Bedford Central Heads Back to School

Over 4,000 students and 31 new teachers swarmed the halls in buildings across Bedford Central today, returning to school on a rainy Tuesday.

 “Great start to the year”

Despite the weather, morning bus runs went off “quite well,” according to Bedford superintendent of schools, Jere Hochman in an email to Patch. Transportation staff worked all weekend, phoning parents and updating routes, scrambling to catch up from last week’s storm-related power outages. “It has been a great start to the school year,” he said.

With electricity and data connections to schools restored last Wednesday, teachers and administrators had just two days for first-day preparations. “We were able to cover all of our “mandatory topics” every staff member must review, but we did have to give up our annual all-district back-to-school meeting,” said Hochman.

Student spirits were high.

At Bedford Village Elementary School, red and white balloons and a welcome banner adorned with the Fox logo festooned the entrance of the school. Principal Karen Eldon said she heard from one mother who said her son was glad the summer was over so he could go back to school.

“You don’t hear that too often,” said Eldon, who noted that the staff was “absolutely ready” for opening day, and worked late nights last week after finally gaining access to the school following Irene.

At Fox Lane High School, a new group of seniors began the school year.

"It's very exciting," said Jenn DiChiara, a Mount Kisco resident who is among the class of 2012.

Fellow senior Zoe Jobe, a Pound Ridge resident, said "it's a little weird," adding that "high school went really fast."

Jackie Tenreiro, a senior and fellow Pound Ridge resident, described being a senior as both exciting and daunting, noting the application process for college coming up.

Focus on achievement, membership and college and career readiness

This year the district will continue to focus on student achievement, “membership”—a sense of belonging—in school,” and college and career readiness, said Hochman in an interview with Patch prior to the start of school.

“School should be meaningful, experiential, and hands on. And we know from experience that activities that connect kids to school are important,” he said. In addition to those areas, Hochman said the district will look at how students are prepared for each transition leading up to senior year: Pre-K to kindergarten, elementary to middle school and the leap to high school.

District teachers will be also participating in professional development programs around RTI, or Response-to-Intervention, a state-mandated approach to providing students academic supports.

Hochman said the community could also expect follow up from the the district did last year, when the district met with community members to discuss healthy building blocks for raising healthy children.

“We wanted to get concept out there that it does take a community to raise kids, and now we are unpacking the data we received from our survey,” he said. “We’ll provide a report on what we learned and reconvene our community leaders and parents—BCSD is a community and we want to invite the community to be a part of us.”

Back to the business of education

After holding around the budget last year, Hochman said the community input through surveys and public meetings will be consolidated into one comprehensive plan. In late September, financial projections will help the district determine where revenue needs to be increased or spending decreased.

Any program changes will be vetted in the community, he noted, through focus groups, phone interviews and roundtable meetings. 

Regarding the passed by Gov. Cuomo, Hochman said the district had a self-imposed cap already. “We now want to hold the governor to his promise and deal with the unfunded or partially funded mandates and skyrocketing pensions—they tell us to hold down spending, then mandate us to spend more.”

As for whether the district will seek a public referendum to go over the 2 percent cap to maintain programs, Hochman said they’d be listening to the community. “We want to make sure if we do have to go above, it’s because the community said it’s the right thing to do.”