- By Dan Veaner
- Sports
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"I knew that we were going to struggle," Grimm says. "The New York State regulations state that we have to have a Director of Physical Education that is a certified physical education teacher and school administrator. Even Ed was not certified to fill that role. As a district we were out of compliance because we did not have a Director of Physical Education."
Grimm says he is pleased that Taylor will be joining his staff. "I was very pleased with our interview process and the group of people that we had on our committee, specifically our community representatives Town or Lansing Park Superintendent and Recreation Director Steve Colt, Boosters President Susan Mix, and parent Debbie Cretney," he says. "The expertise that those community members brought to help us find the best fit for our district was invaluable. They helped us decide that this is a great move. I know that this is a good fit because of the process that we used."
The committee consisted of Grimm, Principals Chris Pettograsso, Jamie Thomas, and Michelle Brantner, physical education teachers Diane Hicks-Hughes and Carolyn Ferguson, coaches John Kotmel and Doug Dake, athletic director secretary Tina Mallinson, and the three community members.
Taylor is currently Director of Physical Education and Athletics and Middle School Dean of Students in the Saranac Central School District. That district has about 2,000 students as compared with Lansing's 1,200.
He is originally from the Binghamton area. He spent 16 years as a physical education teacher, from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade, at the Catholic Schools of Broome County. He was also the coordinator of the physical education department there from 1995-2000, and served on the Goals 2000: Educate America Act committee that was President Clinton's predecessor to the current administration's No Child Left Behind.
He has coached at the varsity, junior varsity, and modified levels for cross country, basketball, and track. He has been a coordinator in the Southern Tier Athletic Conference for cross country and track before serving an administrative internship with the Oneida BOCES. There he served as Dean of Students and Vice Principal in two different schools.
While at Saranac he has supervised 17 varsity teams, 15 junior varsity teams, and 21 modified teams. He was responsible for evaluating more than 60 coaches, and oversaw the athletic budget. He is also the liason between Section 7 and the State Committee on Sportsmanship. As Dean of Students was been responsible for administrating consequences to students when they have strayed. He has also administered staff evaluations there.
Grimm says he wasn't entirely surprised when Redmond resigned. "I had a kind of a warning shot when he was a finalist for the Ithaca City School District Director of Physical Education position," he says. "Because he was not certified as a physical education teacher he was not eligible for that position even though he was more than qualified."
That was a challenge in hiring a new person, because new state regulations require that certification. Grimm says that Ed Redmond would not have been certified to apply for his own job if he applied for it today. The committee screened 18 applicants, only six of whom met the certification requirement. They interviewed four of those before offering the position to Taylor.
"We were very impressed with John's background and experience," Grimm says. "When he talked to us as a group you just knew that he was a real person. We could visualize working with him. We knew that he was competent, and he had very good answers on the developmental continuum of our student athletes, the importance of winning, sportsmanship, and at what levels that changes. We thought his philosophies matched well with Lansing.
"We were very impressed that he was the Section 7 representative to the State Sportsmanship Committee. You can tell that is something that is very important to him and it is certainly very important to us because the sportsmanship aspect of interscholastic athletic participation helps build the character that we're so proud of here in Lansing."
Grimm says the position was changed somewhat to bring the district into compliance with the requirement for a certified Director of Physical Education. The Dean of Students half of the job was also changed to Assistant Principal to bring it more into line with the needs of Principal Brantner and the high school students. Brantner says that the new title better reflects the responsibilities of the position and brings the job description into line with duties Redmond was performing.
With the season already underway when Taylor starts on September 1, he will have some catching up to do. "One advantage we have is that we have some great, experienced coaches," Grimm says. "He is going to have to do a lot of listening to understand the needs of the current sports season. Getting his feet under him and understanding the needs of the interscholastic teams and at the same time he's going to be in the halls, getting to know the systems and procedures in the High School. Fortunately Michelle is a great person to work with and she'll be a great mentor for him as he is moving through the process."
Grimm adds that Taylor shares his emphasis on building relationships, which will help him get to know parents, students, colleagues and community members.
"We lost a lot of people from retirement this year and it was a long summer in terms of recruitment," Grimm says. "I think the people we hired this summer are wonderful, experienced, and our children are going to benefit from them in a lot of different areas."
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