Archive: Around Town

When the class of 2009 graduates into the wide world on June 26th, Principal Michelle Brantner will be graduating with them.  Brantner recently accepted a new position as Superintendent of Schools in the Moravia Central School District.  While she looks forward to the challenges her new position will bring, she says she will miss Lansing, especially the people she has come to know here.

While recovering from surgery earlier this year she had a chance to really reflect on what the change will mean to her.  "I started thinking very nostalgically about my time here, the relationships, the people, and my kids," she says.  "But it didn't change the fact that I am ready to make a move."

Brantner began her career in education as a Spanish teacher in Norfolk, New York, where she taught for 10 years before becoming an assistant principal in Newark, New York.  She held that position for three years before becoming Lansing's High School Principal.  She has been Principal here for seven years. 

Becoming a superintendent was not her ultimate goal when Brantner moved from teaching to administration.  "If you had told me three years ago that I would be talking about leaving to take a superintendency I probably would have laughed," she says.  "But the dynamic that we've had in this district with the frequent changes in leadership has pushed me to think differently.  You get to a point in your career when you just know it's time for something."

Part of the decision was personal, and part the next logical career step.  When Brantner's husband Bob was laid off due to budget cuts in the Union Springs schools, it seemed like a logical time to make a move.  But the piece that changed her thinking about becoming a superintendent was the revolving door in Lansing's District Office. 


Brantner has worked with eight superintendents in her seven years in Lansing if you count Tiffany Phillips' three interim stints separately.  Phillips hired her, then she worked with Bob Service,  Phillips, Corliss Kaiser, Phillips in her third stint as interim superintendent, Mark Lewis, Tom Helmer, and now Steve Grimm.  An unintended consequence was that she had access to the equivalent of a master class in superintendency.  But she says that keeping things steady without consistent leadership in the district office was also her biggest challenge here.

As superintendents came and went she soon became a senior administrator who was called upon to do things and make decisions beyond the scope of a principal.  "What happens in that type of a climate is that you're called upon in ways you wouldn't normally be," she says.  "Your thinking starts to change.  You start to think more globally, more big picture."

In that light a superintendency made sense as a next step.  Last year she began sending applications, and before the Christmas break she applied for the Moravia position.  "I felt I was a match," she says.  "There were really consistent things that were said.  Everybody brings certain things into a situation -- things that you're good at and things you are not so good at.  I think that my strengths are what I kept hearing that they needed.  I guess that's the most important part.  It almost doesn't matter what the work is to be done.  It's that you fit what they're looking for."

That work to be done will be a bit different from Lansing in that Moravia has about twice the number of students as Lansing does, and their district relies more upon state aid.  The district has a middle/high school that also contains the district office, plus an elementary school.  The Brantners will be putting their house on the market any day now in preparation for the move.

"I think it is very important for a superintendent to live within the district," she says.  "While it was not a requirement it was very much the desire of the board for that to happen.  We're excited to do that.  We were going to move some time anyway.  Our house isn't as conducive to a family unit now as it was for me as a single person."


Losing Brantner is a mixed bag for many parents and district staff, who don't want her to go but recognize that she is a talented administrator who is ready for the next step.  "Lansing is fortunate to have benefited greatly from her dedicated service to the students, families, and people in the community," says Lansing Superintendent Stephen Grimm.  "I know that she will be successful and wish her the best of luck and happiness in the future."

That service has included a hands on, engaged approach with students and teachers alike.  Brantner says she hopes to bring that to her new job, even though the position of a district administrator may pull her farther away from students.

"As your primary job responsibilities get farther away from direct supervision you really have to work at making that a priority," she says.  "I've always made it a priority.  Maybe I am speaking naïvely about making that a priority as a superintendent, but I feel very strongly that that is critical.  It may come down to scheduling time to go and be in the buildings, but I think there is no other way to do the job."

Grimm says a search for a new high school principal will begin in late May and early June in hopes of finding a replacement that can begin around August 1.  "I am happy for Michelle as she is now able to fulfill her aspirations to become a school superintendent," he says.

Meanwhile Brantner is busier than ever wrapping up the school year as her last Lansing commencement quickly approaches.  While she is looking forward to her new job, she says she will miss the one here.

"The parents, the kids, my teachers, the staff-- it will be very hard," she says.  "It's very, very difficult to think about that part of it.  I have felt very blessed to be here and I'm going to miss it."

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