Archive: News

On May 16 voters will go to the polls to elect two Board of Education members, plus vote on whether to approve a $21,553,679 budget and resolutions to fund school busses and fitness equipment.  Sandi Dhimitri and Anne Drake are running unopposed to retain their seats on the School Board.

Sandy Dhimitri is running unopposed for her second term on Lansing's Board of Education.  She and her husband Bill have lived in Lansing for 12 years.  They have two children, Nicholas (19), a Lansing graduate in his first year of college and first grader Emma.  She is the Director of Human Resources at the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University.

She has over 20 years of human resource experience, which she says is a benefit she brings to the School Board.  "I've done a lot of recruitment, which unfortunately has been a need in the District in the three years that I've served.  Greater than I thought it would be."  Her degree is in business administration, which gives her an understanding of finances and the operational aspects of the school district.  She met with the Lansing Star last Friday morning at Collegetown Bagels to discuss her candidacy, and issues and needs facing the district today and in the future.

Lansing Star:  Why are you running for another term?

Sandy Dhimitri: I felt like my first three years I really spent a lot of time learning, and I'm starting to feel much more comfortable with the understanding that I have of the District and how things operate.  I feel that now that I've made that commitment I should see through another three years, because I feel like I'll be able to contribute more to the board.  With the changes in administration that we've had with (Superintendent) Mark (Lewis) just starting this year I felt like it was important to try to keep some continuity on the Board so that he's not in the position of suddenly changing expectations from new Board members so soon after he's accepted the position.

LS: What are the key challenges for the School District now and in the foreseeable future?

SD: Some of the key challenges are the same as they were three years ago in terms of building the stability of the administration.  We still have a need for a business administrator.  Being able to recruit strong administrators to the District at a time when the supply of administrators in the State is very low continues to be a challenge.  As well as trying to build the financial stability that the district needs to be able to operate long term in this time of unsure State tax funding.  Those issues continue to be a challenge.

Another challenge is that we need to really manage the finances.  We can't continue to pass along huge increases to the taxpayers.  We're finding that as the tax burden for the County continues to rise that the pinch is really being felt in our resident base.  So we look at ways to try to fund the district at the quality that we want, without passing on large increases.    The last one is trying to understand the long range plan.  The District right now is undergoing a long range planning process.  I'm a committee member on that.  I think it's a really important endeavor, to understand what our long term goals are so that we're not reacting every year, and have a longer term vision for where we want the district to go.

LS: What do you consider your key accomplishments in your first term?

SD: The hiring of a new superintendent took a lot of time and is an accomplishment.  I also think that we have -- and it's not my accomplishment but it is certainly the Board's accomplishment -- the agreements with the Faculty Association and LSSA (the faculty and support staff unions) were two high points.  We were able to get to what I think were were mutually acceptable agreements between both those key unions and the District.


LS: In what ways do you think the District suffered most from the revolving door of leadership in the District Office?

SD: You know, it;'s interesting.  I talk to a lot of people in the community and they say, 'well, the kids still seem to be learning.'  There certainly have been some ill effects from it in terms of being able to set priorities and move the District forward.  The thing that we've been able to accomplish is that because of our dedicated faculty and staff I don't think the ongoing education of the students has really suffered.  That's a real tribute to the faculty and staff and administrators that were still there.

But I think in order to move the district forward, that's really tough to do with changing superintendents and interim superintendents.  We've sort of been stagnant in terms of accomplishing our goals in the last few years because of that revolving door.

LS: And it's been five or six years, really, which is a whole long-term planning cycle.

SD: Exactly.

LS: On this subject, I've heard it said that the High School is at a crossroads where it could continue to be the excellent school that it is, or it could fall behind because of where the district is now and it's capital needs.  Is that something that you perceive?

SD: I haven't really heard it portrayed as a crossroads, but certainly there are pressures with the expanding population coming into the High School.  They will have their biggest student population ever, as well as the concern that we need to be able to insure that our students are able to compete in areas that we might not have the infrastructure to support in terms of technology and those areas.

