The Student Council organization (SCO) hosted the Lansing Board Of Education (BOE) 'Meet the Candidates Night' Monday to introduce candidates Aziza Benson and Julie Boles to the community.  The election and budget vote is scheduled for next Tuesday, May 19th.  SCO President Michelle Schafer and Vice President Taylor Mikula introduced the candidates, after which William Lewis moderated the debate.

Benson is seeking her 3rd term on the board. Aziza and family are long time residents of Lansing, owners of Bensvue Farms and Aziza is the mother of three sets of twins. Next year, the youngest Bensons will be entering kindergarten. She also has two second graders and two fifth graders.

"If reelected this will be my third term on the Lansing BOE," she says.  "This is our homestead and where we intend to retire. It is important to have members on BOE with young families to advocate not only for the present but also for what the district will look like 20 years plus from now. I find it to be a very rewarding way to give back to the community and look forward to an opportunity to serve again."

Julie Boles is seeking her 2nd term on the board. Julie and her family are also long time residents and business owners in Lansing (Lake Breeze). Julie's twin daughters graduated last June from LCSD. Julie is employed as faculty in the Department of Health Promotion and Physical Education at Ithaca College.

"As an educator, parent, community member and current board member it is evident the board has responsibility to act as a democracy for the entire district," says Boles.  "The board may not always please everyone, but it must focus on open communication without losing site of the needs of our students, administrators, teachers, and staff."



William Lewis: We will start with opening remarks.


Aziza Benson: It's very rewarding to me and I look forward to doing it.  It's important to really think about not just what happens five years from now, but what happens 20 years from now.  We hope to retire.  We hope to have the school here.  We hope to keep this community going.  So it's important for not just retirees, not just people with older kids who have more time to participate , but it's important to have young families represented on the board.

Julie Boles: My family are all Lansing High School community graduates.  A couple of us moved away and then came back to this area. It was one of the reasons I decided to run for the board: I had gotten a wonderful education here and decided to come back to Lansing to raise my children and have them go to this school.  I think it's very important to give back to the community.  We have a wonderful administration, faculty and staff members that we can see through the excellence in our students.  So I'd like to continue that support.

 
What things can you improve on in your next term.

To continue to support responsibly planning the budget and planning for the future.  Continuing to advocate for the elimination of the GEA, and continuously having conversations and understanding the implications of the loss of Cayuga Power Plant and what may happen.

I think we're doing a great job.  This board has done a lot in the last three or four years.  It's a more productive and open board.  And an effective board.  So I think the challenge is to continue that and make sure that when I'm done serving on the Board Of Education that what we have achieved continues.  Keeping the dialog open and making sure that the next people that pick up this torch can continue the good work we're doing.

  From my standpoint, we have had some turnover in the administration and we have commitment and support for that to continue.  To encourage recruitment of diversity, to try to truly keep our strong base of administrators, faculty and staff.  We don't want to lose site of those.  We have some wonderful programs here and those need to continue.

I am a member of the policy committee.  Sometimes we have hit or miss.  When we truly are aggressive with policy needs depending on what's coming down from the state, so making sure we're on top of policy.  We're truly looking at all of these unfunded mandates and looking at the stress that that causes not only to our students, but to our faculty and staff.  To work with the administration to try to reduce those stresses as much as we can.  And of course the budget is very important.  We definitely have a lot of energy conservation here, whether it's working with BOCES to try to cut back on our budget needs but still meet the programs of our students for their successes.

 
Are there any pressing concerns regarding the school district that you would like to change?


I've touched upon the things that are always out there that we have discussions about and try to mitigate.  But because of Lansing, who we are and where it is, I think it's important to continue to strive for diversity.  And not just in the sense of color or where you live, but also different families, what people might call non-traditional families.

It's understanding the dynamics of that and making sure that not only the children of those so-called non-traditional families are understood, but make sure that our staff and administrators and the people who work here to understand what they need and are receptive to that.  And continue to open up who we hire.  It's not just colors or religious practices.  Where you live... were did you grow up?  Did you come from a small town?  And are you teaching in a small town?  Did you go to college in a small town?

Being more open and embracing culture.  Not that that's a problem, but that's something that's really changing and growing in Lansing: different cultures and different lifestyles we need to embrace and understand.

Those are all wonderful comments and we are looking at how much we have already moved already this year with our advocacy efforts.  I think we need to continue that.  We've made great strides, but we can't let that go.  That's something we have to be pressing for years to come.

We had an advocacy committee that rallied around many individuals in the community, making sure they were reaching out to out local congressional individuals, reaching out to write letter campaigns.  We saw Stacy Kropp and her committee bring a wonderful group of people here just a couple of months ago, to talk about the state budget and how we can advocate for that.  We can't let that stop.  We have to continue that.  That is in the forefronty of my mind that we have to keep that momentum going.  That is pressing for me.  We can't let that ball drop.


  How does the budget affect our education?


