Friday, September 6, 2013 WESTMORE NEWS 11

Kindergarteners mix and mingle

Kindergartener Kayleigh Curran takes a big bite of ice cream. Max Pollitzer (left) and Braden Danow check out each other’s bingo cards.

Eleven-year-old Zachary Gould of Candy Lane gives kindergartener Maddie Margolis a heaping helping of whipped cream.

Anna Romanella of Mark Drive points to the calendar on the wall in Karen Johnson’s classroom to show her son Steven which day he will start school.

Sara Abramson (left) observes

the door hangers Kendall Konigsberg and Eliana Geririni

are coloring at the Ridge

Street School ice cream social

for incoming kindergartners

on Tuesday, Sept. 3.

Photo story By

Claire K. raCine

Friday, September 12, 2014 | WESTMORE NEWS 13

PORT CHESTER DAY A day late, but still great

Six-year-old Lily Wolf of Hillandale Road, Rye Brook, grins when she sees her Minnie Mouse face paint that matches her t-shirt. Lael Porcelli of Hobart Avenue and her sister Lind painted faces at the Lemonade for Leukemia booth to raise money for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Because of possible thunderstorms, the 26th annual Port Chester Day at Lyon Park was moved from Saturday, Sept. 6 to Sunday, Sept. 7.

Julia Caputo of Greenwich shares a taste of her ice cream with her brother Eric.

PiCture story By

Claire K. raCineChildren jump in the bounce castle, one of the many inflatable rides and games set up in Lyon Park.

José Luis Farias of Poningo Street helps his 7-year-old son, Alexander, paint his ring toss game green and white. Home Depot provided all the wooden materials and supplies.

Watched by their father, Vinicio Rodriguez of Clark Place, 7-year-old Marisabel dances with her 11-month-old sister, Annie, to the music played by Rave On.

Administrativeincluding business office,

legal, central office, insurance $2.62 million

Library and technology

$2.01 million

Special education

$13.71 million Athletics and activities

$702,000

Employee benefits$20.57 million

Guidance and health services$3.27 million

Debt service and facilities operations,

maintenance$10.37 million

Transportation$2.51 million

School instruction including salaries,

supplies, supervision, curriculum development

$35.96 million

Fund balance

(district reserves)$4.1 million

Property taxes including STAR

$61.21 million

Other$1.53 million

PILOTs (payments in lieu of taxes)$1.85 million

County sales tax

$1.7 million

State aid$21.33 million

ä

ä

ä

ä

ä

ä

Proposed 2015-16 budget$91.72 million

ä ä

ää

ä

ää

ä

ä

In

OutThis piggybank breakdown, using information gathered from the school board’s adopted 2015-16 budget, shows what funds the Port Chester spending plan and where the money goes.

CLAIRE K. RACINE AND RICHARD ABEL|WESTMORE NEWS

Here’s what’s insidePeople .............................210573 Events...................5Nearby Events ..............6-7Opinion .........................8-9Sports .......................12-14Police Briefs...................15Arts & Entertainment ...16-17 Religious Services .........16Classifieds ................18-19

PORT CHESTERWestmore NEWS Vol. 51 No. 16 • An edition of Westmore News

Friday, April 17 - Thursday, April 23, 2015

Your Village, Your Paper, Your News

$100 per copy$4700 per yearTel: 914-939-6864Fax: 914-939-6877Editor@westmorenews.com

/WestmoreNews @westmorenews

www.westmorenews.com38 Broad Street Port Chester, NY 10573-4197Locally owned and operated

since 1964

WestmoreNews.com

Administrativeincluding business office,

legal, central office, insurance $2.62 million

Library and technology

$2.01 million

Special education

$13.71 million Athletics and activities

$702,000

Employee benefits$20.57 million

Guidance and health services$3.27 million

Debt service and facilities operations,

maintenance$10.37 million

Transportation$2.51 million

School instruction including salaries,

supplies, supervision, curriculum development

$35.96 million

Fund balance

(district reserves)$4.1 million

Property taxes including STAR

$61.21 million

Other$1.53 million

PILOTs (payments in lieu of taxes)$1.85 million

County sales tax

$1.7 million

State aid$21.33 million

ä

ä

ä

ä

ä

ä

Proposed 2015-16 budget$91.72 million

ä ä

ää

ä

ää

ä

ä

In

Out

PCHS softball team makes a comebackLady Rams shut out Gorton, beat Byram Hills after losing badly to Fox Lane.For the story, page 12

Port Chester school budget boasts additions, not cuts

By Claire K. raCineOnce again, Port Chester

schools are looking at additions rather than cuts in the coming school year, something the school board could not be more thrilled about.