Not that technology isn't important at all the schools, because it certainly is.  But the High School, you know pre-engineering programs that kids come out of other high schools with -- we need to be able to provide that to our kids as well.  So that's where I think you see the technology crunch first, in preparation for those students to go off to college.

LS: What do you think is the most important thing to fix now that we have a permanent superintendent?

SD: Gaining understanding of what the community wants, what we can provide at what cost.  I think we have been blessed over the last few years, and it's hard to say 'blessed' as a taxpayer in the District, but the rising assessments allowed us to have more resources than perhaps we will have.  You can't guarantee that going forward, so I think that getting to the point where we really understand the community's expectation for education and then how to fund that responsibly is a big priority as far as I'm concerned.

LS: I've heard some people say that the teacher's union filled the leadership void and have become very powerful in the District.  Have they become stronger because of the leadership gap?

SD: That's a good question.  Certainly the teachers helped fill the void in terms of the lack of administration continuity in the district.  Has the union become stronger?  I'm not really sure how I would know that.  Certainly I believe that in order to make responsible decisions about education we need to listen to the people who are most involved in that, and that certainly is the teachers who have the day to day, minute to minute contact, as well as the building principals.  So I'm not really sure if I could agree or disagree with that.  But I certainly agree that teachers have helped fill the void.

LS: If space were not a consideration how would you split the grade levels among the three schools?

SD: Boy, if space were not a consideration I think that in my heart of hearts as a parent I would say fifth graders are more elementary student than middle school student.  Given that I know that we'd have to do planning.  I understand the parents' concern that the Middle School has a lot more opportunities for activities and sort of moves kids from the elementary contained classroom to preparation for the Middle School.

But if I were to answer from my true core, I believe that fifth graders are elementary school students.  That doesn't mean that I necessarily want to put them back into the Elementary School at this point, because we also have an expectation in terms of the kinds of enriching activities they get by being located in the Middle School.

I heard loud and clear from parents whose kids were ready to be in the Middle School musical and participate in inter-mural sports.  So I think if we were to move them we'd have to do a lot of work around how to accomplish their educational needs, but still meet their social development needs.  Because they're also not comparable to first graders.  They really are in the middle.

(Referring to the aborted plan to move the fifth graders earlier this year)  I think the process was a problem, and the speed.  In order to make that decision there should have been a lot more discussion, especially with those who know the fifth graders best, which is the fifth grade team and the encore teachers that work with fifth graders.  With good intentions we moved too quickly.  If we were to consider it again we'd have to develop a thoughtful process to come to the best decision for the students.

LS: There is clearly a tug of war in the District between the perception of what's needed to remain competitive in programs and facilities, and what taxpayers can reasonably bear.  Do you think the proposed budget is the best balance?  How do you think this budget will realistically affect the Board of Education's chances of getting a capital project passed?

SD: I think the budget is a responsible budget.  I certainly think the demands for increased academic intervention services put pressure on this budget, but pressure that needed to be put there because of the needs of the students.  I think it is a realistic portrayal of the academic needs of our students for next year.

Will the size of this budget affect the capital project?  It's hard to say.  From what I heard from the community, and I'm not currently sitting on the facilities committee, everybody understands that there are facilities needs.  But finding that right balance...  Most people that I hear from understand the real infrastructure needs and beyond that programming needs.  If the Board in concert with the administration can prove the need and show that we considered alternatives, and that we've looked at ways to revamp classrooms instead of adding... As long as we fully investigate all the alternatives, my history in my 12 years here is that people in this district will support it.

The issue becomes have we as a community done enough due diligence to make sure all the cost effective alternatives have been considered?  There is a great group of community members, administrators and teachers doing that as we speak.  I think that will go a long way to bringing out what is the best solution and the community will rise to support that.

LS: With all the upcoming capital projects in Lansing, is there any coordination, or should there be, between the overlapping municipal districts?