The budget affects what programs we can offer, how many staff we can employ to support those programs.  To have a budget constraint or a huge budget loss affects what we can offer and what we need to offer.

What's nice about Lansing is, despite the size of the school -- and I grew up in Chicago, a big city.  I lived in major cities for most of my life.  To see what Lansing can offer from Kindergarten through 12th grade is amazing.  Some of that would go away if you lost it.  opportunities for support and the opportunities for enrichment are outstanding.  Some of that would go away if you lost it.  To maintain a program like that and still maintain a fiscally responsible thing -- I think we do a good job at that, and we continue to work at that.

  it's important to maintain a high quality educational program, but we also have to balance that with our budget needs.  So it's nice that we're having program review.  It happens quite a lot.  Individuals come to the board meeting and meet with the administration to tell them about the outcomes of their programs and what their goals are.  So it's important for us to reach out and say to our staff and to our teachers, 'really what do we need?'  We have needs and we have wants.  So what are our needs?  What do we want? We maybe have to give a little bit, but not forget about some of those wants out there.

So it's that balancing act.


Do you think communication between the school district and the community can be improved?  And how?


To do something great we always have to look for improvement.  I think we do a good job of communicationg with the community about what's going on in the schools.  Ms. Pettograsso has a good open-door policy.  She makes sure she follows up on issues.  She uses Twitter  0and different things.  We have meetings and we have open forums and we have community input.  It's something you can always improve on.

I don't see anything that sticks out in my mind right now that we have to do to make our communications better, but you are always trying to improve, and do things a different way or a more effective way.

I definitely thing the administration and this particular school board has reached out significantly using social media.  But we know not everyone is in tune with social media.  So we always have to look at needs assessments and what does our community want?  Who are ne not getting to?

We look at that all the time.  We try to take different steps to try to reach that handful of people -- it may be more than a handful -- that don't feel quite as connected to Lansing for whatever reason... they may have kids in the school district.  They may truly be retirees, and we have to make sure that we're reaching out to them, too.  Not just to the individual family members that have students in the school system.  Those individuals who may feel disconnected.

I think we're doing that, but we need to continue to take those baby steps to get to some of those individuals.



What is your opinion on school start times?


  I know there's a proposal to start school 15 minutes later next year.  I think it's a good idea.  I don't know about most families, but I know in my family we get up and we're going.  A lot of times I see the older families around me get up and go, and they're going until way past dark, and past a reasonable bedtime.  So anything we can do to help get families to sleep more, to rest more, I'm for that.

That's a good time.  We're pretty lucky.  Our bus pickup is towards the end so we don't have to get up  early for the bus, but I know people get up pretty early for the bus.  15 minutes is a huge difference.  Long days are tough and we all have long days.  Anything we can do to help rest and sleep and take a moment, I'm OK with that.

 We've been looking at this issue for several years now, and we have reached out to different members of the community, students, faculty and staff and administrators.  What seems like just 15 minutes -- there's a big change no matter what end of the spectrum you're on.  We've seen some other school districts do it.  In ithaca it was a more significant time change.  This was shared with some site-based committees.  I happen to be on the high school shared decision making committee and we discussed it there.  It was discussed at safety meetings.

I think it was vetted quite a bit, although not everyone may be on board with it.  I think there was a 50-50 divide.  People either loved it or hated it.  But we saw some benefits in having our older students get to school later so that they can sleep in.  And there's some research that supports that.


  Do you believe that the district dress code needs to be amended?


I think we're in a good spot right now.  I'm not aware of major concerns with it.  I know it came up a couple of years ago, but I'm not sure of any particular reason why it should change at this point.

Boles I'm not sure of the exact dress code, but I'm sure there's always some give and take there.  I'm hoping that if some individuals have an issue with the dress code that they're meeting with their school building (administrators) and their associated parties to truly let it get back to the faculty and staff and administration on what you agree or disagree with or dislike.  There is definitely a discussion that we can have.  It may not be able to be 100% change, but we'd like to hear from you.


How do you believe the bus circle or parking situation can be improved, especially between the middle and high schools?


  I'm new to the middle and high school areas.  We just shifted over this year.  I know it's a big change and I think it is safer.  I like the loop at the high school.  I'm not aware of particular problems or questions about that.

As Julie says, I encourage people to reach out to the student council, the principal, or even come to a Board Of Education meeting.  We can discuss that further.  There were some changes last year in the general traffic patterns on the campus, and I think they were positive changes.

 I think our biggest concern with the drop-off, why we think it's beneficial, we're also concerned about middle school students crossing the road.  I know there has been some monitoring with staff and administrators in the morning.  It's my understand that we may have a crossing guard that may come in, shared with our town government, helping to support that with appropriate coverage for safety.  Individuals who I talk to are very concerned that we've made it easier for parents to drop-off.  Is it really increasing the number of parents that drop-off and the amount of traffic that goes by here in the morning?

