Bethlehem residents gave the school district a passing grade on its proposed budget and $1.2 million bus replacement proposition. They also returned one longtime board of education member to her seat and voted in a new one.
The Bethlehem Central School District budget of $87.56 million for the 2009-2010 school year passed by a tally of 2,410 votes to 1,215, or with 66.8 percent of the vote (see related story, page 5). The bus proposition passed by a vote of 2,109 to 1,492, or with 58.6 percent of the vote.
Out of five candidates running for the district’s board of education, voters overwhelmingly chose to return Lynne Lenhardt to the board for her eighth three-year term and voted in Elsmere Elementary’s PTA president Charmaine Wijeyesinghe for her first term.
Lenhardt commanded 34.1 percent of the votes cast for board of election with 1,965 votes and Wijeyesinghe narrowly beat out the third-place vote getter with 1,361 votes, or 23.6 percent. Patrick Greene came in with 21.4 percent of the vote at 1,234 votes.
The two other candidates, Peter Shawhan and Rudy Arias, came in with 831 votes and 370 votes, respectively.
The new budget constitutes a $2.8 million or 3.29 percent spending increase over this year’s and offers a 2 percent tax levy increase. There will also be a 1.76 percent tax rate increase. That means an owner of a $200,000 home in Bethlehem would see an increase of $64 in his or her school taxes before any STAR benefit reductions were applied. The owner of a similar $200,000 in New Scotland would see an increase of $66 this year.
Just after 9 p.m. on Tuesday, May 19, a handful of school and library officials and board members and their families gathered at the Bethlehem High School auditorium to hear the results being read off from the lever machines.
The day after the vote, Wednesday, May 20, the Bethlehem Board of Education formally adopted contractual changes with the Bethlehem Central Teachers Association union. The union renegotiated its contract with the district to defer cost-of-living pay increases, among other concessions, and also extended its contract until 2012.
The move is expected to save the district $600,000 next year because it will not have to pay the salaries raises for four months.
Superintendent Michael Tebbano said the long months of community meetings, board of education presentations and budget forums paid off in the end. He joked that now the budget has passed, it’s time to start working on the next one.
Tebbano told The Spotlight after the polls closed that everyone should be proud of what was accomplished.
We’re very excited. It was a hard, long process of trying to make the budget affordable for the community and working in such a way as to maintain our quality programs, Tebbano said. `I’m extremely proud of this community for coming out and giving us a two-to-one mandate on this.`
He said the large board of education race shows there is real community interest in the district.
`It was a great board race, there were five candidates for two board seats,` he said and went on to congratulate the board winners.
`We’re very excited about Charmaine’s role on the board. She’s been an outstanding parent advocate in the community, and we’re excited to have her,` Tebbano said. `We’re also very excited that Lynne is going to continue her role on the board. She brings a wealth of experience to the position.`
After more than two decades, Lenhardt said she appreciates the continued support.
`I’m thrilled; 21 years is a long time and some people, especially in this era of change, thought that maybe it was time for me to go, so I appreciate the support of the community,` she said. `I’ve always been very committed to the community and the students, and I’m very happy to be able to serve for another three years.`
Lenhardt said the current economic crisis made this year particularly challenging.
`I think hanging over all of us has been the financial climate and how to deal with it and how to come up with a reasonable budget,` Lenhardt said after the polls closed. `I’m thrilled the budget passed as well as it has. I think it’s the highest rate of passage in all the years I’ve been on the board.`
Wijeyesinghe said she’s ready for the challenge. `I’m very happy and very pleased the community put their confidence in me and very pleased with the number of folks who came out to support me in a number of different ways, and I want to thank them,` she said. `I look forward to working with a very productive and functioning group because I’ve been watching them for a year and a half, and I’m excited to join that group.`
She said as a new member she doesn’t want to take over but instead will learn from the board and be there to listen to community concerns and be open to dialogue.
Board President James Lytle decided not seek re-election this year and will be stepping down in July, when board members are seated and vote on a new board president and vice president.
Lytle said he was pleased with the budget outcome for his last year presiding over the Bethlehem Board of Education. He described his time on the board as `rewarding` and said open dialogue was an important theme to this year’s budget process.
`The strong community support for the proposed budget is very gratifying ` particularly during very tough times ` and I think it reflects the degree to which we involved Bethlehem parents, students and taxpayers in the budget process and listened to what they had to say,` Lytle said. `I can’t think of a better parting gift to a departing board president than a budget passage rate of more than two to one.“