March school board meeting: 2 teachers retiring, Riverside bond work decisions continue
by Melissa Yekulis
The monthly School Board meeting for Manchester Community Schools was called to order at 6pm on Monday, March 16. All board members were present at the meeting.
The meeting began with the approval of the agenda. The agenda was approved unanimously.
This month introduced a change in procedure with the introduction of the Consent Agenda. The Consent Agenda contains the board meeting minutes from the last month, information from the business office, and the personnel reports. It was indicated on the meeting agenda, “The Consent Agenda is listed in this agenda and will not be read aloud. The motion noted will allow for authorization of all listed items, without discussion, unless a member of the Board requests that any one or all be considered individually.” Time was taken to address the personnel report and publicly acknowledge the retirements of teachers Ron Tindall and Karin Villarreal, and Human Resource Coordinator Laura Neal. All retirements will take place at the end of the school year. The superintendent and Board members thank them for their years of service to the district. A recommendation was made to accept the Consent Agenda as it was presented. The motion passed unanimously.
There was no Public Participation, and no Old Business to discuss.
Under New Business, Joe Walsh brought four students to the meeting to share their experiences during their attendance at two major conferences, The WCC STEAM Week and National Careers Pathways Connect. The students were praised by the board for their courage to go out into the world and explore their areas of interest. Joe Walsh was also thanked for leading the students through these incredible programs.
Bond work development continues at Riverside Intermediate School. They are now in the process of purchasing furniture for the building. It will follow a similar theme as was developed for Luther C. Klager Elementary School. A recommendation was presented to accept the bid for furniture. The motion passed unanimously.
The School Site Bonds Series 2 Ratification Resolution was presented. A resolution to accept the bidder was accepted by roll call.
Department Head and Administrator Reports are available to review on the website. All department heads and administrators present were offered the opportunity to present any additional information around their reports.
Board Committee Reports have been posted and made available on the website.
Superintendent Steve Head provided an extensive report around the events happening in the district, as well as the behind-the-scenes work taking place with the growing Career Technical Education (CTE) program at the county level.
Congratulations were expressed to the middle and high school bands, who recently received Division 1 ratings. They will be playing at the state festival next, which is being held here at the Manchester Junior/Senior High School on April 23 and 24 from 3pm to 9pm.
This year CTE is at Level 0, working through the planning for implementation of fund distribution. Big changes will not take place until the ’27–’28 school year. Highlights from the most recent meeting at the county level included plans to make CTE a Pre-K–12 experience. Transportation remains an ongoing topic of conversation. Conversations also took place around considering how to equitably spread the programming across the county and allow for expansion of programming. Funding and district alignment also remain heavy topics of conversation. Bringing Washtenaw Community College into the fold is now part of the discussions. In the end, the goals from all involved are to ensure that all stakeholders have representation at the table of discussion, whether that is superintendents, community businesses, or students, and that everyone works to be good stewards of the tax funds that were levied to make this program possible.
The superintendent report closed with brief updates around the district. Board Committee Policy work continues to move forward. Work is now underway on developing schematic designs for the Jr/Sr High School bond updates. Finally, work around the Riverside bond is now underway. Some preliminary work has already begun around the roof. Additional projects will begin over spring break.
There was one participant in public participation. The Band Boosters presented on their recent and upcoming competition events and expressed their gratitude to the building and grounds and food service teams for their efforts to ensure the success of their events.
This month’s Kudos Shout-Out went to Jill Schook and the great work she is doing in the district.
The meeting went into closed session at 6:49pm to discuss contract negotiations and the superintendent evaluation.
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