Dear Lansing School District Community,
As always, it is a pleasure to write to you all. I hope that you look forward to these Monday morning newsletters as much as I do. Today, I want to write about a few topics. Since this week is Thanksgiving, we will pause these newsletters and pick them up after the break. Thus, our next newsletter will be on December 4th.
This week, we celebrated National Education Support Professionals Day. It is always the third Wednesday of November, this year falling on November 15th. ESPs are some of the most important staff members in our schools. They are our instructional assistants, lunch aides, paraprofessionals, and much more. They help support all of the different machinations of our educational endeavors. But sadly, like many educators, they certainly don't get the credit they deserve for helping to move our students toward success. Thus, not only did I write a special thank you to them via our staff emails, but I also wanted to thank them via our weekly newsletter to highlight their work to the entire community. To all our ESPs, thank you! Thank you for helping make our schools wonderful places of learning.
This weekend, we held our Pathway to the Holiday program, where the district distributes hundreds of Thanksgiving meals to Lansing School District families. Thanks to the generous donations of Sodexo/MAGIC and Dean Transportation, we are able to hand out turkeys, potatoes, and all the fixings to our wonderful LSD community. In years past, we held the event solely at the Hill Center, where families had to drive to pick up their food. This arrangement was a burden on both the families and the volunteers. Last year, we stood outside in the freezing rain/snow for hours, handing out boxes to families. But this year, we brought the food to the students and their families!
It was great. We had 15 buses drop off hundreds of meals. So many people volunteered that we were able to run the routes in less than three hours. Personally, I was able to greet many families, hand off food, say hello, and thank our families for believing in our school district. It was a moving and special day. Thank you to everyone who participated.
Lastly, I want to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving! We are thrilled that again this year, we are able to have no students for the entire week. Rest assured that all our children are getting the appropriate days and hours, but through a thoughtful partnership with our unions, we are able to create a calendar that allows our families some real time to spend together. I hope that our community can use this time to relax, reset, and be ready to reengage on Monday, November 27th. We will have less than a month before Winter Break. The time between Thanksgiving and the new year is vitally important for our students. As we head into this week off for our students, please make sure that they use this time wisely. Students can catch up on any work they haven't finished or get a jump start on work they will need to do. This week is a perfect time to check in with your students to see what they are working on and make sure that they are on track. Only collectively, with community support, will we be able to move this district toward the heights we know we can achieve.
Once again, I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving. I am thankful to each and every one of you for your belief in the Lansing School District. Be it as a family who sends their students to us or a staff member who chooses to work with us, everyone in our community has decided to be part of our Lansing School District family.
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