It seems to be a win-win for us because we have students riding the same bus, getting off and going equal distances rather than having to cross the road.  And there is less delay in start times because the busses aren't going from one school to another.  We have another drop-off between the middle school and the high school.


What do you feel is the strongest aspect of the district, and what is the weakest?  How can that be improved upon?


The strongest aspect is the support.  My family had a tragedy earlier this year and the support that we had from the schools and the community -- people knew us from the school district.  The staff and the teachers were outstanding.  I don't think you can get that everywhere.  A sense of community and how we open up the school buildings to community groups.

There's always some one who is going to be left out, but I think Lansing does a great job of making sure no one is left out, and doing our best to help and reach out to the community.

The weaknesses?  I can't say what the weaknesses are right now.  But I'm happy that we relocated here to my husband's home.  I am happy that we're educating our family here and that we live here and are part of the community here.  The love and understanding and compassion in this community is overwhelming, and it's a good thing.  And I'm glad I'm part of it.

 I'll have to mimic Aziza on that.  Truly our school district is the hub of our community.  I think the school district and the town recreation programs are really what makes Lansing.

I don't really mean to make this be a negative, but I think we can increase our diversity in our hiring practices so individuals of color, sexual orientation... anything we can do to increase diversity in our teaching staff and our administrators and our faculty will also bring students and families of diversity here.

I think we can increase that a little bit.  It's not 100% in our control, but we need to monitor it.


Are there any questions from the floor?


Community Question: You've already addressed communication, but I still feel the emphasis is within the school community, and those people who don't have kids in the school don't really read it.  And as a comment I think transparency is very important.

 I think when my daughters graduated I was dropped off a couple of email lists so I had to opt in.  So maybe we need to educate individuals to opt back in.  We can check on whether you were opted out for whatever reason.

I've made a couple of suggestions about trying to reach out to different senior groups.  Because of the nature of our business we deal with elder landowners.  So I've given some suggestions as to how to reach that group of people who don't have grandkids or any connection to the school in general.  It's always a work in progress and you can never do enough to make yourself more efficient.


 What do you think about the state testing opt-out movement?


  From my perspective it was a push from the teacher's union.  I'm not saying that I agree or disagree with that.  We saw more individuals opting out of the testing.  Out biggest concern, for me anyways, is how much of this is a parent pushing their child to opt-out, rather than the child saying, 'I'm really stressed.  I just can't take one more of these tests.'

I guess I'd rather see it from the student, saying this is too stressful, rather than making this a political statement.  But I understand why they were trying to make that statement.  Can we do more advocacy, letter campaigns, talking about separating these test so they're not all given in one particular month or couple of weeks, to make it more accommodating for everyone.  We need to have test scores.  

We were rushing with common core being pressed down to us.  We truly don't want to be teaching to a test, but those things happen.  I think our opt-out rate was relatively high this year.  There is a three year windo wna we need to be at 95%.  My question is then, what happens when we are below a 95% participation rate?  What's going to happen with our state funding.

I understand the concern.  It's a lot of time.  It could be a lot of pressure for some really young kids.  It's nice to have the option for some parents to opt-out because you don't want to put a lot of stress on your student.  I didn't opt any of my children out.  I understand doing that, but my concerns go along with Julie's.  What does that look like to us later?  How can we advocate for the district and for the parents who have these concerns?

 Julie, I know in 1999 you were sort of reluctantly on the board.  And in 2013 you were sort of dragged reluctantly onto the board.  This year I don't sense any reluctance.  What has changes as far as the atmosphere on the board, or administrators between the board and teachers and staff?  

 It's really about the transparency and commitment of this administration and faculty and staff to be open and honest about issues and addressing them right off the start, rather than discussions behind the scenes or people not trusting each other.  It's a very trusting environment with very open communication.  I want to continue to be in support of those individuals.


We have one question for Ms. Boles from the SEO.  How do you plan to stay involved in school affairs without the direct connection of having enrolled students?

 As a small employer here in town, all my employees are either current Lansing students or recent graduates of Lansing.  I was raised here.  I graduated from school here.  I feel very committed to this district.  I plan to retire here so I'm not going away any time soon.  I always told my husband that I'm going to pass away in my house.

This is where I want to live and where I want to be and I want to be as supportive as possible.


What is your favorite thing about Lanisng?


The bus comes to my door (laughs).  It's a great community and my husband grew up here.  We were deciding what we were going to do.  I grew up in a major city, but when I was in the Coast Guard I lived in a lot of small and rural towns.  This is a unique spot, and it's beautiful. I couldn't ask for anything more.

 I am fortunate enough to live on the lake.  I don't mean I have that expensive house.  What happened was when I grew up here I told a friend of mine who was a farmer, 'if you ever sell this property please give me first option to buy it and I'll either walk away crying if I can't afford it or I'll purchase it.  And he gave me a great deal so I am very fortunate to have a wonderful home on the lake.


That brings our Meet The Candidates night to a close.  Remember that the vote will take place on May 19th at the Teacher's Center in the elementary school, from 7am to 9pm.

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