K-L School Board Candidate: Richard Stone

On May 21, Katonah-Lewisboro voters will vote on a $114 million budget proposal and elect three new school board members.

Below is a brief bio of Richard Stone and his replies to a set of questions sent to all of the K-L candidates.

Stone is a 22-year local resident and member of the Katonah-Lewisboro schools' finance committee. He's had a 20-plus years in banking, spent mostly in corporate finance at Citibank and Fleet Bank, among other firms, and volunteered in the district with his wife Patricia, as their son, Mack (now an attorney) progressed through the schools. 

Patch: What strengths will you bring to the board?

Stone: I have spent my career as a financial professional helping lots of companies solve lots of financial problems. I have spent significant time on the FACE Committee and the Finance Committee. Katonah-Lewisboro has expenses rising faster than tax revenues. It’s a financial problem. I think it can be fixed without impacting the quality of the education in this district.

My son spent 13 years in KLSD; from kindergarten at Lewisboro Elementary to his graduation from John Jay High School.  I know the importance of good programs and good teachers, and I believe we can have both without bankrupting the families of these towns.

Patch: What issues facing the district do you feel most strongly about?

Stone: First and foremost, we must maintain the high quality education that our kids are getting. That’s most important. Next we need to figure out how to contain the growth of expenditures, given the current economy, the state-mandated tax levy limitation, and the lower population of the schools.

Patch: Describe the quality of education you think students are getting in the district. Are there measures you would take to improve upon it?

Stone: Katonah-Lewisboro is a college-prep school system. 99-100% of our graduates go on to college after graduation. I would like to see data that indicates, aside from test scores, how successful they are in college. I think we should do this first, in order to be able to say that this is a quality district.

Patch: All three collective bargaining agreements are up this year. Describe how you see the current state of labor relations in the district.

Stone: The new contracts are supposed to be signed on June 30. If I am elected, I will take office on July 1. Current board members have not commented on the state of negotiations, so, like everyone else, I’m waiting to hear. I sincerely hope that the faculty, staff and administrators understand that the current path of salaries, pensions, and benefits are unsustainable in the District. The Superintendent and the Board have pretty much squeezed every other budget line dry.

Patch: What do you think the long-term impact of the tax cap will be on Katonah-Lewisboro schools? 

Stone: Over the long term, KLSD salaries and benefits will be reduced to be more in line with comparable districts. Over the long term, the employees of the District will continue to earn attractive compensation, and KLSD will continue to be an attractive place to teach and work, and study and learn.

Patch: What do you think about the Common Core standards? Will they benefit K-L students?

Stone: As long as the Common Core demands more rigorous study, they will only benefit KLSD students. The complaints seem to be that the standards are harder to teach, and that they might result in lower test scores. Since 45 or 46 states have adopted these standards, the complaints are unimportant.

As I said earlier, KLSD is a college-prep system. The better prepared the kids are for college, the better off we are as a community.

Patch: The district is studying various approaches to managing its shrinking population. Are there specific ideas you would support in this area?

Stone: Not particularly. I’d like to see if the shrinking student population is a long-term trend. A change in regional economics could rapidly change the District’s needs. Over the last two decades, I’ve seen the school population drop a bit, then rise, then drop. I’d like to see it rise again.

Patch: Is there anything we haven’t asked that you would like the public to know about you or your candidacy?

Stone: I believe that all problems can be fixed, as long as all the people involved in the problem sincerely want to fix it. I believe that the KLSD community is a wonderful one for our kids. I was born in the Midwest, but I have lived in Cross River longer than I’ve lived in any other place in my life. My son graduated from John Jay eight years ago, and I am proud of the education that he got here. Everyone who graduates from John Jay over the next twenty years should look back one day to say, “What a great place to grow up.”