Standing at the crossroads

Instead, there are a City Council and Board of Educationelection and several ballot proposals, and the school vote could be themost critical for the city, educational experts say.

“It’s a matter of the school district really being at acrossroads,” said Ruben Martinez, director of the Julian SamoraResearch Institute at Michigan State University. “Someone has to makesome hard choices. Tomorrow’s leadership on the board is of utmostimportance.”

Eight candidates are competing for three open seats onthe Lansing Board of Education at a time when it seems that everythingthat could go wrong is. The superintendent is leaving, the district isin the process of restructuring and the budget is in disarray, to namesome of the more major problems.

Out of the candidates, only one, Nicole Armbruster, isseeking reelection. Current board members Jack Davis and Ken Jones arenot seeking an additional term and will leave the board at the end ofthe year.

Many school districts are facing a “perfect storm” ofobstacles, former Lansing Mayor David Hollister said. State revenue isdown, which lowers the amount of money each district receives. Studentenrollment is down, lessening revenue because states base financialcontributions on a per pupil basis. Property taxes, which also helpfund the district’s schools, are decreasing because of the foreclosurecrisis.

Meanwhile, costs only continue to increase, Hollisteradded. Legacy costs, which include retiree health and pension benefits,are increasing and insurance costs for employees continue to rise yearafter year.

“I’m deeply worried about the schools,” Hollister said.“If the schools are not thriving, the city will not thrive.”On top ofthat, the Board of Education and the district’s administration haverarely worked together to solve issues, resulting in a loss of thecommunity’s trust, Hollister said.

At the request of the board, Hollister headed a districtrestructuring committee in 2009, which presented a comprehensive planfor right-sizing the district, including consolidating the three openhigh schools into one new building. Martinez was part of thecommittee’s leadership team as well, but when the group presented itsfindings to the board after six months of intensive research, the boardvoted against it.

Financial mishaps, such as the discovery of $7.9 millionin overlooked funds in a recent audit that Supt. T.C. Wallace’sadministration called a mistake only increases distrust, said Lansingteachers’ union President Patti Seidl.

“The board can only make informed decisions based on whatthe administration gives them,” she said. “Ultimately the buck stops in(the superintendent’s) office.”

Finding a new superintendent

Most districts are dealing with the financial effects ofa down economy and trying to offer the same services with less funding,but Lansing public schools are unique in that the incoming board willalso have to start the search for a new superintendent in addition todealing with funding cuts, said Jennifer Rogers, director ofcommunications for the Michigan Association of School Boards. Wallace,hired five years ago, is retiring under pressure at the end of hiscontract.

For Hollister, this one issue is by far the mostimportant out of the myriad of critical decisions that a new board willlikely face in the coming years.

“This is singularly the most important decision that aschool board makes because it impacts the community for an extendedperiod of years, maybe even decades,” he said.

Hollister said there are “mechanisms to take over afailing school district,” such as an emergency financial manager, butonly the board has the ability to hire and fire a superintendent andadministrators.

In a district where students are underperforming on statetests and the dropout rate continues to increase, a new superintendentwith a vision for the future of the district could start the turnaroundthat Lansing so desperately needs, he said.

Hollister said that Lansing has great opportunitieswithin the district, such as the International Baccalaureate program atEastern High School, but even world-renown programs such as that arealso accompanied by problems — Eastern has one of the district’shighest dropout rates, he said.

A new administration could create a new curriculum forthe district, or better promote the programs that are offered, in orderto draw students not just from Lansing, but also from the region,Hollister continued. Programs like the Chinese immersion program, whichis running at full capacity despite being housed in a facility thatcan’t keep up with the program’s demand, should be duplicated. Anemphasis should be placed on technology, internships and aninternational curriculum, he said. In Hollister’s opinion, those typesof opportunities would bring families to the district, rather thanhaving them leave.

“There are schools that are thriving because they havetalented leadership,” Hollister said. “My advice: hire the smartest,brightest, youngest, most talented person they can find — and then getout of the way.”

The challenge will be attracting the kind of leadershipthat can turn the district around after all the controversy andhostility that has occurred between the board and the currentadministration, Hollister said.

“The problem is those (superintendent) candidates goright to the website and look at the minutes or look at the action inthe previous months and go, ‘I’m not sure I want to apply for thatjob,’” he said.

A new administration could also help alleviate some ofthe staffing and financial issues that the district has been facing,Seidl said.

“(Money is) always the bottom line,” she said. “Theboard’s going to be challenged to get an administration in that’s intune with an urban setting and know how to run the district.”

