Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
NORTH MANCHESTER - As Manchester Community School Board President Kent Trickle put it, a "little incident" occurred with the Indiana Department of Education. This "little incident" affected nearly 300 schools across Indiana.
In a public hearing Tuesday for Manchester Community Schools' 2001 budget, assistant superintendent Kim Thurston explained the "little incident" and addressed concerns from the public.
Thurston said the DOE made a couple mistakes on budget worksheets distributed in June. The mistakes positively affected approximately 25 schools and negatively affected approximately 269 schools.
The budget process began in January, and despite the state's mistakes, Thurston said, the budget was "one that we feel meets the needs of today's child, but remains conservative (in terms of taxes)."
This is another catch-22 in school finance," Thurston said. "Some schools were hit harder and some not as hard."
Because of advertising, Manchester Community Schools were among the approximate 25 schools positively affected.
"We did advertise high enough, so we're not going to get shorted," Thurston said. "(But, we) won't raise as much local property tax as we originally thought."
Property taxes make up approximately 40 percent of the school corporation's revenue, while approximately 60 percent comes from the state.
Thurston said nobody knew about the mistake until the 2001 budgets were advertised, and for MCS, that was this week.
Despite Thurston's reassurance that the 2001 budget would be OK for MCS, North Manchester residents still are concerned about the budget.
Carlotta Olinger, resident, asked Thurston and board members if money would be cut from programs within MCS to counteract the funds shortage.
"Any time you receive less money than you anticipate," Thurston said, "it's going to affect how you pay your staff."
He explained that the school system would receive less money than expected, but the money would be equal to that received last year. He also said administration wouldn't know the impact of the shortage until the end of the year.
"We're still going to get the same amount of dollars as we did last year," Trickle said, "but just not as much new monies as we had anticipated."
Trickle said the administration would carefully examine the 2001 budget. He said there are "a lot of areas we can trim" money from and "we'll be looking at those areas first, not the programs."
In other business:
• Cindy Roser and Jeri Lehman represented parents of the junior varsity volleyball team at MHS. Roser submitted a handout to the board explaining concerns parents had about the high school's coaching staff. The handout consisted of eight questions parents wanted addressed. Roser said she and Lehman came to the meeting to "get some answers."
"We all need to set a good example for our kids in school," she said. Roser said she and Lehman are concerned with the "constant rotation of coaches" and, they said, "it's destroying spirit and it's not good for our reputation as a school."
Board member Larry Miller thanked Roser and Lehman for attending the meeting and said he could "guarantee" them the administration would look over their questions and get back to them.
• School board members approved the following appointments at Laketon Elementary School: Michele Rose as boys/girls volleyball coach, boys/girls track coach and girls basketball coach; Jennifer Rice as boys/girls soccer coach, boys/girls track coach, reading curriculum writer and student council adviser; and Jay Fawley as boys/girls soccer coach, boys/girls volleyball coach and boys basketball coach.
• School board members also approved the following appointments at Manchester Junior High School: Andrew Harding as volunteer seventh-grade football coach; Nate Hamblin as volunteer eighth-grade football coach; and Amy Ambrose and Abby Zerkel as academic team co-coaches.
• Dana Clark and Debby Myers were approved as instructional assistants at Manchester Elementary School and Katie Zile as the junior varsity volleyball coach at Manchester High School.
• The board accepted the resignations of Steve Olsen as the junior varsity volleyball coach at MHS, Michele Rose as the junior varsity basketball coach at MHS and Miriam Shepherd as a yearbook co-sponsor at MJHS.
• The board approved the MHS fall musical to take place Dec.3 at the high school.
Manchester Community Schools Board of Trustees includes: president Kent Trickle, vice president Virginia Gunter, secretary Larry Miller, superintendent Connie Curry, principal Nancy Alspaugh, Todd Speicher, Sally Krouse, Brad Perrott and Thom Frantz.
