Superintendent Newsletter

Dear Lansing School District Community,

I hope this newsletter finds you well. As always, it is a pleasure to write to you all. This iteration of my correspondence will mark the last for September. Hopefully, you all have settled into your groove, be it as an educator, student, or supportive family member. With four weeks already in the books, I feel it is a good time to reiterate one of the most important aspects of a high-functioning school district -- communications.

As Superintendent, I can never promise perfection. There will be days when we falter. There will be days that the bus is late, the hallway doesn't get cleaned, or there was a bad day in class. Then there will be other, more serious issues: fights, depression (both staff and students), and harm, both mental and physical. In a district with over 10,000 students and more than 1,000 employees, bad things will happen. However, the way we all get better is by unearthing the problems and talking about them. But more than just lamenting about them to a friend or your bartender/barista, we need to make sure that we are telling the appropriate people what is going on. The problems will only be solved if those who can impact that problem know.

As I hope you know, you all are always more than welcome to contact me directly, but usually the following line of communication is best at first. If you are a parent, please talk to the teacher and/or the school administration. If you are a student, please talk to your teacher and/or the school administration. If you are a school-based educator, please talk to your school administrator or your union. (I know this might sound crazy coming from a Superintendent, but unions can be wonderfully essential pieces of a high-functioning school district, and we are very lucky to have six great union presidents in our district.) If you are a principal, please talk to your SPOC (the principals know who this is 🙂). And most importantly, no matter what, please, talk to the students. Engage in dialogue or ask them to write. Children are usually the best at explaining their own concerns; we just have to give them a vehicle to express them.

The other important aspect of communication for a great school district is to have high expectations. For instance, if you walk into a school and see that the front foyer is strewn with leaves, you may notice that and say, oh well, that's Lansing for you. Or you see your child is still on the first few pages of their textbook a month into school and think, oh well, that's Lansing for you. Or you don't hear from your student's principal in a constant and consistent manner -- oh well, that's Lansing for you. No more. All of us have to raise our level of expectation around our district. When you pass trash in a hallway, whoever you are, please pick it up. If you see that your child isn't getting homework or progressing well, please talk to someone about that. If you are not greeted warmly and friendly at the school or a district office, please let someone know.

However, as I ask all of you to raise the bar, I also ask for grace. Please find the low expectations and work together to fix them. Pointing out problems, only to blame, serves very little purpose. If you see that candy wrapper on the floor, it will take more time to tell a custodian than it would just to pick it up yourself. If you are greeted at the school with a less than rosy welcome, you can smile and say good morning and ask the person about their day. If you aren't seeing your child progressing, doing work, or actively engaging in school, ask to talk to the teacher about what you both can do, in class and at home, to move the student forward.

Communication is the key to so many things in life. If we don't know what is going on, we can't help and support. If we don't look to make things better ourselves, if we don't pitch in and think that we are all part of the solution, then we won't be able to unlock the true potential of this wonderful and vibrant school district. However, I know that everyone reading this newsletter is part of that robust group of people who will help us become even better than we are today.

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

Lansing Technical High School is home to students who work hard and follow their passions. This week, we want to talk about one student in particular, Nathalia Santiago, who stands out. Nathalia came to Lansing Technical High School from Eastern High School because she loves cooking and wanted to join the Culinary Arts program.

Nathalia's teacher, Chef Treviño, says, "Nathalia is the definition of persistence. Things haven't always come easy to her in my class, but I watch her try hard and study harder. She never gives up. You can tell culinary is her passion." Maybe it's because cooking runs in Nathalia's family. She has fond memories of cooking fried chicken with her grandma, and her uncle, local Chef Dustin Morrell, is her role model in the culinary world.

When Nathalia isn't in the kitchen at school, she enjoys spending time with her family and friends. She especially loves Saturday evening game nights with her family. She also hopes to join the co-op girls swim and diving team.

Nathalia has big dreams. She wants to finish high school and become as famous as Gordon Ramsay in the cooking world. She loves learning about different kinds of food. We're impressed by the progress she's making in culinary class, and excited to see where her culinary journey takes her next.

