Archive: Around Town

Mark LewisI am pleased to provide this report to the voters of the Lansing Central School District regarding the 2006-07 school year. I realize that this report contains but a portion of the overall activity within the school district during 2006-07. I will highlight those situations, events, and circumstances from my perspective as superintendent of schools, noting that a comprehensive review would require extensive documentation on the part of countless individuals who affect and are affected by the everyday activity within and about the school district.

Personnel: A year ago the district administration included two interim appointments (the elementary school principal and the school business administrator), and two members with less than six-months of service to the district. In addition, during the summer of 2006, the middle school principal departed, resulting in the completion of a search process for a new principal. At this point, the overall level of stability and permanence within the administrative staff has increased significantly with the appointment of Mr. Jamie Thomas as middle school principal and Mr. Larry Lawrence as school business administrator. In July, Ms. Chris Pettograsso, will join our ranks as the newly appointed principal of R.C. Buckley Elementary School.

Thus, as of July 1^st, the administrative team will be fully staffed with permanent appointees. I hasten to add my gratitude on behalf of the entire Lansing school and community for the dedicated service of Ms. Earlene Carr, interim principal at R. C. Buckley Elementary School who, for the past three years has ventured far beyond what would be expected of an individual serving in an interim capacity. The school indeed prospered under her leadership. Thank you, Earlene, for you service to the children of Lansing.

June 30^th will mark the retirement of four of our district’s most capable veteran teachers. Mr. Mike Abraham, high school physics teacher, Mr. Scott Davis, middle school mathematics teacher, Ms. Judy Hinderliter, middle school English/language arts teacher, and Mr. Steve Reukauf, middle school technology teacher. Together they constitute almost seven decades of service to the district. Their commitment to the young people of Lansing warrants the gratitude of the entire Lansing school community.

Student Enrollment: K-12 student enrollment now stands at 1297 students. At the start of this year, the enrollment stood at 1289. The elementary school enrollment stands at 425, an increase of seven students from the start of the year. The middle school enrollment stands at 402, a decrease of one student from the start of the year. The high school enrollment stands at 470, an increase of twelve students from the start of the year. Trends indicate that the overall district enrollment will remain flat or decline in the next three-to-five years. Should this pattern continue, the high school could witness a modest decline in enrollment over the next four years. The class of 2007 contains 127 students. The class of 2011 contains 97 students. The implications of such a decline are unclear. However, it must be noted that a 25% decrease in student population does not necessarily translate into a commensurate reduction in staff. It does, however, warrant continued monitoring over the ensuing years, along with the updating of enrollment projections to ensure the maintenance of appropriate staffing levels.

Graduation Rates: Last week the state education department released data pertaining to the graduation rate of students who entered ninth grade in 2002. Graduation rates include all students who began 9th grade in 2002, no matter how long they remained in school. Besides the graduation rate, the data reported include drop-out rates, IEP and GED diplomas, and students still enrolled in school after four years. As one would expect, Lansing’s graduation rate is among the highest in the region. In fact, if the overall district data is considered, Lansing is first in the region. District data includes students in a particular district who enrolled in a full-day BOCES or private school program. If we examine only high school data, Lansing places second in the region to Trumansburg. It must be noted that the percentage difference between the schools constitutes a very small difference in terms of the actual difference in the number of students who graduated in four years. The data indicate that the district should focus on that population of students that seek GED diplomas in an effort to assist them in acquiring a Regents diploma.

Staff Development: The 2006-07 school year marked the inaugural year for the Lansing / Groton Teacher Center. Thanks to the efforts of Ms. Deborah Pichette, the district succeeded in securing funds from the state education department in excess of $121,000 for the express purpose of staffing and equipping what is now known as the center, located in the R.C. Buckley Elementary School, that has quickly become an integral component of staff development in both school districts. In addition to SED funding, Ms. Pichette worked with Senator Michael Nozzolio to secure an attitional $53,000 to create a technology center adjacent to the teacher center for use with both district-developed and teacher center-developed staff development offerings designed to assist teachers in the integration of technology into the instructional setting. In addition, the Teacher Center will contribute to maximizing the efficient use of funds budgeted for staff development. The students and staff of both Lansing and Groton schools will benefit for years to come as a result of Ms. Pichette’s initiative in bringing a teacher center to Lansing.

Long Range Plan for Student Achievement: During the 2005-06 school year, representatives of the teaching and support staff, board and administration, and parents met to develop the long range student achievement priorities. The process focused on agreed-upon quantifiable benchmarks, such as Regents test and disaggregated grades 3-8 test data mandated by No Child Left Behind, as a means of determining the eleven primary areas of focus over the next three years, and the three top areas of focus for the 2006-07 school year. Those three areas of focus became the basis for building level planning initiatives designed to channel time, effort, and resources in a more effective manner to achieve the goals specified by the district planning committee. The top three goals for the 2006-07 school year are as follows:

• Create and implement a plan to provide effective interventions for economically disadvantaged students pre-school aged to grade 12.
  

• Continue to develop a vertically aligned K-12 curriculum in all subject areas that meets or exceeds state standards and assessments.
  

• Develop a comprehensive, sustained professional development plan that is based on district priorities and student performance data that provides that provides opportunities to collaborate both within and across buildings.

The district committee will reconvene this summer to review progress in meeting these goals and to determine priorities for the 2007-08 school year.

