Archive: News

About a dozen people came to meet the Lansing Board Of Education candidates at an event sponsored by the Lansing PTSO Monday night.  Glenn Swanson is running for a second term, while Bonita Lindberg and Tom Keane are vacating their school board seats.  Richard Thayler and Glenn Cobb are running for those positions. Thayler was unable to attend because of a prior commitment, but he sent Richard Prybyl to stand in for him, reading prepared statements and attempting to answer questions as best he could.


PTSO President Kay Thomas moderated the event, giving each candidate three minutes for statements and answers to questions from the public.   While not many district residents attended the event, attendance was actually good, especially considering that the election is uncontested.  That raises a red flag for Superintendent Stephen Grimm, who worries that an uncontested school board race will mean lower attendance at the polls next Tuesday, which could make passing the proposed budget difficult.  He stressed the importance of voting even when school board seats are uncontested.

Kay Thomas

Kay Thomas:  This will be a fairly informal question and answer session.  The candidates will have three minutes for opening statements.  The question and answer session will last for a maximum of 30 minutes.  Then we will have three minutes for candidates' closing statements.

Glenn CobbGlenn Cobb:  My name is Glenn Cobb.  I've been in Lansing for about six years now.  I moved here from Endicott, New York.  I started working at NYSEG in 1984.  I worked there for about 14 years doing everything from climbing smokestacks to managing an R&D budget of about $8 million.  I traveled a lot for that job.  Then I moved to IBM where I built a lot of applications and archetected systems.  Again I managed large budgets and managed teams of 40 to 80 people.

I'm currently the Vice President of Information Technology at Tompkins Trust, which is wealth management, insurance, and banking.  I feel that I can take a lot of that experience and leverage it to help improve the direction of the Lansing School District.

I think we have to start looking more strategically and less tactically to make sure we get to an endgame that makes a difference.  I really feel that we have to start applying some metrics so we're watching how we perform, watching how we're spending, watching how our student grades and academics are improving.  And in general making sure that the community is involved with the schools and that the students are getting the most benefit out of the programs.  Knowing that it's a smaller school we can't have everything.  But we do need to try to give them as much as possible when it is reasonable.

Glenn SwansonGlenn Swanson:  My name is Glenn Swanson.  For those of you who don't know me I am currently on the board and I am seeking reelection.  I have lived and worked in Ithaca and Lansing for about 20 years other than a couple of periods of time when I took expatriate assignments and lived abroad for a couple of years.  I have two daughters attending school here.  One will be in Middle School next year and one will be in High School.

I have a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell and a masters degree in mechanical engineering from Cayuga College.  I am the Director of  Quality and Manufacturing Excellence for Borg Warner.

The school board has been through a number of administrators and some financial challenges, but I think we're on the right path with Dr. Grimm's leadership and I hope to stay on and continue that for the next three years.

Some of the projects I'm excited to be working on where I think my background is helpful:  the energy performance contract to improve the energy efficiency of our schools, to save energy and save some funds.  We have an Excel capital project we're putting together to use some state funding to see to some needed structural repairs to buildings.  And in the coming year we're also planning to look at our transportation policy at the school to see if there are some opportunities for improvement and savings in those areas.

In summary, I think my engineering and management background is helpful and I look forward to serving on the school board for another three years.

Richard PrybylRichard Prybyl:  My name is Richard Prybyl and I have been asked by Dick thaler to pass the following information on to you.  He regrets not being able to be here today.  He had a long standing commitment to a grandchild who lives out of town.  He feels badly about not being here today, and asked me to pass the following on to you.

To residents of the Lansing School District:  I look forward to running for and serving the Lansing School District Board.  This will be my second stint on the board, having served during the Ray Buckley administration.  We accomplished a great deal at that time, and can do so again, I believe.

I am a long time Lansing resident who moved into this school district in 1969.  My daughters grew up here, and successfully went through the Lansing schools.  I now have a grandson who will do the same in the years ahead, and I want the kind of experience that my daughters had for him.  I deeply care about the school and our town.