SD: I don't know that there's any formal coordination at this point.  I am on the Library Board as well as the School Board, so I certainly got to sit through discussions at both of those tables about what to do.  This Fall when it began to feel like it was going to become the perfect storm of taxation occurring in Lansing, I was happy with both groups' outcome not to put the capital project forward as well as the Library's decision not to put the Library district forward.

We are blessed in the School District in having the Town work very collaboratively with us in terms of equipment and plowing and those kinds of things.  I would think at some point, and maybe it comes from not having continuity in the superintendent's office, being able to have some sort of some kind of consortium meeting we can find ways we can work together between the Town Board, the Schools the Library and other local constituent groups as well.

LS: A number of people have observed that the Board often seems dysfunctional.  You know what I mean, in terms of board interaction just among itself, the seeming undermining by some Board members of overall Board decisions, hiring experts or officials and not seeming to trust them.  These kind of issues.  Outside perceptions are different from inside perceptions, so I want to ask you, do you think that it is?

SD: 'Dysfunctional' seems stronger than what I would use to characterize it.  Certainly there are times when Board members disagree with each other and I think that often results in better decision making.  So I don't think I would characterize it as truly dysfunctional.  There are times when I could see where sitting in the audience you could feel that way.

LS: Do you think that when it happens that it hampers the Board's ability to work?

SD: I don't know that it hampers our ability to work.  Certainly there are times when I wish we could get to a decision that we could all support publicly, but I understand that we are seven individuals with seven different perspectives.  So that may not be a realistic goal.

LS: Should anything be done to address it?

SD: The Board has, and hopefully will continue, to work on its Board relations, the relationships among board members and working on expectations for how we conduct ourselves to each other.  There are all sorts of inter-personal relationships within the Board.  We've done one workshop on that right after Dr. Lewis got here, and my understanding is that the plan is to continue to do that.  Obviously everybody sitting there is giving of their time and talent to further education.  So if we can do things to make that smoother and make us more efficient it will be time well spent.

LS: A number of people have said in casual conversation that the Board has driven away the superintendents we have lost.  Do you think there is any truth to that?  Some people have expressed fear that might happen again.

SD: I, too, have heard that.  As I look at the superintendents that have left... when I ran for the Board for the first time we had just hired a superintendent so i thought it was the perfect time to join the board, because at least we wouldn't have to do that.  Little did I know!

Bob Service left for purely personal reasons.  He had an opportunity to go back to his home town where his parents still lived.  He was getting married to someone who lived there.  So to me, I don't think that (the Board) was a factor in Bob's leaving.

Corlis (Kaiser) leaving -- I think that was complicated.  This was her first superintendency.  She'd been the Assistant Superintendent in the Syracuse city schools.  I also know from conversations with her that things didn't go as smoothly here as she would have liked.  I think there are many factors that go into it when you change jobs, how well they go.  She also, though, was called and recruited to her position at Manlius, she wasn't out looking.  Yes, I hope we can bring administrators, be they superintendents, business administrators, whoever, into our district in a smooth, orderly way so they and we can be successful, but I'm not sure anybody ever leaves based on one or two factors.

LS: Lansing is above average in test results and in sending graduates to college, and the community is really proud of that.  What do you think is needed to keep Lansing in the lead academically , and what can the Board do to address this?

SD: Some of the things that are needed are truly understanding what's important to us in terms of education of our students.  We all hear the State test scores, and that's certainly a measure that's important.  But also understand what else is important in terms of our music programming, our wellness programming.  You know there are lots of factors that go in.  Our mission is to educate healthy, responsible citizens.  So looking at what goes into that is important.  

The Board also needs to make sure that the services and support the faculty needs to do their job are there.  We've made some strides in that this year in terms of the creation of the Curriculum position in the DIstrict, because that's something that we had heard repeatedly from faculty.  We needed to have more resources to develop the K-12 approach to curriculum, instead of at different grade levels.  Supporting those endeavors as well as getting our hands around what are the technology needs.  And then getting the teachers the training they need to be able to use those technologies.

Children today grow up with a whole different set of expectations in terms of technology.  Making sure that we have things in place to meet their needs and keep their interest are important.

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