Bedford Teachers, Residents Protest Deep Cuts Proposed for District
The Bedford Teachers Association and district residents staged a rally late Wednesday afternoon in Mount Kisco urging the state to restore critical education funds to help the district close a more than $8.8 million budget deficit.
More than 100 teachers union members and community residents protested at Main Street and Maple Avenue calling on Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state lawmakers to abolish the Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA), money that was redirected from education in 2010 to help the state close its own budget deficit following the onslaught of the recession, and increase foundation aid.
That would help restore millions of dollars to help schools around the state, including Bedford, which is facing massive cuts and layoffs.
“I’m hopeful that this is going to send them a message to step up,” said Michael Groarke, president of the Bedford Teachers Association. “It’s about time. They’ve stolen $6 million from us the past five years and it’s time for them to use the surplus that they have to properly fund schools.”
Protestors, carrying signs with messages such as “Save Our Schools,” “Protect Our Students” and “Restore GEA Funding,” organized as the state legislature is in Albany looking to finalize the budget for the state’s new fiscal year that begins Friday. Work on the state budget could wrap up by the end of this week.
Interim Superintendent John Chambers has proposed a $124.6 million school budget for 2016-17 that would cut 18 teachers districtwide, including librarians in each of the five elementary schools. In addition to nearly $2.8 million in reductions, district officials have proposed a tax cap levy of 3.82 percent, nearly three times Bedford’s ceiling of 1.32 percent for next year. While increasing the levy would raise more than $4.3 million, the budget would need to be approved by at least 60 percent of the voters on May 17 because it would exceed the tax cap, Groarke said.
Even with that and assuming $361,000 in GEA restoration by the state and use of $360,000 from the district’s fund balance, Bedford would still come up about $1 million short.
Adam Yuro, the union’s past president, said while cuts would be felt across the entire district, the primary grades would bear the brunt of the reductions. Losing librarians would hit the district’s youngest students the hardest.
“They really support all of the teachers within the schools, specifically the elementary schools,” he said of the librarians.
Groarke said elementary school class sizes would likely increase, in some cases by as much as 50 percent.
Among those who turned out to protest were current and retired teachers. Ken Kurzweil, a 30-year Bedford resident who retired from the district about 10 years ago, said planned cuts would affect arts programing as well as electives in the high school and would degrade the quality of Bedford’s education.
“The things that made Bedford special are being cut, and the cuts that are being proposed now would just decimate the district,” Kurzweil said. “All the special areas would be getting cut, particularly music and the arts and these are things that really make our school district special.”
Dorothy Venditto, a West Patent Elementary School tier specialist, said a real possibility of drastic cuts is difficult to accept.
“It’s very personal to us to watch the prospect of class sizes increasing and students suffering because of decisions made in Albany,” Venditto said.
Retired Katonah-Lewisboro teachers Anne Cunniff and Christina Faze said they came out to support their colleagues as well as the children and their parents who face the prospect of a deteriorating level of education.
“It’s a public school education and the kids are at the heart of it,” Cunniff said. “They’re only going to be in first grade once, and if there’s a class of 30 kids I don’t know what they’re going to do.”
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