I am a senior partner at a local legal firm of Thayler and Thayler.  I am a builder, not someone who tears institutions down.  I refer to my experience in serving during the Buckley administration.  My experience in serving the board included negotiating bond issues for our district and New york City for our elementary school, handling sensitive budget issues.  We created a surplus while I was a board member during the Buckley era.  We used creative means to raise funding independent of taxes.  Examples include athletic equipment including the touch pad system in the high school pool.  I was part of the screening process for a new superintendent.

Examples of my other qualifications include handling legal cases similar to the one that the Ithaca city schools currently face.  I have a multi-racial understanding.  I have dealt with school districts that have substance abuse problems, and can handle them by drawing on my experiences should they become a district or board matter.  I have served as the District Attorney for Tompkins County for eight years.  I am outside attorney for several significant corporations.

In summary, my qualifications include a long time, vested interest in protecting Lansing and Lansing schools, experience in a variety of real-life school district situations, a balanced approach and a voice of reason, an ability to work with a board to accomplish meaningful goals and objectives.  I thank you for the opportunity to run for the board, and look forward to this important public service.

Question:  Given the history of higher than cost-of-living school tax rises, raiding reserve funds, and overspending, do you think the proposed 2008-2009 budget cuts are enough?  Is the 3.37% budget with a 4.53% tax levy rise too high?  Too low?  Just right?  And why?

Glenn SwansonGlenn Swanson:  I think it's a very good, fiscally responsible budget that the staff deserves a lot of credit for developing.  Of course everyone would like lower taxes.  But this budget includes over a million dollars of cuts from the rollover budget.  I thnk the process that was followed was very engaging.  Everyone was able to contribute and have input, and the budget has support from the staff and the community, I believe.  So I think it's an appropriate budget and a well developed budget.

The budget increase is the lowest budget to budget increase of any school district in the area, and I think it is a very fiscally responsible and appropriate budget.  So I support it fully.

Glenn CobbGlenn Cobb: I pretty much agree with Glenn.  I think that some of the percentage of the increase really has to be equated back to the overruns that really weren't controlled over the last few years.  There is nothing we can do to get out of them.

If you were to set those aside we'd probably be more in line with the cost of living increase.  I think that is about your reasonable target, because fuel costs have gone up, food costs go up, peoples' salaries have to go up to cover that.  So in general I think it's a little higher than it should have been, but I don't really think there is any way to correct that now.  That's why I say we have to look strategically forward to make sure we monitor our spending over the next couple of years to keep this under control.

Kay Thomas: Mr. Prybyl, do you feel comfortable answering for Mr. Thayler?

Richard PrybylRichard Prybyl: In shortened form, yes.  I don't want to say anything that I don't think he would say.

I think he is concerned that the budget is running higher than the degree of inflation. he has concerns about that.  Are the cuts that are proposed enough?  Well, I think he'd like to see them in line with inflation.  But how to get there, I honestly don't know how to answer that.

Question: The New York State School Board Association states that the purpose of school boards is to join the will of the people to the education of the child, which implies that you know what the will of the people is.  DO you have any ideas as to how you, as a board member, would stay in contact with the public and make sure you get input from the public so you know what the public is thinking?

Richard PrybylRichard Prybyl:  My experience with Richard Thayler is that he likes to engage the public.  He doesn't hide from issues, and I think he would be very in touch with the folks in our school district.  I know he cares a lot -- he doesn't want to compromise the quality of education or the school experience here in Lansing.  So I think he will be very engaged in working with the public.



Glenn CobbGlenn Cobb: As a community member I participated in the capital building project.  I spent a summer here, sitting in the library.  That's an example of what I think is necessary in how to engage the community to make sure the decisions are made properly and people are educated and informed.  As part of that capital project we had a whole communications plan.  People sent out flyers and there was a Web site that kept the information up to date.  I think those are your media, those are your mechanisms.

And we should have town meetings and open houses to make sure that that continues.  That's the only way board members will know what to do, so we have to communicate.

Glenn Swanson Glenn Swanson:  I think the key, personally, is to be open and available for communication.  I live and work in Lansing.  I've been involved in a lot of Lansing activities.  I am in the schools almost every day for one reason or another.  I have the opportunity to see people and communicate with people.

