- By Dan Veaner
- Around Town
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Dr. Stephen GrimmLast month the Lansing Board Of Education appointed Dr. Stephen Grimm as the new Superintendent of Schools. Grimm will take the helm of the Lansing Central School District on January 2. Grimm is finishing as Executive Director of Secondary Schools in the Greece Central School District, and has 19 years experience in public education. He and his wife Miquel have three children, a three-year old and one-year old twins. Initially they plan to live in Marathon, where Miquel, a physical education teacher, has family, while they look for a home in Lansing.Grimm has already been tapped to participate in the hiring of Lansing's new business administrator, Penny Osborne, who will also be starting at Lansing on January 2. Monday the Star had a chance to talk to Grimm about his background, philosophies, and his initial impression of the school district he will be heading up in only a few weeks.
| Next week in Part 2 of our exclusive interview Dr. Grimm talks about his impressions of Lansing, his plan for learning about the district and its people, and the top challenges he will face. | ||
Stephen Grimm: That's correct. A superintendency has always been a goal of mine. It has always been a matter of when. As a principal I participated in workshops that would attract educational leaders to superintendencies. There was an 'Aspiring Superintendents' program, and other workshops like that.
I also relied heavily on my mentors that have been superintendents in my previous districts, as to rounding out my experiences to ready me for the position. Through the New York State Council of School Superintendents (NYSCOSS) I've been watching the vacancies and looking for the right fit. That was really the most important thing. I wanted to make sure that I would be successful where I was going. It was important to match my abilities to the needs of the district.
I definitely was looking for a small school (district), because I love the small school culture and the small town culture -- the character of a small town and the kind of place that I not only love, but I want my children to experience that.
LS: What did you know about Lansing before you applied?
SG: I knew that Lansing's reputation for academics and athletics was very good. My wife is from Marathon, New York, and as soon as we saw Lansing she said, 'Oh Lansing! That's a great school district!' My eyebrows kind of perked up. I talked to her parents who knew more about the broader area, and had nothing but great things to say about the Lansing school district and the town.
From there I started investigating using the school Web site, the New York State report cards on academic achievement, and saw that it was phenomenal. I continued to look online and utilized the Lansing Star, which provided a nice one-stop shopping for history and school issue coverage. I knew that some of the things Lansing is in need of are some of the things I can do.
LS: Were you intimidated by any of that? The big thing is that there has been such a revolving door in the superintendent's office.
SG: I think any time you're looking at a position where there has been a revolving door you have to find the answer to why that has been. I looked at each of the cases. Each one of those had different reasons. I said, 'Is that something that could happen to me?' It's not. Those are different people, different times in their careers, and I'm not sure why they came to Lansing. So there are so many variables that I don't know of or have control over.
So I have to do a fresh assessment: here is a school district, here is a town, here is a history of the town, here's what's happening in the town and the school district, and here's what people say about what is really going on there. And I say, 'Is that something that I would be interested in?' And it was a resounding 'yes' in every aspect.
I've had some experience with that in the past. Superintendent Chris Manaseri at Wheatland Chili and I put a stop to the revolving door that they were experiencing in the late '90s. I started there in the summer of 2000 (as Senior and Junior High School Principal). They had gone through -- it sounds very similar to Lansing -- three or four sitting superintendents and three or four principals, all within a period of about five years, plus all the interims that had come in between. They have a great community with a great faculty.
They persevered through that because of the wonderful culture and infrastructure they had. They just had an instability in leadership. Chris and I came there for the right reasons. We wanted to be there, and over the course of the next five years -- I was there for six -- it was a great collaboration. It just needed some stability to allow their excellence to come out.
LS: Where did you grow up?
I was born in Spencerport. I grew up in Rush, New York. My father was a chaplain at the State School at Industry, a juvenile delinquent institute for boys, similar to the Gossett Center. He also became a director of religious services, and he used to visit Lansing.
I went to the Rush-Henrietta schools. I graduated from Rush-Henrietta Roth High School, which was a smaller school of about 900 students. Since then Rush-Henrietta has combined into one large high school.
LS: Were you interested in education in college?
SG: Yes. Actually, I was in high school. I found that I got an intrinsic gratification from helping other people, especially when it came to academics. I knew that I had a skill. I loved math and science, and I was able to explain it in a way that other people could understand. That made me feel good to know that I was helping others. I really enjoyed great role models in school with my coaches and teachers. I thought they were great people, and I thought I would like to be like them. They enjoyed working with kids, and I really liked that.
So I majored in math and science, trying to keep all options open, and was able to end up with a certification in math and physics. I ended up teaching math and general science in the middle years at Geneseo Middle/Senior High School. So I had the advantage of teaching in a small school, and teaching in middle and high school, which was great.
LS: How long were you there?
SG: I was there for six out of eight years of teaching.
LS: Where did you go after that?
SG: There's a hole in the history. I was initially hired at Geneseo because of a population bubble they had. I was teaching math and science. Two years into it I was 'excessed' from the budget. They did buy a $50,000 washing machine that year -- I saw that in the budget. So I figured I was replaced by a washing machine! (laughs). I could have done the dishes AND coached!
But I was fortunate enough to teach math at West Irondequoit High School for two years. When the budget came around at Geneseo I got a call to go back to Geneseo as math teacher and department chairperson, and also as a coach.
LS: What sports did you coach? SG: I coached football, and I ended my teaching career as the varsity football coach. I also coached baseball and basketball.
LS: What interested you in administration?
SG: Being able to have a positive influence on the greater community of people. I knew that whatever leadership position it was, whether it was the math department, then being on the building committees -- knowing that I could contribute positively.
And it also sometimes takes a mentor tapping on your shoulder, saying, 'Hey, have you ever thought about this?' In each case that I moved forward it was a mentor saying that. It was my high school principal saying, 'You should think about getting certified and becoming an assistant principal.' And I thought, 'I have been thinking about that, but now that you mention it, maybe I will look into moving forward on that.' I did, and the opportunity came up, and there it was.
It's not about me coming up with an idea that I see growing somewhere. It's about working with people and making things happen in a positive way as a group. I enjoyed that as a teacher working with administrators, and I keep that same philosophy and perspective of teacher, student, and parent -- everybody working together.
LS: Most administrators say they would like to teach from time to time, but don't have time in their schedules. Do you ever fill in as a teacher just to keep your hand in?
SG: I have not been able to do that, but it is something that I would like to do. Not necessarily on a substitute basis. But one of the things I have thought about exploring is to look at some formalized student leadership development workshops or mini-courses to help develop student leaders.
There's a version of 'The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People' for teenagers, 'The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens.' I went through facilitation to be able to train on that, but was never able to fully realize it in terms of putting on workshops. But that would be something I would be interested in doing.
The other thing that intrigues me is the philosophy of education -- what schools need to be like in the 21st century? (The book( 'The World is Flat,' a whole new mind. What kinds of graduates do we need. I think that's an excellent dialog that communities need to have, because it's always changing. Moving from the industrial age to the information age to the conceptual age... what kinds of skills do our graduates need in order to be successful? That's constantly changing, so you always have to revisit your philosophy and what you think your graduation outcomes will be like.
We need to think beyond graduation for our students. We need to think about setting them up for success for their life in college and beyond.
LS: I've seen studies that say the average kid graduating from college today will go through five careers before they retire. That's not jobs -- it's careers! To me that means a whole new approach to learning, because you're going to be doing it at least five more times.
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