Archive: News

Back in February things were looking bleak for the Lansing school system.  After more than $1 million of cuts last year it looked like another $1.2 million would be cut in the 2009-2010 budget with as many as 10.5 teacher positions and five teacher aid positions on the chopping block.  But after crunching the numbers and late breaking news on state and federal stimulus funding, Business Administrator Mary June King and Superintendent Stephen Grimm announced that cuts would only come to $326,532 and that the rise in the tax rate would be 0%.

"It did end up very well," says Lansing Faculty Association (LFA) President Stacie Kropp.  "It's part savvy planning on Mary June's part.  She really dug into some of the records and history, and found out where the money actually is.  I don't think that has been done in a number of years.  And the fact that we had money in different accounts.  It's sort of like the perfect storm of things coming together for Lansing."

LFA is Lansing's teacher's union.  The union is responsible for teachers, teacher aids, and nurses in the district.  It is affiliated with New York State United Teachers Association (NYSUT), which in turn is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association (NEA) and the AFL-CIO.  NYSUT currently represents over 600,000 teachers, school-related professionals including health care professionals, and retirees in New York.

It could have been a lot worse for LFA members.  In February positions targeted for cuts included two middle school teacher aids, three elementary school playground aides, eight teachers, half an enrichment teacher position, two kindergarten teacher aids, one library clerk, the equivalent of one music position, a physical education position, and a special education teacher aid.  Kropp credits the saving of LFA member jobs to savvy number-crunching by King and an open dialog between administrators, union officials, and other stake-holders during the budget creation process.

As it stands personnel cuts will be minimal.  "We are funding a TA position with federal stimulus money and may replace a TA with a teacher using other federal stimulus dollars through IDEA," Grimm explains.  "Either way, they were cut from the general fund.  We are cutting a 0.6 position in Phys Ed by having the students served by that person served by other teachers.  Those students require what is called adaptive physical education.  It is our expectation that each building will be able to handle their own caseload."

"It's all about communication and dialog and fact finding," Kropp says.  "And troubleshooting before the trouble actually starts rather than waiting on the backside when it becomes an eruption of some sort.  Our current administration, all three building principals and both Mary June and Steve are very much in the pro-active seat as opposed to the reactive seat.  That's a big difference between Mark Lewis' administration and Steve Grimm's administration."


Where jobs are concerned teachers wear at least two hats: union member and teacher.  Some wear a third hat as residents and taxpayers in the district.  But Kropp says that in the best of circumstances there is no conflict among these distinct roles.

"I wouldn't say that they're separate hats," she says.  "In most situations they're one and the same.  You are a teacher first, and you hope you don't need to worry about being a union member.  If things are going along in a good way, in a good place, and a good path, then it's rare that we need to discuss union issues.  As Union President I have found that good dialog, good communication, and fact finding solve most problems before they start."

A middle school English teacher, Kropp is proud of the district and its reputation for providing high quality education.  She notes that Lansing has some of the best educated teachers, and says that the district policy of compensating teachers for further education gives the district a competitive edge.  She says she values teamwork with fellow LFA members and with administrators, and says that when faced with problems like the district thought it was facing in February a scientific approach is better than an knee-jerk reaction.

"I never work in isolation as union president," she says.  "When things like that come up I start with fact finding, and what are the numbers?  What are our classroom numbers like if we're talking about a K-6 position?  What are the numbers of kids in high need if we're looking at a special ed position.  We look at the facts.  That's one of the things that I stress.  If we're talking about job layoffs people immediately go to the emotional, which doesn't always serve the purpose.  You need to start with the facts and look at what the facts line up to say."

The current LFA contract is up July 1 and union officials are currently negotiating a new one.  While the disastrous economy will require the district no be hard-nosed in the negotiation, Kropp is optimistic that they will come to acceptable terms.  She is a member of this year's five member negotiating team that is facing off with the district team.  NYSUT provides a Labor Relations Specialist as lead negotiator.  The district also has a consultant who acts as its lead negotiator.  But despite the pressures brought on by the economy she says that the tone of the negotiations are collegial because of the personalities on the two teams.

She also says that school programs inform the process, justifying teacher positions based on what the district needs to provide for students.  "That's not just the union doing that in isolation," she notes.  "That's the union working with the administration and looking at programs from the K-12 perspective.  One of the things that (Superintendent Stephen Grimm) has done is pull together the curriculum coordinators.  They're looking at a large picture of what programs we need, where we need to go with that, what curriculum needs to be written, what curriculum needs to be revised at this point, and looking at those big picture ideas which serve as the umbrella for all of these little pieces that come underneath, like salary and benefits and things like that."

She says that the union considers those program needs as well as what they think the district can afford when negotiating.  "There's a fine line between what's an appropriate amount for salary, what's an appropriate amount for benefits, and what are the programs that we need to keep, and where can we look to find excess," she says.  "Our goal, as always, is to provide the best education for the kids in Lansing.  That's our goal, and it's no different from the Administration's goal, no different from the LSSA (the support staff union) folks."

In the short term, Kropp is pleased with the way the 2009-2010 budget came together.  "Last year was unfortunate," she says.  "It was from previous administrations mishandling of money.  I think (the new budget) was a win-win outcome for everyone.  The community does not have to pay more.  They retain the same level of excellent educational programs that Lansing has to offer.  And we didn't have any layoffs.  I can't think of a better outcome."

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