As far as the board, it continues to be a challenge.  We need to continue to provide opportunities for community forums and meetings.  Unfortunately we don't get a whole lot of attendance.  I think having our meetings broadcast on television gives people who can't be there an opportunity to see them.  We've been having discussions about improving our Web site in different ways to provide the growing number of people who have (Internet) access the availability of information on a timely basis.

It is a very real challenge, and we all need to work towards improving communications.

Question: Aside from the budget, what do you think the school board's top priority should be over your next term of office?

Glenn CobbGlenn Cobb: One thing that I've noticed is that we need to stabilize the administration and the teachers.  There has been a lot of influx and rollover over the last several years.  My wife is a teacher, so I have a lot of interaction through her friends and through my activities with the school.  I think we need to work on improving the relationship between the administration and the faculty, and head in that direction.




Glenn SwansonGlenn Swanson: I think the top priority is really around administration.  We've had a terrible turnover here in Lansing, which is very unsettling for the community.  Number one is to continue to support Steve in his transition in a new role, and to fill the open positions, which include a current business administrator role.  Second is to develop appropriate procedures and policies for fiscal management to make sure that when we do have transitions -- which I am sure will continue to happen due to the environment in New York State now with administrators -- that we have a basis for new people to come into.  A basis for our people to work with them.

The third area we really need to address is infrastructure.  We have a capital project a couple of years ago.  Because of the numbers involved it went down, but the issues still exist.  There are real issues with the basic structures and the changing needs of the school district.  Those are my three beyond financial issues.

Richard PrybylRichard Prybyl: I'll speak to one of those.  Dick specifically wanted me to bring it up.  He is very concerned that our administration is stable going forward.  Having gone through four administrations in very recent years is a concern to him.  I know he supports Dr. Grimm and wants a stable administration which will reflect on the school district.




Question: Each of you have great experience in managing and leading people and processes and work teams.  One of the consequences of that is that you can get very involved in trying to manage the district on your own.  How will you mage to fend off that urge and leave the management to the Superintendent, and stay within your role of setting policy and oversight?

Glenn CobbGlenn Cobb: I remember three years ago when I was running against Mr. Keane for a spot on the school board -- or running with him-- he mentioned something about the learning you go through as a school board member.  That issue of balancing wanting to be engaged and take over versus being a guiding force is, I think, a learned skill.  For a lot of us who do have management roles the tendency is, when things aren't going right, to step in.

I know from experience over the past three years from the several hours of training we have gone through, that, in a lot of ways, is the worst thing you can do, because we really need to allow the leadership in the school to do their jobs.  It's really frustrating for them when you have board members trying to do jobs that they really need to do.

I've learned that and I continue to try to exercise restraint as much as possible.

Richard PrybylRichard Prybyl: In my experience with Mr. Thayler, he does not like to micro-manage.  His attitude is one of support for people in place, hire, if necessary, and let the professionals do their job.





Glenn CobbGlenn Cobb: In my background working at IBM you had to practice a lot of leadership by listening.  We developed applications that were being used by hundreds of thousands of IMBers that were just as smart, if not a lot smarter than me.  So I was not the driving factor.  I was the one that listened and made sure that we delivered what they needed, and leveraged that knowledge to succeed. 

If we have a strong administrative staff and they are moving in the right direction -- we're the conduit to the community.  We're the conduit to the children, and we make them succeed.  I really think that's the mechanism.

Question: Even with reduced resources Lansing schools need to be competitive so our kids can get into college.  What areas do you think the district should focus on to keep Lansing kids in the running with other high school graduates, and how will we do that?

Richard PrybylRichard Prybyl: I apologize.  I'm not going to be able to answer that, because I don't honestly know what he would say.  I can have him call you directly when he gets back.







Glenn CobbGlenn Cobb: That's a tough question. I think we have to be careful to make sure that we balance what's reasonable from a small school.  We don't have 500 students graduating every year.  We have a little over or a little under 100.  So you can't give them everything they want.  You have to give them what is shown to have the most value and is most successful in getting them into good schools and succeeding in the future.

I think we have to rely on the principals of the schools to represent that, and the teachers, along with seeing where the directions go.  We've got some old technology.  I don't know if they're still building ash trays out of tin.  If they are they need to stop.  That doesn't get you into the future.  But we also can't jump over the edge and implement a room full of CAD systems that we can't afford to maintain.

