Bedford Central: Northwell mental health services agreement OK’d

By JEFF MORRIS

A lengthy and often fraught process came to a quick conclusion at a special meeting of the Bedford Central Board of Education.

Meeting in the administrative conference room Monday, Nov. 10, the board took only about 10 minutes to vote unanimously to authorize Superintendent Robert Glass to execute a cooperative service agreement with Putnam/Northern Westchester BOCES for participation in the Northwell Mental Health Clinic.

The positive outcome came after ongoing negotiations Glass had described to The Recorder last week. Those negotiations, between Northwell Health and PNWBOCES, resulted in an amendment to the original service agreement to add protection for the component school districts who participate in the agreement for mental health services. 

Under the amended agreement, component school districts would be indemnified and provided with legal defense services by Northwell in the event of negligent acts or omissions or willful misconduct of the Northwell officers, agents or employees in connection with the performance of services under the agreement.

The amended agreement deletes the original Paragraph 4.6 on Indemnification, and replaces it with one that specifically mentions Participating School Districts, which the original had failed to do.

That omission had led to questions about potential liability risk for the district. Originally raised by trustee Steven Matlin, those questions caused Matlin to abstain at a vote taken on Oct. 8. His and trustee Betsy Sharma’s abstentions, combined with “no” votes by board President Gillian Klein and trustee Prasad Krishnan, resulted in the original approval resolution failing to obtain the four votes needed to pass with a majority of the board. 

The resolution had received “yes” votes from trustees Blakeley Lowry, Lisa Mitchell and Leo Sposato, but the 3-2 tally was insufficient for adoption.

Monday’s meeting was called in order to have the full board present for the vote, as Sposato was planning to be away at its next scheduled meeting Nov. 19, and the next meeting after that is not until Dec. 10. It essentially resulted in the Bedford Central School District board voting to approve the amended agreement in anticipation of its adoption by the Putnam Northern Westchester Board of Cooperative Educational Services; the BOCES board was not going to vote on it until its next scheduled meeting Nov. 12.

The accelerated process was evidence of Glass’s determination to quickly resolve the matter and have the district’s partnership in the Mental Health Clinic fully in place. He had affirmed last week that he believed it was the intent of Northwell and BOCES to indemnify the district, and had stated, “I do believe it’s all going to be fine, and I intend to take it to a vote just as soon as I get that document.” 

Glass had initially presented the partnership proposal early this year as part of the district’s budget discussions. It called for the district to allot $65,000 to the partnership through BOCES, an arrangement which made it eligible for the remainder of the cost to be subsidized by state aid. The board agreed to include that expenditure in the budget, which was approved by voters in May. There was then a delay, as the actual contract between Northwell and PNWBOCES, based on one Northwell-Long Island Jewish Medical Center had implemented on Long Island, was not actually finalized until June. 

By the time the contract was made available, a closer examination of its details began to raise some questions, though the district’s attorneys opined that it presented a low level of risk. That was not satisfactory for Klein or Matlin, who objected to a lack of language that clearly indemnified the district. 

Glass said he recognized that everyone had a different level of risk with which they were comfortable, but it was evident he had expected the agreement to pass without any problem, as it had in a number of other Westchester districts. He did not prepare an extensive presentation for what he considered to be a routine approval of a BOCES agreement; coupled with incomplete or inaccurate information being shared in the absence of the actual documents, the result was an atmosphere in which speculation and distrust grew. Glass himself conceded that mixed messages coming from different sets of attorneys were confusing, as were conflicting passages in the agreement. He pushed for a definitive amendment that would clearly indemnify the district, which is what was delivered on Monday.

With the agreement’s adoption, students who reside in the district have access to the Behavioral Health Center in Mount Kisco and benefit from what medical director, Dr. Vera Feuer, described as “an added layer of integrated support, consultation and prevention.” Support starts with crisis assessments, within 24 hours, and routine assessments, within a week. Feuer said partner districts also receive comprehensive programming, including community education and support groups for parents; health education and advocacy programs for students; and robust professional development for school staff. Feuer had also said that due to the financial contributions from partnering school districts through BOCES, “we are able to serve uninsured or underinsured students at the school BHC and support families to navigate obtaining insurance for their children if needed.” She said this level of integrated, systemic support and education, coupled with crisis and rapid access and care navigation, “is what is uniquely available to our partnering school communities.”

Only one person, Lisa Schwartz, was present for the public Q&A session that followed the vote. She thanked the board for its action.