Eastern High School

Christina Bascuas joined our Eastern family last year and since then, she has proven to be an invaluable member of our team and resource for our multilingual students. Mrs. Bascuas taught for many years in Miami and is also a former Lansing School District teacher.

Recently, our schools have seen an influx in Spanish speaking students. With Mrs. Bascuas' help, we are able to immediately offer resources and one-on-one assistance for new-coming Spanish speakers, as well as students of varying English language proficiencies from all over the world! When she is not in our multilingual classroom, she is supporting our English language learners in their other classes as well: offering support and language assistance when necessary.

We are truly grateful to have such a wonderful, compassionate, and knowledgeable educator on our team and we look forward to supporting the growth of many more language learners.

On Friday, September 15, Everett High School hosted its inaugural Hall of Fame. The event follows in the steps of long-established Hall of Fame events at Eastern and Sexton, acknowledging outstanding athletic alumni who, as Everett Sports Hall of Fame Committee Chair LaToya Turner rightfully noted: "propelled our school into notoriety in sports."

The theme for the evening was "Hands Across Time," a representation of every interaction in sports — not only in the moment but across the decades through inspiring future generations of athletes. Turner said, "it is important that we recognize the achievements of the past to help encourage and guide our young student-athletes of the future, as we may one day celebrate their "Hands Across Time." "

When you think of notable Viking athletes, the first one that pops into mind would likely be Earvin "Magic" Johnson who had an illustrious career in basketball at Everett, before moving on to collegiate basketball at Michigan State University until the completion of his sophomore year when the Los Angeles Lakers selected him first overall in 1979's NBA Draft, making him the first underclassman to be drafted first overall.

Did you know he had a little sister, Evelyn, who was also extremely talented on the court? Though Magic was unable to attend the event, his video sang praises of the younger Johnson who scored a commanding 1,762 points during her three seasons on Viking team and saw them to a 52-7 during her three years on varsity. Evelyn was named to the All-Capital Area Conference and All-Metro Basketball Teams three times and was a two-time All-State Basketball Team member. The University of South Carolina was eager to snatch her up upon graduation, and she went on to score another 1,620 points. To this day, she remains the 10th all-time leading scorer for the Gamecocks.

This article would be remiss to not mention Coach George Fox and Athletic Director Cindy Short. Fox was the head coach of the Vikings boys basketball team from 1970-1979 where they stacked up a 143-61 record. That record brought them an impressive five league, five district, and four regional titles! Short was not only a teacher at Everett, she coached the girls' basketball and softball teams before being chosen as the Athletic Director for the school. During her time with the school, the teams saw many victories including back-to-back girls' basketball state championships in 2000 and 2001, as well as the boys' basketball team winning a state championship in 2004 — for the first time in 22 years.

Full Roster of the Inaugural Class of Everett Sports Hall of Fame Inductees

ATHLETES

Ronnie Becker Wrestling

Dyne Burrell Swimming

Bruce Fields Basketball • Baseball

Carol Hutchins Basketball • Softball • Track

Earvin “Magic” Johnson Basketball

Evelyn Johnson Basketball

Dean Look Football Baseball Basketball Track

ATHLETIC DIRECTOR

Cindy Short

COACH

George Fox

1965 Wrestling Team

Head Coach John Rollins

Frank Baldwin, Don Banks, Ronnie Becker, Steve Carter, Denny Corey, Pete Cornell, John Dohm, Jim Foster, Dave Greenough, Larry Hillard, Brian Johnson, Greg Johnson, Arno Keaton, John Legg, Mike Long, Pat Mercer, Kim Pettit, Tom Pizzo, John Schneider, Bill Sump, Denny Zemer

1977 Boys Basketball Team

Head Coach George Fox

Assistant Coach Pat Holland

Managers Eric Hartley and Jeff Cheadle

Dale Beard, Tony Daniel, Paul Dawson, Bruce Fields, Dean Hartley, Jamie Huffman, Larry Hunter,

Earvin “Magic”Johnson, Mark Kosloski, James Lauderdale, Phil Rogers, Leon Stokes

Check out the live!