On LSD

Thursday, April 25 — At tonight's Lansing Board of Education meeting, the board approved a modified lease for a large-scale printer, bought more gas for the buses and tabled a resolution related to possible administrative cuts.

The board unanimously approved a modified lease agreement with Océ Financial Services Inc. for a new all-in-one printer for the district’s print shop, where all the district’s documents are printed. Prior to the new lease, the district had two printers, one for black and white and the other for color. The move will save the district nearly $16,000 a year.

At the board’s study session last week, LSD Chief Operations Officer Brian Ralph said the move to one printer wouldn’t slow the print shop operations. He said the new printer is an "all in one technology" that will allow the print shop to be "highly efficient."

The board also unanimously approved the purchase of more diesel fuel for the district’s bus fleet. Due to additional bus routes, the district needed to purchase $70,000 of additional fuel. In total this year, the district will spend $440,000 on fuel.

In other news, because of a language error, the board had to table a resolution that would have cut four administrative positions and saved the district $400,000.

The vote was rescheduled to a special meeting on April 30 at noon in the administration building.

“This doesn’t mean we’re not going to do the work that’s being done,” said Board President Guillermo Lopez. “It’s like with the art, music and PE teachers, we’re just going to do it differently. It’s always hard to layoff or cut a position, but we’re in a position where we need to do whatever we can to make sure we can provide services to our kids and pay the bills.”

The four positions on the table are the department director positions for student services, transportation and the Career and Technical Education program, (CTE) as well as a special assignment to the superintendent’s office.