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Manchester schools decide to pause pursuit of state STEM certification, citing heavy documentation burden
Summary
District leaders told the board they will not pursue Indiana Department of Education STEM certification now, saying a revised IDOE rubric requires extensive, recurring documentation that diverts time from classroom instruction; the board agreed to pause and focus on local STEM programming and marketing.
Susan, a district presenter, told the Manchester Community Schools board the district will pause pursuing state STEM certification after a recent IDOE review placed the district at an "investigating" level under a new rubric. "We filled out multitudes of folders and put a lot of evidence in those folders," she said, adding that the new annual documentation requirement asked for far more granular evidence than the prior multi-year process.
Joel Eiffenower, a STEM leadership team member, and James Elely, another team member, described how the change to an annual certification with 16 folders of documentation made the process “an inordinate amount of documentation.” Joel said he had spent a week completing paperwork that he felt would have been better spent working directly with students: "I gave the state already a week of my time for not pretty much. And I could have spent that week with kids." Advisory-board member Karine Evans had asked, "What will Manchester Community Schools have to give up in order to get certification?" and her answer framed the district's choice as time versus direct student benefit.
Board members questioned staff about whether the IDOE would change the rubric and whether certification might be valuable if the state adjusted the process. Staff emphasized that many of the 30 schools that applied received the same lower-level rating and that the district received positive site-visit feedback noting STEM is "embedded" in district classrooms. The presenters recommended pausing the certification effort so teachers could prioritize high-quality student experiences and so the district could instead invest in marketing and showcasing STEM work locally.
The board voiced support for that direction and asked staff to notify IDOE of the district’s decision and to continue strengthening STEM programming internally. The board did not adopt any changes to staffing or funding as part of the pause; staff said they would maintain STEM activities and explore ways to showcase work (social media features, a STEM video series, and a possible STEM festival) rather than continuing to produce recurring audit-style documentation for the state.
The board’s action was a directive for staff to inform the IDOE and pivot effort toward classroom implementation and local outreach; no formal ordinance or budget appropriation was attached to the decision.
