Budgets, propositions, trustees on ballot Tuesday

By JEFF MORRIS

Polls will be open Tuesday, May 20, in both the Bedford Central and Katonah-Lewisboro school districts for the annual budget vote and school board election.

Bedford Central

Voting will take place from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the elementary school in each attendance area. 

The total proposed 2025-26 budget is $160,905,500. There is a budget-to-budget increase of $5,080,500, or 3.26 percent, and a tax levy increase of 2.99 percent. The budget utilizes $400,000 of fund balance, and the 2.99 percent tax levy increase is below the allowable tax cap of 3.44 percent.

Among items that the Board of Education chose to include in the proposed budget are the addition of a districtwide safety coordinator as well as a safety monitor at Mount Kisco Elementary School; reinstatement of a middle school dean; participation in a school mental health clinic partnership with Northern Westchester Hospital/Northwell Health; capital improvement funds to refurbish playgrounds, update identified building infrastructure needs and address safety systems; and funds to begin action steps identified in the recently completed Special Education Study, as well as a Dual Language Bilingual Education review to be conducted in the fall.

There are four open seats for trustees: three for full three-year terms, and one to fill the remaining one-year-plus term resulting from a resignation. All incumbents whose terms are expiring are candidates for reelection. A total of seven candidates are running: Leo Sposato, Gilian Klein (incumbent), Prasad Krishnan, Blakeley Lowry (incumbent), Amal Shady (incumbent), Robert Mazurek (incumbent), and Eric Florio. The three candidates receiving the highest number of votes will be elected to three-year terms, while the candidate with the fourth-highest number of votes will serve the one-year-plus term.

Katonah-Lewisboro

Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. All registered voters should have received a postcard informing them of their poll location.

The total proposed 2025-26 budget is $127,410,469. There is a budget-to-budget increase of $3,091,707, or 2.49 percent, and a tax levy increase of 3.29 percent, which is at the allowable tax cap. The budget utilizes $3,550,000 of reserves.

Besides the budget proposition, there will be two additional propositions on the ballot. Proposition 2 is to apply existing funds from the 2024-25 budget to electrical infrastructure upgrades, allowing the district to transfer money from the current budget to install the electrical infrastructure required to charge electric buses and other EVs on the middle/high school campus. Proposition 3 will allow the district to qualify for an additional 10 percent in state aid for an energy performance contract, through which it will be installing solar and other energy conservation measures. Neither proposition has any anticipated impact on taxes, but community approval is required on both. 

There are three open seats for trustees: Board President Julia Hadlock and trustee Rory Burke have both chosen not to run again; trustee Jon Poffenberger, who has served since last year filling the remainder of a term resulting from a resignation, is running for a full three-year term; and Arwen Thomas Belloni and Carolyn Snell are candidates for the other two seats.