Archive: News

Lansing School Capital Project committees met concurrently Wednesday to continue developing a project that will serve the district's needs while not creating too much tax burden.  This time the Community Awareness Committee worked on ways to get input from the community that can be folded into the Facility Committee's work.  They set plans to create a survey that will be available both on-line and in paper form, and set a schedule for getting it completed and compiling the results by June 13.  That will make the results available to be shared and folded into the work of the Facilities Committee in their June 14 meeting.

Anne Drake and Sandi Dhimitri are running uncontested for their own Board of Education seats.  Click on a picture above to read the Lansing Star's exclusive interviews with the candidates.  Click here to read about the budget.  See below for the text of the three resolutions.

Voters will go to the polls to elect two School Board members and vote on three resolutions to approve funds for next school year.  The polls will be open Tuesday, May 16 from 12:00 Noon to9:00pm at Lansing Middle School.

Not many residents showed up to learn about the 2006-2007 Lansing School District budget in a public meeting last night (05/04) in the Middle School Cafeteria.  The purpose was to introduce the public to the budget, the two candidates for Board of Education seats plus two budget resolutions.  Additionally Superintendent Mark Lewis, who started here last January, presented his first annual report.


The new budget is set at $21,007,661, a 7.7% increase, or $1,546,018 more than the current school year's budget.  Business Administrator Larry Driscoll explained that increases are largely due to increases in fuel and utility costs, salaries, benefits and the beginning of the period in which the debt service must be paid for phase one of the recently completed capital project.

On May 16 voters will go to the polls to elect two Board of Education members, plus vote on whether to approve a $21,553,679 budget and resolutions to fund school busses and fitness equipment.  Sandi Dhimitri and Anne Drake are running unopposed to retain their seats on the School Board.

Sandy Dhimitri is running unopposed for her second term on Lansing's Board of Education.  She and her husband Bill have lived in Lansing for 12 years.  They have two children, Nicholas (19), a Lansing graduate in his first year of college and first grader Emma.  She is the Director of Human Resources at the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University.

She has over 20 years of human resource experience, which she says is a benefit she brings to the School Board.  "I've done a lot of recruitment, which unfortunately has been a need in the District in the three years that I've served.  Greater than I thought it would be."  Her degree is in business administration, which gives her an understanding of finances and the operational aspects of the school district.  She met with the Lansing Star last Friday morning at Collegetown Bagels to discuss her candidacy, and issues and needs facing the district today and in the future.

Village Mayor Don Hartill told Trustees that he is considering helping residents get their sump pumps into compliance with local law.  "It is not legal to attach your sump pump in your basement to the sanitary sewer," Hartill said in Monday's Trustee meeting.  "I know there are a number of such installations and I am debating what to do about it."

Sump pumps discharge water from residents' basements to keep them from flooding.  They are allowed to empty into the storm sewer, because they only discharge water.  But hooking them to the sanitary sewer raises the amount of discharge into the sewer.  "The difficulty is that the sewer lines have a certain capacity," explains Hartill.  "DEC monitors that closely.  You can exceed the capacity, I think, one month a year."  But he says the Village exceeded that allowed capacity.  The Kline Road bypass was built to bring the Village into compliance.

Students lined up to tell Lansing's Board of Education (BOE) what they think about granting benefits to same-sex partners of district teachers.  Senior Tom Kraft presented the board with a petition signed by about 200 students in support of their teachers who do not get family benefits under the current contract.  "How can a system that provides same sex couples with unequal benefits be upheld by such a tolerant community?" he asked.

Students including Hunter Preston, Joshua Darfler, James Lauzun and Kelsy Henne and Lansing Faculty Association (LFA) President Sue Henne told the board they should adjust the contracts to grant the benefits.  But board members said that health and other benefits are a contract negotiation matter, and noted that the LFA did not ask for same sex benefits in the last contract talks.  BOE President Bonita Lindberg offered to reopen the discussion based on the collective bargaining agreement.  "Benefits are governed by the negotiation process," Lindberg said.  "We're perfectly willing to reopen the contract to discuss that issue.  Name the time, name the place and we'll be ready to do it."

