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053003 Hispanic concerns raised in board race
By FRANK NARDOZZI
In a way no other Bedford Central school board candidate has done before, Betty Negron-Ramirez of Mount Kisco is challenging the district to look at its Hispanic population and how it is served.
If elected, it is .believed that Ms. Negron-Ramirez, t e other of three girls, would be the first Hispanic ever elected to the school board. She is running against Jason Black, the father of two girls and a boy, who is also from Mount Kisco.
Susan Elion Wollin of Bedford Village is running unopposed for a second seat on the seven-member school board.
According to Dr. Diane RamosKelly, the assistant superintendent of schools for curriculum and instruction, Latinos make up the largest minority group in the school district.
There are a total of 626 Hispanic students, or 15.4 percent of the entire student population. There are sizable numbers at three of the five - elementary schools, as well as the high school and middle school.
According to Dr. Ramos-Kelly, who is of Hispanic heritage herself, there are 162 Hispanic students at Mount Kisco Elementary School (MKES), or 33 percent of the school population; 61 Hispanic students at Bedford Hills Elementary, or 17.5 '~ percent; 55 Hispanic students at West Patent Elementary, or 14.2 percent; 122 Hispanic students at Fox Lane Middle School, or 13.4 percent; and 194 at Fox Lane High School, or 17.6 percent.
Smaller Hispanic populations of 22 students, or 5.2 percent, and 10 students, or 2.5 percent, are present
at Bedford Village Elementary and Pound Ridge Elementary, respectively.
In comparison, a total of 5.8 percent of the student population in the school district is African-American and 4.3 percent are Asian.
Issues raised
The Hispanic community, centered mostly in Mount Kisco and Bedford Hills, has spoken out in the past. In March 2001, more than 100 parents of Spanish-speaking students appeared at a Bedford Central school board meeting to demand that a part-time bilingual social worker not be cut from the following year's budget.
Bruce Dennis, the superintendent of schools, explained that the one-day a week position was proposed to be cut because the position was "so fragmented" that it didn't deal with the needs of Spanish-speaking students "in a coherent way"
The part-time social worker's position was turned into a full-time Spanish: speaking, community outreach position, and, since then, the district has hired a Spanish-speaking school psychologist based in Mount Kisco, who will be full-time next year. There is also a full-time Spanishspeaking clerk/school monitor at MKES.
However, Carla Rediker, the outgoing Spanish-speaking social worker, said at the time that she spent many more hours in students' homes working with them than she was paid for in all of the district's seven schools. She stated that federal guidelines generally call for at least one counselor for every 250 students.
With 626 Hispanic students currently in the school district, and the community outreach worker and school clerk not counted as "counselors," that still leaves the Hispanic students about 1.5 counselors short, although the outreach worker can refer students for help outside of the schools.
Ms. Rediker maintained that the counseling services were necessary to ward off problems such as drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, school violence, and other problems that beset a minority school age population.
During the candidates' interview conducted by The Record-Review last week, Mrs. Negron-Ramirez said that she was running because she thought she "could make a difference, knowing the community's needs and knowing that there are children that are not at the same level as other children - not only educationally, but financially and psychologically. Maybe I can help the school system in some of these areas," she said.
Ms. Negron-Ramirez, who is a financial counselor at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, said, "It's hard working in a hospital environment and having to deal with patients and their problems. I have come to realize that there are a lot of people who have emotional issues or financial issues which affect them in their education.
"A child may come to school depressed or may come to school with a behavioral problem,- and maybe those kind of issues need to be addressed," she said.
"We don't know why John Doe is acting the way he is. You don't know what the problem is at home. It could be that he is just rebelling against his parents or against whoever is in front of him, looking for help," she said.
"I think that there is not enough being done. Because for me to see children and teenagers or children who are 10 years old in a psychiatric unit, it causes me great sorrow, because I know that these are issues that can be helped and can be avoided if we can stop them when we see the first signs."
Asked to respond to this issue, Mr. Black said, "I think that Betty is raising a very interesting point. I have to say that it is news to me on some level.
"But believe me, I would be in complete sympathy if I was in the same position where I was witnessing children coming to the Northern Westchester Hospital Center for psychological treatment.
Mr. Black said he was under the impression that "resources that are available within the school system here at Bedford Central are actually pretty darn good. I hate to think that the system within the school itself is failing our children.
"If that is, in fact, the case, she has a legitimate issue and it is one that should be addressed," Mr. Black said. "I have to say, quite honestly, that this is the first time that I've heard this brought up as a problem within our schools. I know that the Northern Westchester Hospital Center - and I'm not trying to suggest that this data is incorrect, because I'm sure that the children are there - but that hospital serves a really broad area that in many respects goes above and beyond Bedford Central schools.