So you have to weigh it all out, and look at the value and look at the benefits.  I can't tell you what the right direction is, but I definitely want to find out.

Glenn Swanson Glenn Swanson: From my perspective the two areas I'd like to see strengthened are technology and awareness of the global community.  There have been some great advances in technology.  As Glenn mentioned, we probably don't need to do as much metal shop now as we need designing metal pieces for manufacturing.

I think we have some great resources in the community.  There are groups that do help fund things.  There are programs available out there we could access.

We are also fortunate living in the Ithaca area that there are outside resources that we could utilize, like community colleges and even Cornell.  Programming available to us may not be available to other schools in other parts of the country.

Global community.  If you look around Lansing, we're not a very diverse population.  Yet most of the world is not like us.  The students of today need to learn how to work with people in India and China and other places.  So we need to find a way to develop those communications skills.  We can do some of that through the Internet in collaboration with different schools around the world.  But that's an area we need to figure out.


Question: What strategies would you employ to try to maintain the administrative staff in such a small rural area with the high need of superintendents and administrators?  Obviously it has been tough in the last five years to work under and live in an area where all of this turnover has happened.  What strategies can we employ to keep our administrators once we get them?

Glenn CobbGlenn Cobb: Make 'em sign a ten year contract!  (Everyone laughs)

That's a good example.  I think a lot of the problem there was that maybe we didn't pick the right people for this community.  It's hard to find the right people for this community because we're so diverse.  We have everything from salt miners to PhDs.  You've got farmers and rocket scientists.  We have neighbors that used to build rockets.

So it's a tough community to be in and try to make everyone happy.  You know, budget increases, some folks can't afford them.  Some folks can, but they complain more than the ones that can't.  So how are you going to balance that?

That's why I'm sitting here.  There has got to be a way to find a happy medium.  To keep the administrative team supported.  To allow them to make some decisions and let them ride those decisions out.  I think sometimes decisions were made and everybody pushed back before they could succeed.  So you guaranteed failure before they even started.

I'm hoping to see Steve come forward and show some great leadership, and help us all get through -- to go back five years when things were great.

Glenn SwansonGlenn Swanson: The market for administrators is different than it used to be.  There is no way around that.  There's a shortage of administrators in New York State, and it is very easy for people move from one job to another to make more money.

As a small district there is no way we can compete financially with larger districts.  But we all know there is more to life than just money.  So we need to create an environment where people want to stay.  To create an environment that people want to live in.  For their children we want to have a community that's engaging for their family with interesting things for them to do.  A good education for their kids.  A supportive community for them at work.

When people are constantly up against adversity it gets old after a while, and people want to moce on.  Not that we always have to agree with everyone, but we need to work together to find the best solution in an environment that makes it fun to come to work.  Otherwise we're going to continue to be in that situation where people move on, and that is a tough way to run an organization.

Richard PrybylRichard Prybyl: I think there are three things that Mr. Thayler would say right now.  One: hire people that want to be in Lansing.  Two: support the actions of those people that you hire and create a stable environment for them -- and maybe that's what's been lacking here -- and Three: find creative solutions to supplement tax funding.  Dick did mention that specifically to me, that there are other ways to get funding that are outside of the traditional tax structure for some facets of thngs that the school budget is paying for today.

Question:  One of the most difficult things to measure is academic performance.  The Bush administration has leaned on 'No Child Left Behind' and lots and lots of testing.  What do you think is the best way to measure student achievement?  Is it tests?  Is it lots of tests?  Portfolio?

Glenn Swanson Glenn Swanson: I think by law tests have to be part of the equation, but as 'No Child Left Behind' rolls out there is a lot of evidence that we are not achieving our goals through testing people to death.  We've had some discussions about entertaining some type of portfolio for your academic life in Lansing to see what you have accomplished, to set goals and reflect upon them.  I also think that probably the ultimate measure is how well that student is able to achieve his lifetime goals beyond Lansing.

Were they able to go out and get into the college they wanted?  Succeed in college and get the type of job that they want?

Creating some feedback loops where we have people that are four years out, and include some type of measure from them to see how we did preparing them for life would probably be the best method to develop.