“For many years the board was forced to cut programs to balance the budget,” said Board of Education President Carolee Brakewood. “I get nightmares where I think about our situation just five years ago when the budget was so tight that the board was actually discussing cutting full-day kindergarten to a half-day program.”

During the 2011-12 school year, the district proposed that drastic measure to close a $2 million budget gap caused by the newly instated New York State tax levy cap. Ultimately with conces-sions from all district bargaining units and additional state aid, the school board did not have to go that route. In the following years, the district was able to make the switch to actually expanding pro-grams, something that has never been more evident than in the spending plan that will go before voters in May.

“The 2015-16 budget is truly exciting in that we are able to add programs like elementary science, enrichment and summer school that will make a palpable

difference in the experience of our students,” Brakewood said.

“I can look at this budget and say the children we serve will be

better off—significantly better off—because of this budget and all the things we’re adding back in to give them opportunities,”

added board member Jim Dreves. Besides the elements that the

Board of Education president

This piggybank breakdown, using information gathered from the school board’s adopted 2015-16 budget, shows what funds the Port Chester spending plan and where the money goes.

CLAIRE K. RACINE AND RICHARD ABEL|WESTMORE NEWS

Please turn to page 20

Picture-worthy picturesPCHS IB art students display their workFor the story, page 20

Drunk driver crashes into wallRye man arrested on felony drunk driving charges in Port ChesterFor Police Briefs, page 15

Future projects to improve Port Chester’s sewer system, like the work done on Highland Street in January, could potentially qualify for grant funding courtesy of the new Water Infrastructure Improvement Act. CLAIRE K. RACINE|WESTMORE NEWS

Please turn to page 10

New state funding stream to help villages with water infrastructure

By Claire K. raCineNew funding streams to assist municipalities are as rare as rain in

California right now, which is why a new grant program to fund water infrastructure projects is so thrilling for Assemblyman Steve Otis who championed the idea.

“I initiated a big proposal in the state budget to create new state grant funding for municipalities doing clean water infrastructure projects,” said Otis, who represents Port Chester and Rye Brook.

As part of the 2015-16 New York State budget, the Water Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2015 allows municipalities to vie for a cut of $200 million to fund waste water and drinking water projects. Specifically, the act allows for the replacement or repair of infrastructure or projects that comply with environmental and public health laws and regulations related to water quality.

“Basically municipalities pay for this work either through borrowing or just local taxpayer dollars,” Otis explained. Instead, local govern-ments can try and get grant money to offset part of the cost.

One reason Otis pushed for the act was because of the sewer rent fee Port Chester enacted to pay for needed repairs and replacement of

1% say ‘no’Port Chester parents opt not to opt out of state assessmentsFor the story, page 10

Please turn to page 10

Two for tenure

For the story, page 2

2 top village officials get 2-year contract extensions

By Jananne aBelAs one of the last acts of the

Port Chester Board of Trustees before Mayor Dennis Pilla took office, they extended the contracts of Village Attorney Anthony Cerreto and Village Manager Christopher Steers for two years.

Cerreto’s contract would have expired on May 31, 2015. Steers’ contract was not set to expire until Oct. 11, 2016. They will now expire on May 31, 2017 and Oct. 11, 2018 respectively.

With this contract, Cerreto’s salary was set at $139,156 for 2015-16 while Steers’ salary will not be immediately increasing.

With Pilla set to be sworn in for his fourth term as mayor—fol-lowing a two-year hiatus during which Neil Pagano served as mayor—the next day, the vil-lage board voted unanimously to extend the contracts of these two top village officials on Apr. 6.

At that meeting, Trustee Dan Brakewood told Steers he dis-tinctly remembered talking to him on the phone in Florida when he was being considered for the village’s new Director of Code Enforcement position.

Steers has been village man-ager since May 21, 2014, previ-ously having served as Director

of Code Enforcement, acting building inspector and assistant village manager, all under Village Manager Chris Russo.

“I’m glad you decided to join the Village of Port Chester and made it a career path,” Brakewood said. “Having you is vital to the success of the village.”

Brakewood added that he was concerned about the memo that was attached to the resolution to extend the manager’s contract in the documentation for the meet-ing. “That is something we have to work out,” he said.

“I have been told by dozens of people via conversations, emails, texts, etc. that the incoming mayor is going to do whatever is within his power to get rid of me and sev-eral key team members,” Steers wrote in the memo. He went on to say he had been told “the team may be dismantled by the dis-missal of [Village Clerk] Janusz [Richards], Tony [Cerreto], [Treasurer] Leonie [Douglas] and [Building Inspector] Peter [Miley].”

