Katonah-Lewisboro School District to unveil 'Vision 2030'

CROSS RIVER, N.Y. - A strategic plan to empower students for success in the Katonah-Lewisboro School District was expected to be formally unveiled tonight at a meeting of the KLSD board.

The plan, KLSD Vision 2030, presents itself as a guideline “for achieving educational goals and responding to changing needs over time.” It is scheduled to be discussed at length at the March 27 meeting, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in the John Jay High School library.

Trustees were given a sneak peek at the plan at the school board’s March 13 session, which also featured an extensive look at the proposed 2025-26 school budget.

The strategic plan outlined for the board by Dr. Ray Blanch, the superintendent of schools, includes “six [interconnected] guiding pillars to light the path to empowering all students,” he said. They are:

1. Knowledge and skills that equip students to seek knowledge and shape a successful future.

2. Belonging, to foster an inclusive and connected community where everyone belongs and thrives.

3. Learner-centered leadership in which students take ownership and develop as confident leaders and learners.

4. Sustainability and global citizenship inspiring students to lead as champions of sustainability and responsible global citizens.

5 Well-being, nurturing students to help them thrive both inside and outside the classroom.

6. Collaborative educators to enhance instructional effectiveness and improve student learning.

No. 3, the leadership pillar, was one he really “did not expect,” Blanch said. But it “was very clear from our community, from our children, from everybody: this idea about our students being the leaders. So, we will empower students to take ownership and develop as confident leaders and learners.”

While March 27’s meeting is meant to take a comprehensive look at Vision 2030, Blanch said the strategic plan will continue to grow with concepts tailored to meet the specific needs of individual schools.

“If it’s in this particular document,” Blanch said of the March 13 slide presentation, “this is coming more at a larger, district level and/or if it has a significant impact at one school or more. We will also be looking a little bit later in the spring and start of the fall [at] the idea that buildings will have their own empowerment plans or their own building-based actions.”

Propositions

The language of three ballot questions is still being finalized for May 20’s school voting. Proposition 1, as usual, is the budget vote, up or down, and voters virtually always make their views known. Other propositions, not so much.

In the case this year of Proposition 3, officials made clear, skipping the question could be costly. That’s because a simple “yes” vote will have no impact on taxpayers but could mean more than $1 million in additional state aid for KLSD. 

The extra money—ranging from $736,125 to $1.2 million—would come to the district for its participation in the state’s energy performance contract project. 

“I don’t know why New York does this,” Blanch said, “but I appreciate it.”

The budget, as outlined at two meetings in February and discussed at length on March 13, hikes spending by more than $3 million to $127.4 million. 

Property taxes would rise by a cap-compliant 3.29 percent in a levy of $109,490,423. That would result, budget-makers said, in estimated tax-rate hikes of 0.27 percent in Katonah, 4.26 percent in Lewisboro and 6.64 percent in Pound Ridge. North Salem would see a drop of 4.10 percent.