"I don't know where these children are coming from, and I don't know the home conditions of these children," Mr. Black said. "I don't know a lot of the extenuating circumstances related to the issue that is being raised. It is a concern. If it is a legitimate problem it is certainly one that ought to be addressed."
`Overlooked'
Ms. Negron-Ramirez went on to say that "a lot of these issues are not addressed or not known because a lot of people, like yourself, or Mr. Black, are not aware of these children's problems.
"These children are traumatized," she said. "I'm not saying that the school has failed in any way I'm saying that these issues are sometimes overlooked, not intentionally, but they are overlooked. And then these children end up with problems that do affect them and their education."
The candidates were asked why they thought that students at Mount Kisco Elementary School, where the largest percentage of Spanish-speaking students attend, were often found not to score as high on state standardized tests as their classmates at the other four elementary schools.
Ms. Elion Wollin said that "the reality is that testing children who have limited English capability on the same standards as English-speaking children is going to create a difference
Mr. Black said that from what he had heard, MKES scores on the most recent standardized tests were up over last year. "They are starting to inch upward. So that's a good thing," he said.
He also cited Mount Kisco Elementary's "lack of consistency in leadership," particularly at the level of the principal.
"The fact that we have had a principal now who has been there a year, and is clearly going to be there next year and has the support of her faculty, I think that is going to be a huge step forward," he said.
"We're going to see those scores go up over the next couple of years because there is going to be the leadership and because there is going to be the commitment from the people who are there to help our children on a regular basis," Mr. Black said.
Ms. Negron-Ramirez said that the frequent turnover in principals at MKES has had a negative effect on the school. Asked why she thought this had happened, she said, "From what I have read and from what I've heard, there have been issues with the principals not complying with what the students need.
"There are a lot of Hispanic children who are in need, whose needs were not being met. They may not have been literate. They may have needed extra help that was not available after school, or was not available at full strength. These children needed extra help and it wasn't there for them," she said.
Asked what they thought about having a full-time Spanish-speaking social worker, Ms. Elion Wollin said that she was not sure what had happened to the part-time Spanish-speaking social worker, but she thought that the resources had been used to create another full-time position.
Mr. Black said that he wanted to look into the issue more. "If there is a perceived need for, specifically, for a Spanish-speaking social worker, then obviously that is something that ought to be examined," he said.
The candidates were then asked what they thought about all of the constituent groups within the Bedford Central School District being represented on the school board - including parents, retired people, those whose children may have already gone through the schools and who are just trying to hold onto their homes, and minority students.
Ms. Elion Wollin said, "I'm a parent. I'm a taxpayer. I'm a former student. My parents are retired and live in the district. I deliver meals to the infirm and the elderly who can barely survive in their homes. I would like to assume that I have a certain empathy and awareness of the diversity from a socioeconomic standpoint, as well as a racial standpoint.
"The perspective that I will bring is to look at every issue broadly and not to be an advocate for just one particular group. I should be an advocate for
all constituent groups. I am very sensitive to balancing high educational standards with the needs of all our community members," she said.
Mr. Black said, "Every single constituent group will be represented by virtue of the fact that you have seven people on the board who are highly accessible. Their phone numbers are published on the district's Web site. If you need to reach one of those members or you need to reach a member of the staff of the school district, just pick up the phone and there they are. You can get them.
"To me, first and foremost, the bottom line for me, and who I am representing first, is the children in the district - and the families of those children in the district. I think it is easy to get into fingerpointing about who is benefiting the most, or who is being hurt the most by this whole process," Mr. Black said. "If there is a group that feels like it is not being represented at
the board, they should step up. They should come to the meetings and make themselves available.
"As you know, there is a point at public meetings at which public comment is addressed and everyone gets a fair shake at that point in the discussion. Nobody is cut off. Nobody is told that their opinion isn't valid. Everyone is allowed to speak," he said. "I've said over and over again that I want to hear from people in the district. I've set up a Web site specifically so that people can contact me and let me know what their priorities are."
Ms. Negron-Ramirez said that the area had grown into a multi-cultural community. She said that whomever is elected had to represent all of the varied groups, but also should "know and have experienced the struggles" of some of these groups.
"I don't care how much you say, `Oh, I understand.' If you have not lived through the problems that these people have lived through, you really don't know.
"I think that the people who are going to be voting for us need to know that we are compassionate and that we are going to be there to help them because we know what their problems are," she said.
"I don't think that the board is doing anything wrong. I just think that they do need some diversity. They need someone who has been on the other side, who can come into the board and be able to communicate to the board in a way that the hoard would understand.
"I'm sure that many times people have come to the board with issues that maybe were not represented correctly because of the language harrier, or other things. I think that having someone there who can express these issues would make a difference," she said.