The call for a community-based committee has been met with great interest by more than 30 volunteers, who will provide input to the school district as it seeks to address long-term educational and facility needs. The committee will meet throughout April, May, and June with the goal of bringing a recommendation to the Board of Education by the end of June.

Lansing school board president, Bonita Lindberg, indicated, "The Board of Education decided to take a step back after receiving input from an Ad Hoc Committee in January before putting a project up for vote. This will allow us time to re-evaluate district and community priorities regarding a capital improvement project."

Lansing's sewer committee met last Wednesday (4/26) to touch base on where the project stands.  Much of the discussion revolved around the project costs, which have not been determined yet.  Many factors affect the numbers, and while the committee is getting closer to locking those down, they are not there yet.  

Engineering is in progress for bringing the trunk line from the Cayuga Heights treatment plant along Cayuga Heights Road to the Town.  There is still a chance that the State Department of Transportation (DOT) will relax regulations to make Route 34, the Village of Lansing's choice for the route, affordable.  Village Mayor Don Hartill has presented a traffic study to the DOT recommending that trucks detour along Triphammer Road and cars along Cayuga Heights Road. 

Both the Facilities and Public Awareness committees met for the third time Wednesday in their effort to rebuild Lansing School District's capital improvement project.  After the Board of Education (BOE) withdrew an earlier proposal that would have cost taxpayers between $32 million and $40 million, Superintendent Mark Lewis proposed a plan where the community would build a new project from the ground up.  The theory is that if the plan comes from the community, Lansing voters will support it when it comes up for a vote.

A key element of the plan is communications.  Karen Winters, Associate/Director of Marketing for King & King Architects is meeting with residents Bud Shattuck, Mary Opperman, Maureen Bell and Doug Emerick to come up with a plan for informing the public about the project while at the same time soliciting input from residents.  They will get the information about the project as it develops from the Facilities Committee and provide that committee with the feedback residents give them.

Taxpayers Asked to Approve a $1.5 Budget Increase in May Vote

Lansing School District voters will get a chance to learn about the 2006-2007 budget at a public hearing in the Middle School cafeteria on May 4th at 7:00pm.  The budget was approved by the Board of Education (BOE) in a 6 to 1 vote in their meeting a week ago after several drafts and heated discussion among the board, teachers, parents and administrators.  The budget represents a 7.73 increase over this year, which will mean a 5.09% increase in the tax rate if voters approve it.

Teachers and some parents wanted to keep teaching and other positions, and argued to keep teachers in the Elementary school despite lower student population projections.  A hotly debated secretarial position was taken out after parents and teachers argued against adding administrative positions at the expense of teachers.  The secretary would have served the new Director of Curriculum, who will now share an existing secretary.

The Town of Lansing passed Tompkins County's first local Sex Offender law in a unanimous vote Wednesday (04/19) night after a public hearing was held to present the law and allow the public to respond and ask questions.  "While it's a sex offender law," explained Councilman Bud Shattuck, who proposed adopting such a law two months ago, "it doesn't have anything to do with sex.  It's about offenders who have already been convicted and designated as such."

New York State has a sex offender law that classifies sex offenders into three categories.  A Category 1 offender is unlikely to repeat the offense.  Level 2 is likely to be a repeat offender, and Level 3 has a high probably of being a violent and dangerous repeater.  Lansing's law defines specific areas such as schools, day care providers, parks and churches and prohibits Level 1 and Level 2 sex offenders from entering or being within 1000 feet of them.  Exceptions to the prohibition include being there for a lawful purpose such as voting, by permission of their probation officer, or if they get an order from a judge allowing them access.

The Town of Lansing passed a property tax exemption for qualified senior citizens in a 4-0 vote Wednesday night.  The exemption identifies seniors with the most need, who have disabilities or low income, and provides relief on property taxes.  This is the third year the Town has enacted the exemption.  Earlier this year the Village of Lansing enacted a similar ordinance for veterans.

"The basic feeling is that it's the right thing to do," said Town Supervisor Steve Farkas.  Seniors can apply for the exemption through the County Assessment Office.

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