On Thursday night, the Bedford Central School District held the last of three public forums to discuss the proposed 2010-11-school budget. Board members and officials, as well as concerned citizens gathered for the presentation at the Hiram Halle Memorial Library in Pound Ridge.

Superintendent Jere Hochman began the forum by laying out five main budget goals for the upcoming year.

"The first goal is high expectations for every student's achievement and success in school. Second, is to enhance the productivity and capacity to achieve goals. The third goal is to operate efficiently while keeping environmental sustainability. Goal four is slowed expenditure growth with long-term structural changes. Goal five is to make taxes affordable."

Hochman then handed the floor over to the Assistant Superintendent for Business Mark Betz. Betz took the crowd of about 20 through 15 pages of financial assumptions, budget assumptions, budget changes and tax levy increases.

"We need to think about long-term structural changes while maintaining a high quality program," Betz noted as he touched on different topics surrounding the proposed budget.

"There is such a diverse population of kids at our schools, and we have to reach every student," Betz went on to say.

One of the main points Betz delved into was transportation cost.

"Bedford Central is in its third out of a five year contract with Chappaqua Transportation. We have 30 schools in a 59 square mile district, and not too many people know this, but we have to provide transportation to and from several schools outside of our district."

Betz went on to say that providing transportation to private and parochial schools is mandatory under New York State law.

He also said that most of the tax levy budget comes from the people. "About 84 percent comes from the people and about 70 percent of the budget goes to the people. These people are teachers, bus drivers, etc."

When asked about the money that the school district gets from the federal, state and county level, Betz said, "The funds are limited and decreasing. We take whatever we can get and use it wisely."

How will the new budget and school tax affect residents? There is a formula: you take a home's taxable assessed value, divide it by $1,000 and multiply it by the appropriate estimated tax rate change for next year.

Betz said, "The tax rate change varies from town to town, but after about 10 years you can see it evens out. For instance, Bedford's estimated tax rate change for next year is +$5.43, while Mount Kisco's is +$1.15. Each town's tax fluctuates from year to year."

When Betz and Hochman opened the forum up for discussion and questions, one woman asked, "Why are you getting rid of Art electives?"

Betz responded, "Times are tight, so we have to tighten things up. We would only make reductions in secondary art courses that have under 15 students."

"We want to make sure our teachers have every tool they need in order to successfully teach our children," added Hochman.

Another parent, Dave Snider said, "I always get aggravated when my kid comes home and tells me that there was a substitute teacher again. Where are the teachers?"

Betz answered, "Well-trained, strong teachers are crucial to the system. Teachers are often taking important training courses."

Jere Hochman reiterated, "We're trying to minimize costs while maintaining quality."

Hochman and Betz ended the forum by saying that letters and emails from the community are a wonderful form of feedback. They pointed out that even if you do not have children in the school system, you are still part of the education community and are asked to get involved. Any information citizens need, including the Thursday night's proceedings can be found on Bedford Central School Districts website, www.bcsdny.org.