Archive: News

While the Lansing Board of Education (BOE) has decided not to bring their Capital project resolution to the voters this Spring, the project is alive, if not well.  Superintendent of Schools Mark Lewis told the BOE that he will be meeting with the King & King Architects design team to begin planning where to go next.  Lewis said King & King were encouraging that a revised project could be ready for a December 2006 referendum, but the BOE was not anxious to speed forward again.

Board member Dan Brown said that the board needs to involve the community in redesigning the project and then take the time to mount an effective information campaign before presenting the project to the voters.  "We need a time line that reflects an appropriate amount time for each piece of that," Brown said.  "For me it's more important for that to be the case than to necessarily have a vote in December versus February."

One thing the BOE agreed on is that community involvement is key.  The Ad Hoc citizen's committee initiated by Lewis made it clear that they could be supportive of a capital project, but only if the scope and content of the project makes sense in terms of real need.  "The Ad Hoc committee had concerns about certain aspects of the scope of the project," said Lewis.  "Those concerns need to be factored in.  They're looking for more data about the need.  Going forward we have to provide that data.  We have to do a better job of making sure that people see the need as our educators who work in the buildings on a daily basis see them and how it impacts the educational ebb and flow, and also how it impacts students."

"There seems to be a group of community members that want to be more involved in helping figure out what the priorities are," said Brown.  While delaying a vote will mean that materials and labor will be more expensive, he argued that is less important than crafting a project that the community understands and supports.  Lewis agreed, saying "The downside of not having an April 4th referendum is that we lose a construction window, but I think that is the lesser of evils.  The last thing that we want is to have is alienation generated by rushing a project through consideration."

While Lewis will meet with the design team, the consensus on the BOE was that getting the community involved in defining the project is a more important first step.  "Then come back to the drawing board and work with the design team to craft the overall scope of the project," Lewis said.

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