Richard PrybylRichard Prybyl: It's a tough question.  I'm going to try to read Dick's mind on this.  I thin Dick would say to create good people who have a good decent adult life.  I don't think he'd suggest that it's SAT scores or test scores or what college they go to.  I think he would say create good people that end up having good adult lives.







Glenn CobbGlenn Cobb:  I agree with Glenn.  I think the metrics could be successfully used if you look at a couple of factors.  What they should do is have each student lay out their course.  What are you going to do when you leave the school?  Are you going to go to a two year school?  Are you going to move to a certain industry or a certain area?

And it might be that I want to stay in Lansing and work on my parent's farm.  That's fine.  That's a sustainable future.  Identify the values and track them.  it doesn't mean they have to go to Harvard and be a law grad.  They just need to be happy and feel they were given the best opportunities through our schools to make it happen.

A key thing is what do we need to do with our kids and where do we have to head with them?  I think one of the focuses has to be on sustainability.  I came out of an IT industry where 30% to 40% of our company is being outsourced.  If I didn't have an address in India I wasn't going to be employed in ten years.  And that's reality, so I moved into more of a community based business.  It was an opportunity for me to give back to the community instead of continuing to be on the road.

The key there is sustainability.  If you get a job as a software development person today your odds of being employed in ten years are greatly decreased.  So should we push for IT students?  Should we push for something else?  You have to look at what is the future of our country, what is the future of our state?  Where do American students really succeed and excel?  If it's farming, maybe that's what we should look at.  I don't know.  But we have to look at those trends and bring those into the school and help our students see that.

I'm a firm believer in global education.  Kids that get out of school need to know what's out there.  What is it like to be in China?  You (Glenn Swanson) were there probably two months ago, and I've been all over the world for work.  Societies are different.  People are different.  Cultures are different.  If you go to Germany right now, they won't come to our country because they don't like our leadership.  Why?  There are real reasons behind that.  To be able to communicate those things to the students so they can understand more than just Lansing, I think is going to be the best thing to start with.  Then given that education you can measure their success into the future.

Richard PrybylRichard Prybyl: (To the questioner) I will have Dick contact you on this as well.









Question: I believe it is a board's role to support the administration, but I think we've seen problems with the administration over the past five to six years.  How does a board then step in and seriously question some of the practices that were going on?

Glenn CobbGlenn Cobb:  I have a philosophy where I work.  I just started a new company and I walked in the door and I said I'm not here to make friends.  I'm here to make this place better.  And if you're my friend while we get there, that's great.  If you're not we'll work through the bumps but I'm not going to sit back and let things happen that shouldn't happen.  I do have an opinion, but I'm going to try to make sure my opinion is the community's opinion.

You can let the administration go if they're headed in the right direction.  If they're not we've got to step up and push back.  It's really getting a lot of community involvement in that to make sure that I know what you feel is right and what's wrong for your students, for your family.  That's really key.

Glenn Swanson Glenn Swanson: I think the key is to set clear expectations and goals for administrators, and then monitor the progress towards those goals periodically so we don't get too far astray from where we need to be.  The problem really occurs if we don't clearly say what we want that person to do, and then we don't give them feedback until it's too late.  Goals, expectations, and regular clear feedback to help keep things on track.  And then good, open communication channels with the administrators.




Richard PrybylRichard Prybyl: I think Dick will be active in judging the work and actions of key administrative leaders.  He'll let them do their job, but he will judge the job they're doing.  My experience with Dick is that he'll let you know how he feels.







Question: As a parent I've been watching the budget cycles.  It seems like every year we come around to having to keep cutting the budget.  It seems like each year we're condensing down.  As a board where will you look to make cuts, or will you look to make changes?  Where does that start?  Does the board say you need to revamp programs, or does the administration come to you?

Glenn Swanson Glenn Swanson: I think an important part of that cycle, which we hadn't been doing well, is to set our academic goals and develop a five-year academic plan.  With that you can develop your budget around it.  We started that a year or two ago, and then through a lot of turmoil it really didn't get firmed up.

The key is to work together with administration, parents, the community to really develop the plan.  If we want to increase technology, let's put that on paper as one of our primary goals, and then we can use that as a foundation for our financial budget.

