On Tuesday the voters in the Bedford Central School District will go to the polls. While the budget is in the hands of the voters, the candidates for the three uncontested board seats are assured of victory. The board members up for reelection are Mark Slivka and Mark Chernis. The new member on the board will be Eric Karle. The Record-Review asked all the candidates questions about issues that currently face the district.

Each candidate supports the district's proposed budget. Mark Slivka, chairman of the district's finance subcommittee, said that the biggest hit for the budget was the sudden requirement from the government to have cash on hand for accruals.

"The big change this year was the required accrual method rather than cash method, which actually caused a major surprise and cost us about $2 million more than we had a expected," he said. "We were also

greatly affected this year by the pension costs."

Mr. Slivka said the board only con-trolled about $10 million of the budget.

"We are not in control of most of the increased costs associated with teacher benefits, although we've been negotiating benefits by having teachers contributing to their own benefits," he said. "But the budget has to account for the increases in student enrollment and teachers getting three and four percent a year for step raises."

Mr. Slivka said an escalating budget is tough on area residents who have fixed incomes. "They will have a lot of difficulty living here. Higher taxes have the potential of driving out anyone who doesn't have a lot of income," he said. "That's disturbing because there are people who have lived here for generations. Pound Ridge was a very eclectic area, but with an 8 percent increase in property taxes, it will be a less heterogeneous area. I'm not sure how the board can deal with this — we are in a very difficult position."

Mr. Chernis said that the administration was very thoughtful in how they put the budget together.

"Unfortunately, funds for the New York State Retirement System became an issue because arcane accounting put a strain on the budget," he said. "I think it could have been a whole lot worse if this board hadn't been as financially responsible and financially conservative. Many school districts are worse off than we are. This accounting policy change had a great impact on the tax levy, and the administration got thrown a real curveball this year, but they handled it gracefully"

Mr. Chernis said the budget primarily looks at increased student enrollment. "As long as the budget increase is consistent with the student population, and as long as we are responsible and thrifty where possible, I think people will support the budget," he said. "People will see that the world is just a more expensive place each year. When I talk to other parents in the community, I get the feeling that folks are concerned about taxes, but it's more important for the kids to get the kind of education they need."

Mr. Karle, who will be a newcomer to the board, said he has always supported the school budget. "Most of the budget is mandated costs, like salaries, capital projects, and testing procedures. There's not a whole lot of waste here, and the board is doing the best it can with what it has. I think they have done a great job," he said. "We have to foot the bill for No Child Left Behind, but you do the best job you can with what you're given to work with.

Recently the district had to deal with friction in the high school

between African-American and Latino students. A meeting was arranged just after the incident with parents, teachers, administrators, and students. We asked the candidates what their views were on how the district was handling race relations in general.

Mr. Chernis said that the incident a few weeks ago at Fox Lane High School could have easily happened with any two students, regardless of race.

"Here you had two kids who weren't getting along. The district acted pretty well — they held meetings and they took it seriously and listened," he said. "It's important to make sure that we don't mischaracterize incidents as a race incident when they aren't race incidents."

He said that it is important that the schools are a good environment for students of all races and religions. "Everyone should be comfortable in our schools," he said. "Whenever there is an incident involving race, religion, or discrimination, we need to take it seriously and make sure the incident doesn't become a trend."

For some schools, conflict resolution has been part of the curriculum in many schools, but Mr. Chernis said it might work better as part of a school's general counseling. "I'm not sure a program within the schools for different students would be appropriate."

Mr. Karle, who has four children in the system ranging from elementary school to high school, said it's important that people understand different cultures.

"There are good and bad in every ethnicity, and the more people understand about diversity, the more cultural barriers break down," he said. "The conflict resolution task force was in Mount Kisco when my daughter was there. She learned how to deal with difficult situations, and she was trained as a mediator. It was good because it had kids work out their differences."

Mr. Slivka said arranging to meet with parents in a timely manner was wonderful. "Dr. Falcone recognized that this was not going to go away, and the district was at a point where something had to be done," he said.

"You also have to look at what's going on in the rest of the student's life, not just in school. Having meetings where you are talking about

your life, and in many school class-rooms you don't have that opportunity.^"

Mr. Slivka said special programs like Wellness Day provide some opportunity to discuss differences.

"It's an ongoing problem the school and the community has to deal with — it can't simply be the school."

— MARK CHERNIS

At a recent board meeting, members and administrators discussed the growing number of tests given to students in the district, many required by the No Child Left Behind Act. Mr. Chernis said the real issue for the district about testing was how much importance should be placed on the various examinations.

"What we really need to decide is how much we care about test scores__ themselves," he said. "To a certain extent our students are performing well enough. The importance of the test scores is largely about how much the community cares. We have to decide what does NCLB mean to us.