BERNE — Two candidates are vying for the sole Berne-Knox-Westerlo School Board seat up for election on May 15. While they differ on matters like school security, both stated that students are their top priority.

The post, held by Lillian Sisson-Chrysler for one term, is unpaid and carries a three-year term. She is being challenged by Randy Bashwinger, Berne’s highway superintendent, making his second run for a school-board seat.

The board has five members. Voters will also be deciding on a roughly $400,000 bus proposition and on a $23 million budget for next year.

Sisson-Chrysler ran for the first time in 2015 and won in an unopposed race. Bashwinger ran last year, in a five-way race for three posts, coming in fourth — 89 votes behind the third-place winner. He submitted a petition to run this year only days before the April 16 deadline.

Sisson-Chrysler is a licensed practical nurse, often attending school board meetings in her scrubs. She also has been staunchly against increased spending, even when it would be funded by state aid. She voted against putting a $20 million capital project up for a vote last fall that was later approved by district residents. She also initially objected to splitting an extra $100,000 of state aid between the reserve fund and the tax levy in the school budget last spring, saying it all should go to the taxpayers, but she later voted to adopt this budget.

Bashwinger has been Berne’s highway superintendent since 2015, winning elections twice. As the town’s GOP chairman, he clashed with former supervisor Kevin Crosier, a Democrat, and led a campaign last fall to have fellow Republicans Sean Lyons elected supervisor and Dennis Palow elected councilman. Just one vote kept the longtime Democratic majority on the town board in tact.

Bashwinger has said that there is no conflict in his serving on the school board and as highway superintendent, despite some agreements between the town and school district to share manpower. The New York State School Boards Association reported to The Enterprise that there is no law or stated opinion against this.

The candidates were asked the following questions:

— What is your background? How long have you lived in the district? What do you do for a living and what other community roles do you serve?

— How would you describe the role of a school board member? As a board member, what constituents would you give top priority — students, staff, taxpayers, or administration?

— Do you support the school budget? Why or why not? What elements of the school budget stand out this year?

— With 40 percent of BKW students listed by the State Education Department as “economically disadvantaged,” how should the district support students in poverty?

— On average, BKW students tested slightly below the state average on the state’s math and English exams. Should the district improve  its test scores and how should this be done?

— If enrollment continues to decline as it has in recent years, should the district make any changes to its staff or programming? How could the district mitigate this problem?

— The district has made strides in agricultural education programming. Should the district look to other leadership or education programs to create or expand on?

Bashwinger

“I think a [school] board member is just like a town board member … You should be listening to people,” said Bashwinger.

He added that he would be willing to listen, encouraging district residents to call, email, or text him should he be elected.

Bashwinger says he volunteers in his community often, which ranges from helping during Little League games to being on both the local fire and ambulance squads. He credits his children for motivating him to do so. He has four children currently attending BKW.

“So I’m kind of invested pretty hard,” he said, of the school district.

He later said that students should be the first priority of the district, “and everything falls into place after that.”

Bashwinger worked in the building industry before being elected as the highway superintendent, and says his background would help him provide input on the upcoming capital project.

He also said he wants to help increase security at the school. Shortly before he put his name in as a candidate, Bashwinger applied for a part-time job to check visitor identification at the school, but was told he could not be hired after the job offer was announced at a town board meeting, he said.

“It definitely put a little spark under me, but that’s not the only thing,” he said, adding that, if he could not help out with school safety in that regard, he would run for the school board to make a change there.

“I’m 110 percent for putting a police officer in the school,” he said.

A school resource officer, he said, would help stop bullying as well as ensuring a safe school, he said.

However, Bashwinger said he did not believe a new school courtyard, which has been proposed to occupy the space where the parking lot between the two buildings is now, would help security.

“That’s not creating security; that’s just creating more of a problem,” he said.

He added that now would be the time to create better security in the school, before major steps are taken with the capital project, cautioning that otherwise costs could go up if changes are made during the project.

But Bashwinger said that one of the plans for the project, moving the main offices where people check in to the front of the buildings, “would be a great idea.”

Bashwinger, who served on the BKW Budget Advisory Panel for about a year, said he supports the school budget. Although he does not like to see increases in taxes, Bashwinger says that it is necessary.

While Bashwinger said the school needs to stop losing staff, such as bus drivers, because of low pay, he acknowledged that, with declining enrollment, it’s a “Catch-22” trying to keep staff.

“It’s a vicious circle with the enrollment,” he later said, adding that he wouldn’t see another option besides cuts to staff or programming should student enrollment decline further.

But rather than focus on what to cut due to declining enrollment, Bashwinger said the school district and the towns in the district should try to maintain or increase enrollment. He said the towns need to be presented as places where people get along and where people would want to move to.

