It's still a 'no' for KLSD bond

CROSS RIVER, N.Y. - Narrow voter rejection of $24.5 million in borrowing by the Katonah-Lewisboro School District grew even tighter in the official vote count, but residents' disapproval remained unchanged. 

Final figures, made public on May 21, showed the bond proposal—meant to turn the former Lewisboro Elementary School (LES) in South Salem into a pre-kindergarten center—failed by 22 votes, not the 24 announced on the night of the balloting, May 19. The official yes/no figures were 1,411/1,433 vs. election night’s 1,407/1,431. 

Minor discrepancies between early, unofficial returns and the subsequent official canvass are common, appearing in all KLSD contests this year, from the budget to school board seats. In every instance, the difference in numbers did not change the outcome.  

Results are compiled from polling places in each of KLSD’s three elementary schools: Katonah (KES), Increase Miller (IMES) and Meadow Pond (MPES). The official results are: 

BUDGET (yes/no) 634/154 (KES), 830/337 (IMES), 483/395 (MPES) TOTAL 1,947/886 

PROP 2 (yes/no) 624/163 (KES), 835/335 (IMES), 524/355 (MPES) TOTAL 1,983/853 

PROP 3 (yes/no) 461/328 (KES), 602/577 (IMES), 348/528 (MPES) TOTAL 1,411/1,433 

TRUSTEE (vote for three) 

Stacey Isaacson 453 (KES), 557 (IMES), 323 (MPES) TOTAL 1,333 

Lorraine Gallagher 416 (KES), 658 (IMES), 518 (MPES) TOTAL 1,592 

Bill Swertfager 370 (KES), 695 (IMES), 563 (MPES) TOTAL 1,628 

Nancy Bachana 276 (KES), 394 (IMES), 238 (MPES) TOTAL 908 

Melissa Dilmaghani 484 (KES), 457 (IMES), 300 (MPES) TOTAL 1,241  

Write-ins 8 (KES), 22 (IMES), 44 (MPES) TOTAL 74 

While residents elected three trustees, only the top two vote getters—Bill Swertfager and Lorraine Gallagher—received full three-year terms on the school board. Stacey Isaacson, the third-place finisher, will serve just over two years to complete the term of Trustee Jon Poffenberger, who resigned his seat in April. In a post-election statement, Isaacson said she was “grateful to the voters for giving me this opportunity to serve and give back to the KLSD community.” 

As she took her seat at the trustees’ May 21 meeting, Isaacson was told by Gallagher, the school board’s president, that “we welcome you to our table.”  

Gallagher also thanked KLSD residents for supporting next year’s $131.8 million budget and Proposition 2, which authorized spending up to $2.5 million to improve or repair athletic and other recreational facilities.  

But she was “sorry that [Proposition 3, the proposed $24.5 million LES bond] did not pass.” 

By turning thumbs down, voters upended plans to convert the building, closed as a school in 2014, into a districtwide center for universal pre-kindergarten programs. “We will be looking at UPK and LES again in the future,” Gallagher said, urging district residents to “stay tuned. We will come back with more information soon.” 

The board’s student trustee, John Jay High School junior Hudson Lutz, had been an outspoken advocate for Prop 3’s passage. Its defeat, he said at Thursday’s board meeting was not “something anyone in the district should be celebrating. We’re setting ourselves back, as a district, as a community.” 

School Superintendent Ray Blanch, speaking after the Tuesday vote, said there were no immediate plans to resubmit the bond proposal. 

In a statement Wednesday, Blanch thanked voters “for their participation in the most recent elections. The passing of the general budget allows us to continue to offer a stellar education for our children.”