Bedford Central Easily Passes 2012-13 School Budget

The Bedford Central School District's 2012-13 budget was overwhelmingly approved by the voters.

According to District Clerk Carole LaColla, it came in at 1,769 in favor and 624 against. There are 15,831 eligible to vote in the district, according to LaColla.

The spending plan totals $122,698,040, an increase of 3.12 percent, and falls below the new state mandated property tax cap.

School Board President Susan Elion Wollin said, "We are grateful to the community," for their continued support.

Wollin, herself up for re-election but uncontested, won with 1,544 votes. Also unopposed were Andrew Bracco, winning with 1,436 votes, and Lee Goldstein, winning with 1,404.

The tax levy, which is the total amount of property taxes to be collected, is raised by by 2.69 percent, to $108,063,040. For the tax rates, Bedford residents will see an increase of 8.49 percent. Mount Kisco residents will see a drop of 0.89 percent and Pound Ridge residents will see a 0.26 decrease. New Castle residents will have a 3.66-percent drop and North Castle residents getting a 3.15-percent drop.

The budget includes cuts of 55.4 jobs, with about 37 of those coming from eliminating in-house busing staff. The in-house work will be contracted out to Long Island-based Towne Bus Corp. It also includes $1,250,000 in capital spending for fixes that such as asbestos ceiling abatement at Fox Lane High School and Pound Ridge Elementary School, along with boiler replacements for Mount Kisco Elementary School and Bedford Hills Elementary School.

Wollin and Goldstein have won full, 3-year terms, while Bracco has won the remaining two years of an unexpired term. He was appointed by the school board last fall to fill a seat vacated by Mark Chernis, a longtime member who stepped down in order to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest with his employer, education services provider Pearson.

Goldstein is filling an open seat being vacated by Graham Anderson, who chose not to run again.

Information for the budget vote is also available by election district, which corresponds to elementary school attendance zones. Such information for the school board seats was not immediately available.

Bedford Schools 2011 Vote by the Numbers

Budget Vote

School Board Race

By election district (based on elementary schools):