You're right, these are difficult economic times and it seems like we're always cutting back.  The key is to try to eliminate the non-value-added part of the budgets and focus our efforts on the areas where we're going to get the most steam.  I mentioned we want to evaluate our transportation policy.  That might be an area where there are some opportunities to save a little bit of money. 

We have some work going on now to improve the energy efficiency of the schools.  It should free up some funds that we could use for academics without having to raise taxes.  It's a tough equation.  It's one we really need to develop a longer term plan.  I think that should be one of our primary goals for our board in the coming year.

Richard PrybylRichard Prybyl:  Dick feels that we are behind the eight ball in terms of budgeting, and it's largely because of the number of turnovers we've had in the administration over the last several years.  I think his intention is to be proactive, not reactive, on the budget.  In other words, you've got to do this year's budget but look out for 2010 and '11 so that you're steering the current budget toward how you'll get there in a year or two.

I don't think he believes there are quick fixes.  There are actions that you can take that two or three years out will put you in a better position than you might feel you are in today.

Glenn CobbGlenn Cobb: I think it goes back to what I said originally about strategy.  You've got to track, you've got to measure.  You've got to put a longer term plan into place, because if you're only looking year to year -- that's how we got into the situation we are in.  We overspent for a couple of years because nobody was monitoring.  They said we were going to make cuts.  They talked about the cuts.  They didn't make the cuts, so the spending continued.  This is based on what I've seen during the board meetings in the past.

There is also alternative funding.  There are energy programs where you can get free stuff.  If you spend a little money you can get some state aid and you can reduce costs.  You can't let it go too long.  The capital project was a good example.  I'd say 50% of the $20 million plus in capital projects was because we let things fall apart.  We let doors rot.  We let foundations erode.  We let equipment fail instead of maintaining it and replacing it when it should have been replaced.  There was no preventative maintenance.  There was no strategic planning on equipment or facility needs.

What happens is it piles up.  We still have those problems.  They're not going to go away so we're going to have to look at them.  But I think we can mitigate a lot of it by looking forward and following things.

Kay Thomas: We'll have three minute closing statements from each of you.

Richard PrybylRichard Prybyl: Again I will read a text from Mr. Thayler:  I believe that you will be well served by me as your board member in our schools.  I represent a voice of reason to you.  I know the history and evolution of our town and schools first hand.  I've had a vast number of experiences that make me well qualified, and that will help our board to function properly.  I have a long history in Lansing and I understand the people and the issues.

The school district has significant financial challenges.  I have a history of helping to improve financial conditions and believe that I can do this in the period ahead.  I want the quality of education to be best in class.  I understand the value that this brings to our community.  We need to operate our school district in a responsible manner, and I'm committed to working with the board and district administration to getting and staying there.

My legal background as a practicing attorney and district attorney give me the qualifications to provide a legal perspective that a school board needs.  Further, I can help to negotiate sensitive matters, whether they be personnel or financial.  I have a vested interest in having daughters that went through the Lansing schools and a grandson that will go through our schools in the years ahead.

Glenn CobbGlenn Cobb: I've been here long enough, and with my wife being a teacher at Lansing for the last six years I am continually introduced to issues and concerns.  My neighbors all have kids that are going through the Lansing district, so I am exposed constantly to the pains and trials and tribulations that they are going through with teaching staff and programs.

If you blend that with my background in finance and architecture, and environment, I think those things all fit well in Lansing.  We're a community that cares about our environment and our kids.

I'm a relatively easy person to get along with.  I know how to communicate.  I don't run with scissors.

When you add all that up I think I can be a great part of the board.  There will be two Glenns so we'll be Glenn2.  So we can only make it better.

Glenn Swanson Glenn Swanson: First fo all I would like to thank everyone for coming out today.  This is one of the better turnouts we've had at these events in recent years.  These type of events are very important to have dialog with the community to understand the issues that are important to you.  Somehow we have to figure out to do this.

I hope I've been able to answer everyone's questions about my qualifications to be a board member.  I promise to bring experience, teamwork, fiscal responsibility, and just common sense to the school board.  I'm a good listener.  I'll do my best to bring the community's input to the board so we can continue to keep Lansing schools great.  Thanks again for your attention this evening, and please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or thoughts you have to share.

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