Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
NORTH MANCHESTER - Kent Trickle, former Manchester Community school board president, announced Tuesday he will not seek re-election in June.
"This is a real opportunity for some in Pleasant Township to have a chance to get involved in the education process," said Trickle, an eight-year board member.
He said people don't like to run against an incumbent.
Hearing the announcement, a woman who wouldn't give her nameÊpatted her hands silently in applause to Trickle's news.
Trickle followed his news with complaints about two anonymous opinions in a North Manchester newspaper.
One opinion attacked the school administrators, whom Trickle complimented in return.
The other opinion criticized the Manchester school board for spending millions of dollars on a new gymnasium but not keeping an English teacher employed.
Trickle said firmly that appropriated funds -Êmoney designated for a particular intent -Êcan only be spent on that intent.
In other business, the board:
• Heard from principals about their schools' ISTEP scores.
Sixty-six percent of the sophomores taking the Graduation Qualifying Exam passed both the math and language arts sections, Nancy Alspaugh, Manchester High School principal, said.
• Approved scanning Manchester Junior High's roof with an infrared camera to find wet insulation.
Edifis, a division of the contracted Martin, Riley & Mock Inc., Fort Wayne, will do the scanning at night.
Scanning will cost $1,000.
The school board members are: president Sally Krouse, vice president Virginia Gunter, secretary Brad Perrott, Thom Frantz, Larry Miller, Todd Speicher, Kent Trickle and assistant superintendent and acting superintendent Kim Thurston. School corporation attorney Al Schlitt was absent.
