Superintendent Newsletter

Dear Lansing School District Community,

I hope this newsletter finds you well. As always, it is a pleasure to be writing to you all. Last week we had school board elections, among others. I want to congratulate the winners -- Missy Lilje, Caitlin Cavanagh, Rosalyn Williams, and Kurt Richardson. We in the district have already had the pleasure of working with Missy and Caitlin, and now we look forward to working with Rosalyn and Kurt. For a community member to put themselves in the public eye and to be willing to run for an unpaid position (all a board member gets is reimbursement for attending meetings) to better our community is commendable. I thank you four and all our school board members for their service.

I hope that we continue to bring more people into the service of our schools. The more we have community members volunteering for tutoring or mentoring, helping schools with dismissal or morning opening, the more we have volunteer coaches and "beautification days," the better our district will be. Please feel free to contact your student's school, or if you happen to be reading this and do not have a student at home, reach out to your neighborhood school. The more we are connected to our local communities, the better.

However, a school board member is a little different. They are here to help serve all 10,000+ students, all schools, and all communities. That is powerful. We can only become better if we have a board that looks at all places in the district, not just one school or one neighborhood. Ironically, that will sometimes mean making a decision that feels good for one school and not another. It will mean trying to bring services to places that don't have them or moving something from one school to another to try to balance things out. When you are thinking for all students, it means, sometimes, that not everyone gets what they want. I hope you all welcome the new board members with open arms and work with them as they try to help support the entire district. Sometimes they will have to make hard decisions and won't be able to please everyone. I hope that you all are able to give them some grace to understand why they might decide the way they do.

Thank you so much for all of your incredible support of our district. Together, we will do great things for the children of Lansing.

Benjamin Shuldiner, Superintendent

Lansing School District

This week, we are featuring Mr. Jose Felipe for his dedication and attitude. Jose is a student in the Adult Education ESL program, hosted at the district's welcome center. He left Honduras four years ago to come to the United States - a journey he made by himself.

Jose comes to morning class every day before going to work. He has a positive attitude, is a very hard worker, and is improving quickly. When he is not in class or working, Jose likes to go to the gym and go for runs in the park.

We are excited to see all that you accomplish, Jose!

This week’s staff feature comes to us from Lewton Spanish Immersion / Global Studies Magnet School. Damaris Turkington joins the Lewton family from Venezuela, where she taught for 5 years; and what an amazing addition she is!

Damaris is a gentle soul who believes in every single one of her students. She weaves her culture into instruction using songs, dance and movement, visuals, and repetition to engage her kindergarten students. Sra. Turkington seeks opportunities for professional growth and loves to collaborate with colleagues. Damaris is a dedicated educator who models high expectations while creating a loving classroom community.

Winter is fast approaching and, for some, low energy, sluggishness, difficulty concentrating, hopelessness, changes in sleep patterns, and more may come on its heels. Fortunately, help is here.

The safety, health and well-being of our students, employees, and their families is of the upmost importance. The Lansing School District is committed to ensuring that everyone has access to mental health and other health resources. We have curated a list of resources that are available to our students, staff, and their families.

It’s important to listen to your mind and body and it is OKAY if you need support - we all do from time to time.

You may have already heard, but in case you haven't - J.W. Sexton High School is dropping its Native American mascot in favor of a more culturally appropriate one. School administrators initiated the process by applying for and receiving a grant from the Native American Heritage Fund (NAHF) before the start of the 2022-'23 school year. The $87,500 grant will help the with the cost of replacing anything featuring the old mascot, with a new one. As you can imagine, various versions of the image ended up in a LOT of places over the nearly 80 years since the building was constructed.

Sexton Principal Dan Boggan was thrilled to be able to inform his students and staff of the change. They began meeting to discuss what their new mascot would be before the school year even started and kept the conversation lively into mid-September. Once the expansive list of ideas was compiled, students were asked to narrow it down to just a top five (there was a tie for fifth place though, so a total of six) ahead of a September community input session that brought the conversation to the school's extended family.

Staff, students, community members, and alumni were able to provide feedback during this meeting and even added two new names to the list. The new list was then sent as a survey to all Sexton students, and staff to narrow it back down. Their top four, ranked in order from most to least favorite by current students and staff, were presented to the board of education on Thursday.

So, without further ado, allow us to introduce you to.... the SCORPIONS!

There is still much work to be done after the approval of the mascot concept, but staff and students are excited about entering the collaborative design phase of the process. If all goes well, the new mascot will be revealed at a pre-winter break pep rally with full implementation expected to be completed by the start of the 2023-'24 school year.

The district understands that change isn't always easy, but doing right by the Native American community is. We thank the Lansing community for respecting this important change regardless of their personal opinions and are excited to usher in a new era of inclusivity for everyone who steps foot on the Sexton campus now and in the future.

Stay tuned for more updates!

One of the objectives of Eastern's leadership class, which is taught by Ms. Perez, is to help build school pride. "After brainstorming several ideas, the classes decided to have a video news show. The idea was not only to let students know of all the cool things going on in the school, but to highlight all of the talented students and staff walking our hallways daily," said Perez.

The class invited Lansing School District Director of Communications John McGraw and Media Producer Ronald Stratton to speak to the class. "We talked about the process of producing a newscast and the importance of pre-production, writing, recording the segments, and editing the newscast," said McGraw. "Before coming to the Lansing School District, I worked for Channel 4's news division in Detroit," said Stratton, who added that it was exciting to see the students so interested in creating their news program.

We look forward to seeing what they create, and we will share the first broadcast when it's released.