Technology: The following has been accomplished during the current school year:

•  Implementation of a multi-year lease/purchase agreement with the Onondaga/Cortland/Madison Regional Informational Center for the acquisition of computers and upgrade of the district infrastructure, switches and storage.
• Installation of the PRI phone line system, resulting in a savings of tens of thousands of dollars in phone charges
• Conversion of the district’s e-mail system to g-mail, a free e-mail system provided by Google, Inc., thus, eliminating costs associated with that system.
• Acquisition of additional wireless laptop computers, Smart Boards, and other instructional hardware through the continued support of the Corporate Development Committee (CDC)
• Appointment of a School Information Systems Specialist (SISS) to organize and manage the ever-increasing data and information requirements as stipulated by state and federal mandates.
  

Facilities: In February 2006, the board and administration sought the participation of interested members of the Lansing community who would be willing to examine the district’s facility needs and report the results of that examination to the board of education as a means of placing a “right-sized” construction proposal to the voters of the district. Mr. Marc Stammer, executive with Corning, Inc., facilitated a process designed to prioritize a list of possible construction components in excess of $70 million. The model used to prioritize the list was that employed by Corning when it considers construction alternatives in its facilities around the world. Significant discussion and debate accompanied the committee’s work which at times became contentious. However, by September, a report which outlined the committee’s work and various alternatives was presented to the board of education for its consideration. The report outlined a list of renovation and expansion priorities amounting to approximately $22 million. In addition, in an effort to ensure as transparent a process as possible, the report included dissenting opinions from all committee members who wished to provide such opinions. The board of education ultimately adopted two propositions to place before the voters on February 6, 2007. Proposition 1 included renovation and expansion to the high school and renovations to the other two schools and bus garage. In addition, proposition 1included relocation of the district office to the high school. Proposition 2 included expansion and renovation of the band and chorus rooms at the high school. Both propositions were rejected by the voters. The first proposition failed by 16 votes; the second proposition failed by 56 votes. Exit survey data indicated that a majority of the voters who rejected the propositions did so as a result of their concern for ever-increasing property taxes. During the 2007-08 school year, however, it will be necessary to revisit the issue of school construction and expansion, owing to the fact that the problems that were to addressed via the 2007 referendum remain and will become costlier to remedy with each passing year.

Business Operations: In 2006-07, Personnel Clerk Karen Harding worked with our consultants at Locey and Cahill on a program which subsidizes the District for reimbursement payments made to retirees for their drug coverage. Karen’s efforts are expected to generate an additional $70,000 per year annually.

Effective in April, Mrs. Harding also took over fingerprinting of potential employees’, saving time when hiring new staff and eliminating a BOCES expense at no additional cost to the district.

District Treasurer Sue French instituted efficiencies in her office in two new programs. In August, the District and the Town of Lansing joined forces to enable School Tax Collections to take place at the Town Hall, a program that was both economical and well received by our tax payers. In a second initiative, Sue worked with our local financial institution to enable automated deposits for all checks. This saves time in the office and gets the revenue into our accounts immediately, generating interest earnings.

Payroll Coordinator Karen Hradisky cooperated with a microfilming and imaging vendor in completing a grant funded record management project that saved more than $5000 local dollars while generating a series of easy-to-reference permanent payroll and Board of Education records in both microfilm and computer accessible formats.

As part of the 2007-08 budget process, Purchasing Clerk Laura Davis trained staff on an automated purchase order generation process that will ultimately minimize paper processes and expedite item acquisition for teachers and building administrators.

Budget: The proposed 2006-07 budget was initially rejected by the voters in the May 2006 vote. The budget was approved by a significant margin on the second try. In the process of determining the best option to place before the voters after the initial rejection, expenditures were reduced and more revenue allocated from district reserves in a process known as the appropriation of “one-shot” revenues. Such a process has a short-term benefit in lowering the tax impact in the current year. However, owing to its non-recurring nature, a “one-shot” revenue must be made up in the subsequent year, either through taxation, budget reductions, or both. The requirement to make up this revenue is the main factor in the 2007-08 budget proposal carrying a 3.4% budget-to-budget increase, but a 7.4% tax levy increase.

It was clear from the feedback received from the community in the aftermath of last year’s budget that more information regarding the budget was critical to the approval process. In response, the board and administration initiated a district budget committee charged with the task of increasing awareness of the various aspects of the school budget and its development, and researching strategies to cut district costs in all areas. In addition, the district has sought to increase community awareness through the print media and at board of education meetings. The board and administration welcome the opportunity to review the budget in detail with civic, neighborhood, or other organizations who would like to do so.

As we consider the current state of the district, the challenges yet to be addressed in both fiscal and physical plant realms are easy to note. These will continue to take center stage as we enter the 2007-08 school year. Despite these challenges, the accomplishments of our students again this year in the academic realm, in the arts, and in athletic competition were impressive. There is much we need to achieve as we look forward, and we welcome the opportunity to engage both the school staff and the community in its achievement. Here are but a few of the many initiatives that will require our focus next school year:

• Integrating Technology into the Educational Process
• Increasing the Use of Data to Drive Planning
• Connecting Budget Development to the Long Range Plan for Student Achievement
• Continue to Align the K-12 Curriculum
• Strengthen the Safe School Initiative through Increased Support of the CASS Program
• Focusing on Co-Teaching as a means of increasing mainstreaming opportunities for students with disabilities
• Strengthening Ties with Community and Staff
• Developing Strategies to Maximize Efficiency to Save Dollars
• Addressing Facility Issues
  

These are but a few of the initiatives to be supported by the proposed spending plan for the 2007-08 school year—a year that holds much promise for success in terms of student accomplishment, program innovation, and fiscal efficiency.

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