He said that the school board and town board members should be attending each others’ meetings, noting that currently he and one other town official — Knox Supervisor Vasilios Lefkaditis — regularly attend school board meetings, and one current school board member — Helen Lounsbury — regularly attends town board meetings. Should he be elected, Bashwinger said he would encourage it.

Bashwinger said that the school board has done a good job of adding new programs, but he also said that he would support establishing a Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps in the school, which the board had considered earlier this year but decided against it due to the cost. The idea was put forward by Palow, who wanted to teach the course.

Bashwinger also said that he supports adding new classes including those in science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM, but noted “you can only do so much.” He said the district needs a “happy medium” between adding new courses and programs and not overtaxing district residents.

“As long as it will support the students,” he said. “You can’t have a class with four students in it.”

Bashwinger said that the district can help families in poverty with programs that provide meals or school supplies. He used his own experience as a father of four children in school as an example of the high cost of supplies, saying that it can cost around $300 per child for new supplies and clothes each year. He suggested that the school adjust supplies that students are required to bring in, or provide supplies to those in need.

Bashwinger said the school district needs to work to bring its test scores up but added, “It’s not an easy thing.” He said it’s a matter of figuring out what to fix, but also that both teachers and students have it tough.

“These guys are taking a lot more state exams — a lot tougher, I should say,” he said.

Sisson-Chrysler

Sisson-Chrysler currently works as a nurse at the Bethlehem Commons Care Center in Delmar. She has lived in the BKW school district for nearly her entire life, in Westerlo or Berne, except for one year when she lived on campus at the State University of New York College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill.

Sisson-Chrysler has three children who all graduated from BKW. She said she ran for the board three years ago “to be available for the community and to be there for the kids,” as well as to ensure taxpayers were getting a fair deal.

“Students should always be our number-one priority,” she said.

She decided to run again in order to see the capital project through.

“Just to see that things are done productively,” she said.

She said that aspects of the project like new technology and security are important, noting that moving the main offices and entrances to the front of the two school buildings will help with that.

She thinks that the proposed courtyard could serve as a secure place for people to gather, “like a barricade-type thing,” or a fence. As far as hiring a security guard or resource officer, Sisson-Chrysler said she was unsure, although she was interested in an idea proposed at a recent meeting to put in a button to alert police.

“I’m not against it,” she said, of having a resource officer at the school. “But I’d like to first get more information about that.”

Sisson-Chrysler voted with the rest of the current board members to adopt the proposed 2018-19 district budget. The $23 million budget includes a 1-percent increase to the tax levy, raising $11 million; about half of the budget is covered by state aid.

While Sisson-Chrysler has balked at tax increases before, she said she was more accepting this year, noting that the district will be offering full-day pre-kindergarten and other opportunities for students.

“I have complete faith in the superintendent and our business manager,” she said. “And I think that they’re going in the right direction.”

Sisson-Chrysler said that she thought that the district has made strides in new programs, saying that something like agricultural studies is good “because not every student is going to be a white-collar worker.” She said that she also supports new programs such as peer mediation, which began about a year ago.

“There’s a lot of programs … ,” she said. “There’s a lot of good happening in our school district … .”

She said she would like to see more community involvement, and have more residents come to board meetings and other school events.

Sisson-Chrysler said that the district needs to establish programs to help people who are in need, but added that it can be hard to get those families to accept help.

“People are proud,” she said. “They don’t want to ask for help, and I do feel that it’s up to the school to sometimes maybe feel those people out to see if we can do anything for them.”

She said that school sports programs have helped those who can’t afford equipment, for example. Another time, the school helped transport a student to a summer vocational program because her family couldn’t.

“They’re working on ways to help people out if they know they need the help,” Sisson-Chrysler said. If staff members work with students, they can get to know them and their families.

Sisson-Chrysler said that student test scores are, in fact, improving, and that BKW ranked well when compared to similar schools.

“We were pretty close in all of our grade averages,” she said. She added that the opt-out rate — students, usually with parental backing, who don’t take required state tests — was also down as well. The school should find out why the test scores are low, if they are, and address it from there, Sisson-Chrysler said.

“I think we’re going to see a big improvement from what I saw,” she said.

Sisson-Chrysler also referenced a study that showed BKW enrollment may level out in the future.

“We’re just going to take it year by year and hopefully it doesn’t decline … ,” she said. “There are some questions you can’t answer until you’re there.”

She noted that the district is in a rural area with few employers to draw in more people.

Sisson-Chrysler also said that it is important for people to know that, while the board needs to be open, there are certain things that can’t be discussed in public.

“That’s why we have executive session … ,” she said. “If it’s not a confidential matter, we talk about it in public session.”

Sisson-Chrysler had recently signed a letter along with three of the four other board members stating that the board has been transparent.

She concluded that the board needs to work together to make the best decisions for the students, and then the community.

Clarified on April 27, 2018: We clarified the interpretation of Randy Bashwinger’s comment on school board members attending town meetings to say he would encourage it.