Archive: News

Five of seven board members were able to make last Monday's Lansing Board Of Education Meeting last Monday.  Sitting at the table with Superintendent Stephen Grimm were Board President Anne Drake and members Richard Thaler, Aziza Benson, and David Dittman.  Vice President Glenn Swanson was on the table.  At least his image was.  He joined the meeting via Skype from Pudong airport in Shanghai,China.

"I think it is amazing that today you can connect with China with free software and have a video call over the internet for free," Swanson says.  "There were no costs, none."

Swanson left on a business trip on January 12th, and returned yesterday, hoping to get back in time to see his daughter inducted into the National Honor Society Thursday evening. The trip took him around the world, including BorgWarner Morse TEC facilities in Italy, South Korea, and China.  In today's world that doesn't exclude you from participating in activities at home.  Swanson kept up with board duties and activities via email and the school district Web site, which he says has become par for the course for the green-minded board.

"Some of us have been working paperless for most of this year anyway," he says.  "It saves paper, and eliminates the need for someone to deliver the board packet."

Recent studies show China passing the United States in school achievement.  The country has been making massive advances in education, going from 48% secondary school enrollment in 1994 to 76% today.  China has also advanced in higher education, going from 14th in publication of engineering and scientific papers in 1995 to 2nd today.  Additionally, China became the second largest economy in the world last year, second only to the United States.  These lessons were not lost on Swanson as a school board member traveling in China.

"The Chinese visit to the U.S. has been the primary focus of the news media and many of my friends in China have mentioned it to me," he says.  "They seem very interested in improving relations with the US.  A number of people mentioned the deal with Boeing to purchase airplanes. It is amazing how fast the China economy is growing.  The US really needs to refocus on education and innovation to stay in the game!"

That was very much on board members' minds Monday, as they reviewed state testing results.  Historically Lansing has led school systems across Tompkins County with the highest test results, but with a recent change in State standards, that lead was shaken.  Administrators and board members discussed how test statistics will help them pinpoint areas for improvement, especially for children who are both economically disadvantaged and in need of special education.


This isn't the first time the board has had participants attending electronically.  Last year School Board member Aziza Benson attended from home via Skype just days after giving birth, and consultants have even given presentations over the phone when they couldn't attend in person.  State education rules require that board members can see and hear each other, which makes Skype video calls a perfect solution.

Skype is a Luxembourg based company that claims over 23 million users world-wide.  The company provides free software for a variety of platforms from PC and Macs to iPods and iPads.  Using their software at both ends is free, or users can pay to use Skype to make calls to land lines, cell phones, etc.  The company says its users made 95 billion minutes of calls last year, 40% of which were video calls.

For Monday's meeting a laptop was connected to the sound system in the high school library where board meetings generally take place.  It was placed so that Swanson could see at least some of his fellow board members at the horseshoe shaped table, plus the presentation screen.  Swanson connected his laptop to wifi at the airport.  He could see and hear the conversation, and participate in votes and discussion.  The lag time was almost nonexistent, and everyone in the meeting room could hear him over the same loudspeakers other board members broadcast over.

"I think it worked fairly well," Swanson says.  "There didn't seem to be any time lag, other than I kept my mic on mute because the airport was loud, and it took a second for me to un-mute my mic."

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