Schools

Bedford Central's 'Future Focus' Eyes Tough Choices, Capital Plans

Residents asked to look at structural changes, their thoughts in doing a large bond for school fixes.

In holding this year’s Future Focus group to gauge public sentiment, the Bedford Central School District is at a critical fiscal juncture.

In the past three years, Superintendent Jere Hochman noted to residents Monday at Fox Lane High School, the district has been fiscally responsible. This has included keeping the tax levy below the 2-percent threshold now called for in the annual cap and lowering salary and benefits increase trajectories in half for unionized employees. There have also been cutbacks in curriculum and purchases.

“With that, we have a few questions this evening, because after three years of cuts, after three years of efficiency and change in these trajectories, there are only so many variables that we can manipulate in order to plan ahead,” Hochman said.

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Going into the 2012-13 school year, if the district were to only raise the tax levy by 2 percent, there would be a $4-8 million deficit. The effect of cuts to teachers and programs would be dramatic, Hochman warned, and asking for compensation freezes from every district employee would not be enough, either.

“So it’s not like there’s one silver bullet answer out there that will just fix everything, and that’s assuming that 100 percent of us could agree on what that one item would be,” he said.

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The Focus event also comes at a time when the district is trying to gauge public sentiment on a multi-million dollar bond project to either renovation or replace West Patent Elementary School, do lab, cafeteria and entrance work at Fox Lane Middle School and a series of general infrastructure replacements.

Dividing the focus event into budget and capital planning segments, Hochman, his fellow administrators and school board members listened in as attendees were asked to provide follow up comments and their own insights by Unicom-Arc for each category.

Budget and Hard Choices

For the budget segment, folks were asked to answer what the community, , is saying about the tax levy for the next school year and what to preserve for the future.

Respondents for a majority of the tables agreed that the community, through the survey, called for keeping tax increases hovering around two percent. A man speaking for one table felt the message for the district is to be responsible, and there would be support for a small increase. Folks also called for preserving programs, at least to some degree. One table noted that programs should be supported that respect the community’s diversity.

A man speaking for one table noticed that redrawing elementary school boundaries and switching to half-day kindergarten got relatively high levels of support for choices to make. , they came in at 34.4 and 39.8 percent, respectively.

Responding to a question about what changing elementary lines would mean, Assistant Superintendent for Business Mark Betz explained that this would make sense in cases where grade levels between schools would be unbalanced in terms of sections being offered.

Capital Planning

When the district asked attendees to give their feedback on the capital planning proposals, it was made sure that they had a lot of information available. This not only included a copy of the Unicom-Arc survey, which on major spending – but a frequently asked questions sheet about the district’s capital needs and why some facilities need to be replaced. In addition, respondents were given cost estimate sheets for each of the scenarios looked, including whether to renovation or replace West Patent.

Both sides of the debate on West Patent were represented.

“At the end of the day, if you’re five percent too high on cost, what does that do to your kids and your property values compared to what if you’re five percent too low?” asked James Marpl, a New Castle resident. Speaking for his table, he believed that historically low interest rates, construction capacity and a longer life span for a new building all meant that a replacement was a better option than a renovation.

“While I am very aware that it is a very difficult time to ask the taxpayers to come up with money, I think it’s the only substantive decision to rebuild and not renovate,” said Martha Hennig, a Bedford Village resident who is also a member of the district’s capital planning committee, which looked at what to do with West Patent.

But Colin Greene, a Bedford Hills resident, spoke for his table and called for the minimum option presented for the school, which would be a renovation. The concern at the table was that West Patent could drag down support for other bond items. They also felt that the cost for work on Fox Lane Middle School should be lower.

At her table, Pound Ridge resident Elyse Arnow spoke about going with a $64-65 million bond, which is in the area of one scenario the district has looked at. It would be a “packaged deal” and go up for a vote along with the budget, and would also include getting benefit concessions from employees.

Kurt Grossberndt, a New Castle resident whose family is zoned for West Patent, wants to see it improved.

“Every time there’s been capital improvements, very little bit of money has gone to West Patent and it shows in the infrastructure in West Patent, and it’s about time that West Patent gets bumped up to the same level of excellence that’s in the rest of the district.”

Going Forward

The event served a role in helping to hear what others had to say, explained Hochman.

“I hope you found the dialogue to be beneficial,” he told attendees.

For Melissa Leyba, a Mount Kisco resident whose son is in kindergarten, it was interesting for her to meet new people in the community.

“I don’t see a lot of faces I see every day when I pick my son up from school,” she said.

The district will hold a second focus session today at 9:30 a.m. at the Fox Lane High School small gym.


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