In addition, he wrote: “There may be a campaign of intimi-dation, misdirection, micro-management, busy work, gotcha tactics and attempts to smear my name.”

20 WESTMORE NEWS | Friday, April 17, 2015

mentioned that will benefit the elementary schools, the high school and middle school will also get summer school. Port Chester High School will also profit from expanded course offerings that will bring more flex-ibility to student schedules and the middle school will gain another 8th grade academy allowing for smaller class sizes and more differentiated instruction. District-wide, and at all the schools, there are numerous other additions included in the proposed 2015-16 spending plan.

Advocacy garners state aidThe restoration of lost programs and

infusion of new ones comes courtesy of an extra $1.7 million in state aid.

“Advocacy works,” Superintendent Dr. Edward Kliszus, Jr. said simply.

Members of the community sent more

than 7,000 letters to state legislators and to the governor explaining the plight of Port Chester. Albany responded with a total aid package of $21.3 million for the school district.

This, the superintendent said, is a great first step, but the state needs to fully fund the Port Chester School District rather than withholding essential dollars in order to close its own budget deficits.

“The biggest impediment to a child’s success is poverty,” Kliszus explained emphatically.

Still, the improvements Port Chester has put in place is heading the district in the right direction and the community needs to show their support by coming out to vote on May 19, he added.

“People need to come out and vote their conscience,” he said. “You cannot

be complacent and stay home. The stakes are too high. Our children are the future of America. It sounds a little over the top, but it’s the truth.”

Tax levy only slight increaseThe $91.7 million budget adopted by the

school board on Tuesday, Apr. 14 is a 3.73% increase over the current one.

Much of that, however, is due to the extra state aid. The $61.2 million tax levy is only a 1.05% increase, which is exactly at the tax cap. Often incorrectly assumed to be a 2% cap, the actual formula to determine each district’s unique cap is more complex than that and takes into account the Consumer Price Index, a tax base growth factor, state adjustments, building aid, debt service and payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs).

Despite the minor increase, most

residents should not have to pay more in school taxes next year as long as they qualify for STAR and did not make improvements on their home to increase the value. Even if a homeowner’s taxes go up, he or she will get a refund from the state because the district complied with the property tax cap and also developed a plan to save one percent of the 2014-15 budget, about $600,000, each year for the next four years.

Through shared services and efficiencies, the district has already saved taxpayers around $3.4 million, well over the required amount.

Residents can voice their approval of the budget—or show their displeasure—at the polls on May 19. Information on how to register to vote and the appropriate forms are available on the school district website, PortChesterSchools.org.

Port Chester school budget boasts additions, not cuts

Picture-worthy picturesPCHS IB art students display their work

Photos By Claire K. raCineEach of the 20 Port Chester High School students

taking the International Baccalaureate (IB) Visual Arts course exhibited eight pieces in the show, cre-ated both in and out of class over the last two years. The Apr. 9 show fulfilled one of the requirements for year two of the IB Visual Arts curriculum, and digital images of each student’s artwork will be submitted for external assessment in order to dem-onstrate experimentation, exploration, manipulation and refinement of a variety of visual arts activities.

The subjects of the students’ art included the skeleton, water, Caravaggio, Goya’s Disasters of War, Piranesi, family members, short story illustra-tion, illustrated envelopes and crushed cans. The art utilized various media including pencil, ink, watercolor, papier mâché, oil, photography, collage, drypoints, monoprints, acrylic, colored pencils, chalk and charcoal.

The students’ teacher for the IB course is April Dessereau.

IB Visual Arts studentsJonathan AlarconAlexander BlasJoshua BonillaSonya ChandyLesly Diaz

Mathew GroseAugustine JosephSalma JuarezEmily MaldonadoEmma Manos

Brian MartinezRuhi MathewMarco NietoJasmin O’BryanNitara Ortiz

Isabella RocaPedro RodriquezLeslie SalcedoTiffany SantaMaria Vasquez

Leslie Salcedo, one of the Port Chester High School International Baccalaureate Art students, points out a drawing she made to her friend Jessica Bonilla at the art show on Thursday, Apr. 9.

Port Chester High School senior Edin Melchor snaps a picture on his phone of a photo taken by Emily Maldonado.

Port Chester High School instructors Mike Mouracade (left), who teaches history and art history, and James Stamboni, who teaches studio art and drawing and painting, check out the work of Augustine Joseph.

Ruhi Mathew holds up a semi-self-portrait which also includes elements of her younger sister.

Jenny and Tom Manos look at the artwork created by some of their daughter Emma’s fellow students.

Continued from page 1