September School Board Meeting: Riverside upgrading cameras, Matt Walker hired as AD
by Melissa Yekulis
The monthly School Board meeting for Manchester Community Schools was called to order at 6pm on Monday, September 20. One board member was absent.
The meeting began with the approval of the agenda. A request was made to make an addition to the agenda. The approval of the addition to the agenda, and the agenda, were both approved unanimously.
There were no participants in Public Participation.
The agenda was followed by a presentation from Varsity Track and Field Coach Coltre. He shared the exciting accomplishments of the boys and girls track and field teams in the last year and highlighted three of the state champions from the Varsity Boys Track and Field Team.
A recommendation was made to accept the Consent Agenda as it was presented. The consent agenda was approved unanimously.
There was no Old Business for review.
Under New Business, there were four topics of discussion for consideration.
The FFA submitted a 2026 field trip request to take students to the FFA National Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. Teacher Randy Smith requested permission to take eight students, October 20th through October 23rd. Sophomores, juniors, and seniors are all eligible for the trip. The motion unanimously passed for approval.
The teacher union contract had been approved over the summer. The Schedule B portion of the letter agreement within the contract required a minor update and signatures. The recommendation was to accept the contract update as proposed. The motion passed unanimously with a roll call vote.
Riverside is due for security camera updates. These were initially considered as part of the bond work. These upgrades for security cameras will begin at Riverside and expand to Luther C. Klager Elementary and the Junior/Senior High School. Currently, back up is 30 days. With the new system, it could potentially go back further if needed. This is expandable, and there is an option to purchase more space. The system was highly recommended by Lincoln Schools. They have installed it and they really like it. A formal request was made to purchase the system through Inacomp, the REMC bid vendor. The total cost is $32,582.00, which consists of the camera recorder appliance, 27 cameras, and labor for installation. The recommendation was made to support the camera update costs as proposed. The motion passed unanimously.
The board has been presented with a “second” first look at the curriculum for Luther C. Klager Elementary, Riverside Intermediate School, and the Junior/Senior High School. The board had initially been tasked with previewing these documents while Superintendent Head was still present. The board has been asked to reevaluate the documents and submit their questions to Superintendent Johns before the next board meeting. The curriculum will need to be approved at the next board meeting.
Building department reports have been posted and made available for viewing on the district website. Superintendent Johns gave department heads who were present an opportunity to share additional information about their reports to the board.
A brief report was shared around the school board’s need for professional development. The board needs to update their training on the Evaluation Cycle for superintendents and goal training. The team will hold any new required trainings after the new board is appointed and sworn in in the month of January. The board voted unanimously to approve seeking future training dates for the evaluation cycle and goal training.
Superintendent Johns had four points of discussion in his superintendent report.
The most recent CIC meeting for bond work took place on September 17. The team finished sharing their thoughts on the upcoming addition at the high school. On September 24, an additional meeting will take place where they will go through each step of the process for finalization. This will be followed by preparing for bids. The bids will be submitted before the next board meeting. Information will be submitted to board members for review and questions in advance of the next board meeting.
Johns met with members of the Washtenaw Intermediate School District to be brought up to date on the work happening with Career Technical Education (CTE) at the district and county level. It has been made clear this is a huge financial savings for the district. Reimbursements will start coming in for CTE instructors and other work taking place in the field of CTE within the district.
A brief presentation was made around enrollment. Johns spoke about the need for building relationships and trust within the district. Enrollment is slightly down from last year. Questions were posed around funding lost due to the decrease from enrollment in the Special Education program. CFO Shannon Cajic also came up to explain the state is changing how it is distributing funding this year. Due to declining enrollment numbers across the state, the state is now funding schools based on a three-year average. Numbers and funding will be known after count day in October.
Johns also wanted to take the time to highlight great things the district is doing. Based on the Spring 2026 assessment data from MSTEP, 4th, 6th, and 8th grade students averaged above the state and county average in English Language Arts and Math. Any scores below the state or county average were within 10% of those targeted scores.
Johns has started attending the Superintendent Academy. It consists of about 40 new superintendents and future superintendents. It provides learning opportunities for working with school board members, the community, and more. It is also a tremendous networking opportunity.
Johns also provided clarifying information around the position of Athletic Director for the 2026-2027 school year. Matt Walker, who is currently the gym teacher and athletic trainer, is stepping in at the entry level position. As he gets to know the position, other faculty and administrators will be stepping in to support with event scheduling and attending meetings. The end goal is to eventually transition Walker to the roles of teacher in the morning, Athletic Director in the afternoons, and support as Athletic Director and Athletic Trainer after school. It was also shared that teachers are now being paid $40 per hour to work the ticket booths at sporting events. Johns and Cajic met together over the summer to determine if funding was available before the decision was made.
There was no Public Participation.
A public reminder was made of Upcoming Events:
- Picture Days are this week.
- Fun Run for Klager and Riverside is Friday, October 9.
The meeting was unanimously adjourned at 6:58pm.
The next public board meeting will take place on Monday, October 19 at 6pm in the Junior/Senior High School Media Center.
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