K-L Voter's Guide: Polls Open Tuesday

On Tuesday, Katonah Lewisboro school district residents will cast their ballots for the district's proposed $111 million budget for 2011-2012, decide whether to approve a $1,225,000 bond proposition to purchase new buses and decide a three-way race for two school board seats.

Goldens Bridge resident Charles Day joins incumbent Janet Harckham of Katonah on the ballot. Mark Dembo, also a Katonah resident, is vying for a seat as a write-in candidate.

The budget and bus proposition

The budget increases spending by $1.7 million over this year's budget, or by 1.59 percent. 

Faced with increasing retirement costs and decreasing state aid the school board and district administrators worked to develop a budget that preserved programs while keeping the tax rate as low as possible, said Michael Jumper, interim superintendent of schools, at the May 5 budget hearing.

"The budget-to-budget number does demonstrate we have been trying to keep our costs down," he said. The major budget increase is due to state-mandated retirement costs, which are increasing by 32.22 percent in 2011-12; salaries will decrease by over a million dollars next year, mainly due to retirements in 2010 and 2011.

The tax levy for the new budget proposal is $99,783,239, which is 2.98 percent more than this year’s tax levy. The tax levy is the portion of the budget funded through property taxes.

The proposal would increase tax rates by 1.71 percent in Bedford, 5.43 percent in Lewisboro, 7.87 percent in Pound Ridge and 7.33 percent in North Salem. The rates are largely out of the district's control and subject to change based on the assessed valuation of properties in towns, said Jumper.

Staff cuts amount to about 13 positions, mostly on the support staff and clerical side;  the education positions cut are enrollment driven and do not impact programs or class size.

For more information on the budget's programmatic impact at each school level, read our

The contingency budget cap for this year is 1.92 percent. But the district’s contingency cap would be even lower since officials are already proposing a budget that’s lower  than 1.92 percent. If the current budget proposal were to get voted down two times, the district’s contingency budget cap would lower to 1.59 percent, according to Jumper.

A contingency budget is a budget that restricts district spending to certain categories, such as health and safety, debt service and tax certiorari proceedings. In addition the district would have to, by law, charge fees for facility use, potentially raising summer camp fees, for example.

In addition to the budget proposition, voters will decide whether to support the purchase of six 78-passenger buses, five 28-passenger vans and one wheelchair accessible van. The replacement of the vehicles has been deferred for two years and will result in better efficiency and reduced maintenance costs, said Jumper.

For details, , and visit the district's website to watch a video.

School board race

Charles Day was the shortly after current school board member Eve Hundt announced that she would not seek re-election. Day cites his professional experience as a financial advisor and civic involvement on the school district's finance committee as his biggest assets as a potential school board member.

"We have overwhelmingly loved the education and the teachers here," he said while presenting his candidate statement at the May 5 school board meeting. He referred to a soon-to-be-released report on per-pupil spending in the district and said he "hoped it would bring about a sea change," and affirmed his desire to see some of those changes through on the board.

Read a Q&A with Day

, Janet Harckham has emphasized her role in reduce energy costs through the district's sustainability programs. "I have been an ardent advocate for children," she said. "Both of my initiatives have added tremendous value," she said of the solar panels added on the John Jay campus buildings, and the she initiated. 

Harckham's Q&A with Patch

shortly after the the . He has said that the current board "has allowed themselves to get mired in the muck of defensiveness and divisiveness," and has pledged to help set a collaborative tone between the board of education, teachers and the community.

Read more about Dembo in or in his blog posts.

Special instructions on how to vote for Dembo as a write-in candidate will be available at each polling location, according to Kimberly Monzon, district clerk. To vote for Dembo or write-in another candidate, voters must write the name above the name of a candidate for whom they are not voting.

How, Where and When to Vote

Polls will be open on Tuesday from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Increase Miller Elementary School, Katonah Elementary School, Lewisboro Elementary School and Meadow Pond Elementary School.