Learning on the run

Gabrielle Lawrence is navigating a steep learning curve. In January, she was elected president of the Lansing School District Board of Education, and just two months later she was cramming to help the district get past COVID-19.

“I remember sitting in a board meeting on the evening of Thursday March, I think it was the 12th, because we were conducting a first round of interviews to hire our new superintendent. And I remember I was sitting next to Sampson Sinicropi, who was our current superintendent, and he wrote a note that said, “Detroit’s closing.” And I thought, wow, this is so crazy. What’s going on? This is so crazy. And by Monday, schools were closed statewide. It happened so quickly.”

Schools closed March 16 by order of the governor reopened later in spring with remote learning. Remote learning is still modus-operandi, but for Lansing’s fall semester it’s called “Lansing Schools Reimagined.”

In this plan, when the more than 10,000 students report on Monday (Aug. 31,) students will see their teachers livestreaming from their classrooms via a device made available by the school district. “Lansing Schools Reimagined” is explained in a video posted on the district’s website (lansingschools.net).

Last week, the district announced that several community organizations have pitched in to establish learning labs. Up to 600 students will be able to spend the school day with adult supervision. Because each student has a device of their own, paid for by the district, the learning labs will be able to accommodate students who are in different schools, and in different classes.

While the plan leaves the vast majority of students sitting at home with their parents, it does provide child care for some. Parents must show proof of employment so their child can apply to be in a learning lab. 

Lawrence recognizes the dual role her academic institution plays.

“Ideally, we would have childcare provided for each student in the district if they need it, and ideally we would have a one-on-one tutor that’s working with each child in the district all day long. Wouldn’t that be incredible?”

The child care piece is essential, said Lawrence, 38, an attorney with a 9-month-old and a 2-and-a-half-year-old.

"I know each family grapples with this. So we as a district are going to try to help our families navigate this.”

The district’s learning labs partners are longtime collaborators on programming, Lawrence said. Some were already operating in school buildings, and will continue to do so.

Lansing schools’ student body is about 70 percent students of color, according to the state Department of Education. Community volunteers help in the schools, but in wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, the impact of some volunteer groups could be an issue.

“Frankly, one of the reasons that I’m no longer an active member of the Junior League is I didn’t feel it was representative of our community,” said Lawrence, who herself is a white woman who looks paler because of her auburn hair. “There was kind of this white savior situation that was going on, or the appearance of one.”

Junior League of Lansing is a primarily white women's organization.

Lawrence was appointed to the Board of Education in 2015, and then in the 2016 school election, she won her seat. That was a self-actualizing moment for Lawrence, who is a “very proud and vocal graduate” of Sexton High School, on the west side. Sexton’s mascot is Big Red. Lansing’s other two high schools are Eastern and Everett.

“There are two Big Reds on the Board of Education, and whenever there’s anybody from Sexton in the audience, or we’re talking about anything that ever went on at Sexton, you better believe that we’re going to stop the meeting just to say, “should have been a Big Red.”

That’s a school taunt. It’s flung most fiercely at Lansing Everett High School.

Lawrence is one of the people educated in Lansing Schools who have emerged to help lead through the two crises. An ever-present frustration of waiting on the state legislature is alleviated by Lawrence’s good working relationship with the state representative for House District 68, Sarah Anthony.

The House of Representatives “had a vote on the legislation that was coming regarding back-to-school and I appreciate so much that she reached out to me to talk about how she was going to vote, and to get my thoughts on it. We’re so lucky to have her, even though she went to Everett. I’m just going to count her as an honorary Big Red because I love her.”

To accommodate the switch to at-home instruction, the district has provided some necessities for students, including food. Meal Pickup signs on Lansing street corners point, not at Meijer or Kroger, but to school buildings.

Post-COVID, some of the $11 million schools’ transportation budget, and the personnel paid from it, have been used to deliver food to homes.

At her own home, Gabrielle Lawrence pays close attention to food. She is a food critic, the author of the popular City Pulse column “She Ate,” which, with its companion column “He Ate,” is on hiatus.  Like most people, Lawrence is cooking more at home, and being more creative. 

“This past week, because of the Democratic National Convention, we had a themed menu,” Lawrence said. “We had Blue State, Blue Cheese Hamburgers one night. We had AOC seafood pasta, which was the brainchild of Mr. She Ate (her husband, Mark Lawrence, the city’s citizen’s advocate.). I try to keep it fun. We’ve done a vegetarian week. We just try to do things differently. I always try to be seasonal, so we’ve had a lot of corn, a lot of seasonal produce, just trying to keep ourselves fed and sane and healthy.”

What is she cooking for the GOP convention? “Nothing. Nothing, not a thing,” Lawrence said. “I could think of something sinister, couldn’t I?”

Who’s to say no? The Lansing Board of Education is nonpartisan.