Seidl attributes many of the financial problems,especially the discovery of millions of unspent dollars in acash-strapped budget, to the administration’s lack of transparency withthe board and the community.

The district is already predicting a $20 million deficitfor the 2012-2013 school year and has spent the majority of its rainyday fund, Hollister said.

This year’s staffing fiascos could also potentially beresolved with a new administration that has experience running a largeurban district, Seidl added.

“We had over 200 teachers in the whole scheme of thingsthat were displaced or laid off,” Seidl said. “That meant we had closeto 90 classrooms that had no teachers assigned to them at the start ofthe school year.” 

Seidl said the majority of the laid-off teachers havealready been recalled and the displaced teachers have been reassignedto try and offset large class sizes in the schools. Most of thereorganization occurred during Labor Day weekend when the the teachers’union and Myra Ford, a board member and former human resources worker,went to the schools to work on the reassignments.

“I’m hoping (the administration) learned from theirmistakes and that they will absolutely do the right thing next year andnot balance the budget by displacing and laying off way more teachersthan they need to,” Seidl said.

Right-sizing the district

In an effort to streamline the district and save money,the board is looking to streamline operations, which could mean closingschools, Martinez said.

“They’re overbuilt for the number of students that theyhave,” he said. “It costs a considerable amount of money to maintainall those buildings.”

The district reported just over 13,000 enrolled studentslast school year, according to State of Michigan count data. That’sdown from over 15,000 students in 2006.

Yet, the district has not consolidated or restructured its buildings to account for the demographic shift, Martinez said.

The district runs 30 buildings, including four middle schools and three high schools that are operating under capacity, he said.

Two years after Hollister’s study was turned down, theboard has convened a new restructuring committee to look into how toright-size the district and best consolidate resources, board PresidentShirley Rodgers said. Armbruster chairs the committee. The committee ismeeting with teachers, parents and community groups to discuss optionsand is scheduled to make a presentation to the board in early December.

While the board could theoretically pass a consolidationplan based on the committee’s recommendations before the new membersare sworn in, Rogers thought the possibility was unlikely.

“Based on prior history, there will be a lot ofdiscussion,” Rogers said. “I would say the possibility exists for it tohave some resolution, but I honestly believe that some of the decisionsmight not be made until January.”

Rogers said it would be essential to brief the newlyelected members on the board’s plans as soon as they are confirmed sothat they can feel comfortable making decisions when they are sworn in.

“We obviously will have at least two new members if notthree, and so anytime you have new people coming into the mix well thatchanges the dynamic and that changes the conversation,” she said. “Wehave to work very hard to have a board that is committed to studentsfirst, community second and that we come together to make decisionsthat are in the best interest of students and their learning and thecommunities as a whole.”

John Hall, president of Lansing’s parent advisorycouncil, said the redistricting issue is one of the most critical forthe district because it could help utilize the district’s money as wellas possible through consolidation. He said he was looking for boardcandidates with new ideas to help move the district forward.

“We have to figure out how to consolidate our resourcesto better teach our children,” Hall said. “If we don’t have a qualityeducation system, nobody’s going to want to come to Lansing. It mattersto everybody what schools we have here because that’s part of the basicinfrastructure of the city.”

Restoring camaraderie

Despite all the hardships the district faces, one desirewas constant: This election has to bring in people who will worktogether to restore the district’s camaraderie.

“I think this year it’s really important to bring backthe image of the Lansing School District to what it used to be,” saidBeth Farrand, president of the Lansing Association of EducationalSecretaries.

“We need people to come to our board and understand whatwe’re going through, and they need to look at all sides,” Farrand said.“I want to see people be committed, really be committed, to helping ourdistrict, our city and our state.”

Farrand said the breakdown in communication between theboard and administration, as well as the administration and theemployee community, has caused the district to lose a lot of thepositive image it once had. She wants the new board members to restorethe district to what it was, restore pride in the community and reallypromote the good things that the district offers, such as advancedplacement classes.

Farrand said she was impressed to see so many youngcandidates in the field for the open seats because they bringenthusiasm and their recent experiences in education with them.

“I think youth is really important because it gives usperspective,” she said. “I know it’s a funding thing, but I want to seethat kind of dedication come back into our district.”

Hollister said he is looking for candidates with a visionfor the future, passion and a commitment to collaboration to lead thedistrict forward. 

Rogers said being able to work with the new boardmembers, regardless of who comes in, will be key for the board memberswho are staying.

“We all came in new at some point,” she said. “We have tobe as helpful as we can possibly be. I don’t think that will be aproblem as long as we all keep in mind the primary reason we’re thereand that’s the students and their learning.”