Bedford Central: Budgets for curriculum, special ed show restraint

By JEFF MORRIS 

Proposals for the 2026-27 budgets of the Curriculum & Instruction Department and the Special Education & Pupil Personnel Services Department are lower than the previous two years. 

Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Amy Fishkin and Interim Assistant Superintendent for Special Education and Pupil Personnel Services Toni Ann Carey presented the proposals at the March 11 Bedford Central Board of Education meeting.

Before the presentation began, Assistant Superintendent for Business and Operations Jose Formoso said that in putting this presentation together, they did not include salaries. He said the reason for that was when they saw the budget gap going into January, they did an extensive look at expenses, specifically how they were doing staffing and scheduling, and determined a zero-based model, which he said they will be explaining at the next meeting. 

“We have just finalized that this week and did not want to include numbers that were not final considering how significant this is,” said Formoso. 

He said it will be detailed on March 25.

Carey noted that one of the key takeaways from last year’s PCG report was the importance of eliminating “silos.”

“Amy and I are presenting together tonight, which reflects our commitment to working across departments to support all students,” she said.

FIshkin emphasized that all students are general education students first, while some students receive tiered levels of support and ESOL services.

Carey and Fishkin described a spectrum of courses and support services that BCSD offers to ensure students with a wide variety of interests and needs are served.

Carey said that because of many unique and desirable courses provided by Bedford Central, a lot of other districts send students to take classes. In her presentation, she explained that New York state allows school districts to charge tuition based on the nonresident tuition rate, or actual costs. That rate is calculated by the New York State Education Department. The state also allows school districts to charge tuition on the actual costs of educating pupils if their accounting records are sufficient enough to calculate such costs.

Beginning in the 2026-27 school year, Carey said, Bedford Central will charge tuition on the actual costs of educating pupils when appropriate to best maximize revenue. She said they are currently in the process of analyzing the actual costs per pupil versus the nonresident tuition rate.

Curriculum & Instruction

The proposed total Curriculum & Instruction Department budget for 2026-27 is $1,205,045, which is $750 less than this year. This year was, in turn, $440,658 less than 2024-25. Fishkin explained there had been a large increase in the budget line for instructional supplies and textbooks in the 2024-25 budget due to the introduction of the new science of reading curriculum.

Special Education

The total proposed special education budget is $4,699,670, which is a reduction of $21,330 from this year — and that, in turn, is $229,292 less than it was in 2024-25.

In the case of special education, the reason for the decrease was a reduction of $105,000 for BOCES services.

Pupil Personnel Services

With a total proposed budget of $428,400, pupil personnel services is by far the smallest of the three, though it is increasing by close to $48,000.

Carey proposed an additional nurse for the Fox Lane campus, to be split between the middle and high schools. She said Bedford staffs fewer nurses per student than most comparable districts, and that places significant strain on individual nurses and limits flexibility for emergencies, mandated screenings, documentation and care coordination. Her proposal noted that increasing student medical complexity, chronic health needs and compliance requirements are driving higher medical staffing levels across districts.

Another addition proposed by Carey is a bilingual social worker for FLMS to support all students. She said positions that would fill critical gaps in student and family support are not fully addressed by existing personnel, and provide expertise in navigating social, economic and linguistic challenges.

Now that all of the individual department budgets have been presented. The next step is the superintendent’s budget presentation, scheduled for Wednesday, March 25.