever lies ahead, our educators, coaches and administrators are up for the task. 2020 is a prime example. The district completely stood up our new virtual schoolrooms and managed our virtual students without ever having to account for that component. Our technology department made advancements that could have taken years to implement under normal circumstances. Everyone had to reinvent themselves in new capacities and gain some new skill sets. Moving forward, I have faith in our educators that they will have no shortage of ideas on how to mesh together traditional schooling with the lessons learned during this non-traditional schooling experience, which will help formulate a future learning plan direction the school board looks forward to helping take shape.”
New school board members aren’t dropped into overseeing a school district with no training. Manchester Community Schools Superintendent Dr. Brad Bezeau explained that in addition to him meeting with each of the four new board members individually prior to taking their seats on the board, the entire Board of Education participated in a full-day seminar and training with the facilitation team from The Michigan Association of School Boards, focusing on the roles and responsibilities of school board members and the superintendent evaluation tool and process. Bezeau stated, “This training was conducted virtually on Saturday, January 23, 2021 throughout the day, and was incredibly beneficial to not just our new board members, but our existing board members as well.”
Additionally, he explained that the board members will have the opportunity to receive more training as well as benefit from professional development opportunities through a wide-range of events and conferences through the Michigan Association of School Boards.
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