Archive: News

2008 has been a year of turnaround changes for the Lansing School District.  Despite more than a million dollars of cuts to create a budget that still raises the tax levy above the cost of living rise, district residents and the school community are apparently pleased.  Nearly 1,000 voters turned out to pass the proposed $22,838,912 budget 626 to 365.  The mood was jovial among school board members and Superintendent Stephen Grimm when the results were announced Tuesday night.  "I am very excited to have a positive vote," said Grimm.  "It signifies that the community is pleased with the process and the product that we created during this time that we worked together.  It provides a foundation for how we can work together in the future to achieve our goals."

Registered Voting For the first time only registered voters were allowed to participate in the annual Lansing school district budget vote and school board election.  The polling place was also new with the spacious Lansing/Groton teacher center being commandeered for the day.

That process is one of straight talk and inclusion that Grimm and former Interim Business Administrator David Klemm are widely credited for.  Despite overspending this year and in past years, depleted reserve funds, and a proposed budget that eliminates positions, diverse groups -- including the teachers union and stakeholder groups across the district -- bought into a process in which Grimm solicited ideas from everyone, multiple times.

The result was that both budget propositions passed Tuesday, the 2008-2009 budget plus a $359,000 plan to purchase two 70-passenger school buses, one 54-passenger wheel chair bus, one 6-passenger van, and one truck with a snow plow, which passed 612-342.  Three school board seats were also on the ballot.  School Board President Tom Keane and former President Bonita Lindberg are stepping down, and Glenn Swanson's first term is at an end.  Three candidates ran uncontested  ran for a second term with Swanson regaining his seat with 693 votes, and Glenn Cobb (642) and Richard Thaler (603) filling the remaining seats. Steve Paladino, Tom Keane, and Skip Hardie each received one write-in vote.

In and Out Current and future school board waited for the results Tuesday night, and were pleased when the budget passed.  (Left to right) Glenn Swanson (elected for a second term), outgoing Bonita Lindberg, current board members Sandi Dhimitri and Anne Drake, outgoing Tom Keane, and incoming Richard Thaler.

During the budgeting process Grimm and Klemm stressed long term planing again and again.  Now that his first budget is passed, Grimm says he will begin a planning process while monitoring spending to make sure that the district regains financial health over the long term.  He is painfully aware that the long line of short-lived administrators has severely wounded the district's financial wellbeing as well as its ability to set academic goals.

Grimm hopes that July will bring a major piece of a solution.  At Monday's Board Of Education meeting the school board approved the hiring of School Business Administrator Mary June King, who will take up that post on July 1 after a very long string of Interim administrators.  At the beginning of May Grimm said he is looking for a qualified business administrator with a strong background in education.  "I'm looking for someone with certification in that area," he said.  "Mainly I'm looking for quality character and a love for public education in Lansing.  That person will stay, but will also attack the job with a passion and make decisions that are trustworthy."

Like Grimm himself, this will be King's first business administrator job.  King recently finished her business administrator certification at SUNY Cortland and has done her internship in the Newfield business office.  That it is their first time in these top positions is an added incentive for both to stay in the district and do well, and Grimm is more concerned with a caring administrator who will stay and lead over the long haul than with someone who has experience with the numbers. 

"We've got plenty of experts in the area in our district, and also in the form of mentoring," he said Tuesday.  "We have Tom Jones, a former business administrator in Lansing who has been helping us through the budget process, and Dave Klemm, who was our Interim business administrator.  There are external auditors Jerry Mickelson and Bernie Donegan, who is our financial advisor.  So we have plenty of people as we work together to build a financial plan for success."

King will have another advantage that recent hires have not had -- she will not begin working in Lansing during a serious crisis.  Grimm began at the beginning of this year in the middle of a controversial budget crisis.  Former Superintendent Mark Lewis found himself in the center of a brouhaha about a doomed $20 million capital project on his first day at work.  The long line of business administrators have found themselves in the middle of budget processes, causing chaos in planning and no chance of consistency or a financial plan.  King will have a little time at least to get her footing, now that next year's budget has been passed.

That is not to say that she will have an easygoing summer.  "Our business office has a very busy time in August and September," Grimm says.  "They're filling out state reports that report to the state important numbers that affect state aid that comes back to us.  So it's a critical time to make sure that we're reporting the proper numbers so we get the state aid that we deserve."

But he also says that she will get a chance to learn the job, meet people in the district and form relationships that he has worked so hard to forge.  "The entry plan is to get her accustomed to all of the reports that we've had," Grimm says.  "We have an internal auditor report, we have an internal claims auditor now, we have our external audit coming in the early Fall.  She's also in charge of our personnel for transportation, custodians, and buildings and grounds.  So she's going to be getting to know those people as well as the teachers.  She'll be building relationships."

With the two top administrative seats filled, the district has a chance to be proactive instead of reactive in planning for the future.  Restoring the district to financial health will be a long, uphill climb that will likely involve more belt-tightening and cuts.  But Grimm is optimistic about the district's ability to restore the district to health through planning and monitoring, as well as continued community involvement.

"We've got all the information that we need to move forward," he says.  "It's progress versus rehabilitation."

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