Photo courtesy of Jeffrey Kerman

Dr. Jeffrey Kerman is a long-standing member of the Board of Education, serving from 1995 to 2001 and continuously since 2011. In the past, he has served as president of the board, and he is seeking re-election for another three years. Outside of the district, he has practiced dentistry for nearly 50 years. Below is the full transcript of Kaleidoscope‘s interview with Kerman, lightly edited for clarity.

You are currently running for reelection and have been on the Board of Education for a considerable amount of time. What specifically made you want to continue to be on the Board, and what do you hope to accomplish if you are elected to another term?

I want to be on the Board because Three Village School District did wonderfully with my two sons. They both graduated with honors from Ward Melville and both continued on to American University, graduating with honors. They both have very good jobs now. It was a very good district, and I want to keep it that way. That’s exactly why I am running.

With your extensive experience on the Board, how have your priorities for the district changed since you first began serving, and what issues have become more urgent in recent years?

My priorities have not really changed. It’s just that you have to think a lot more now about the budget and what it costs to do everything. For instance, take the topic of later school start times and how we cancelled it. We cancelled that because it was going to cost the district an extra $1,014,000.

Is this because of busing issues?

Yes. It really inhibited what we could do, because it’s very difficult nowadays with the 2% tax cap. It’s not really a 2% tax cap, but that’s what they call it. It was hurting our budget, so that’s why I voted for it and then I voted against it, because of the $1,014,000.

Would you be willing to reconsider your decision if the topic comes up again?

Yes, I am always reconsidering. It was necessary because it was supposedly healthier for the students, which is interesting to know. As I said, both my boys went there early in the morning and they did very, very well. But I understand the science behind it.

What do you believe has been your greatest success while you have been on the board? What were your greatest obstacles, and how did you overcome them?

My greatest success on the board was to keep our school district in the top 100 in the country. I want to keep it that way, and it’s very important to keep it that way. As I said, the purpose of a school district is to educate the students — that’s what it’s there for. And I want to be able to educate the student in all aspects of what they want to be educated in.

What steps do you believe the board should take to ensure that the district’s schools remain competitive with other high-performing districts on Long Island?

To keep us that way, we have to maintain our educational ability and make sure we teach all students at all levels. We have done that so far with special education students and everything else. We also participate with BOCES, so not everybody has to go to college. They can become lots of different professions, and they’re all well-paying professions for the kids, so they can make their own living. It is very important to continue doing that. 

Do you think we’re doing enough as a district to address the needs of kids with individualized education programs?

I think we are doing enough now, but we can always do better. It’s a very difficult situation because a lot of the IEP students require one teacher for each student. That becomes more expensive because we have to hire more teachers, especially teachers with more exposure to special education.

The population growth of this county has tapered off in recent years and enrollment in Three Village is down significantly since its peak nearly 20 years ago. How important is this issue to you, and what are your ideas to best address and combat this issue and the resulting financial difficulties?

We have actually been discussing closing a school, and that’s one of the things that we are still discussing. We had a committee on it, and the committee did not recommend closing a school this year. We followed their advice, but we still listen to what’s going on. We may just repurpose the school rather than close it. By repurposing, I mean that we can put the Three Village Academy and pre-K there. We are one of the districts that still has pre-K, but the people actually have to sign a lottery to get into the pre-K. Hopefully, we can expand it so that everyone who wants to send their kids to pre-K can do so, and for a full day, not a half day only. All that stuff is very important to look into and to keep that way.

So if the vote for repurposing a school were to come up again, and the budget allowed for it, would you vote yes?

As long as it works, yes. It has to work; that’s very important.

What was your reaction to the failure of the bond vote in January? How will that affect future budgets?

It’s a problem that the bond failed. Of course, the bond is a very good, economical way for us to spend money for the district because we get 66% of that money back from the state. That bond was going to be used to restore a lot of our buildings, especially the very old cupolas that are falling apart. We’ve had other problems in the elementary schools like Setauket Elementary School. The roof came down in the auditorium so we had to rebuild that. Nassakeag was flooded with that huge rainstorm that we had in August 2024.

New York State enacted a statewide phone ban for all students during all periods this year. Do you think that the implementation of this policy was helpful towards students both in and out of an academic context? 

I agree with the pocketing of the cell phones so that the students are not totally addicted to their cell phones. Maybe they’ll actually go to classes and learn what’s supposed to be taught in their classes. 

Another problem is AI. I see in the newspapers that kids are actually having AI write their essay papers. That’s not the way you learn. You have to be able to do it yourself. You may use AI for an idea or something, but don’t have it do your work for you. Because unless you do the work, you don’t learn what we’re talking about.

There have been issues with students as well as teachers inappropriately using AI, for example to grade assignments. What do you believe should be done to combat this? 

There is very little that the board can do. We’ve already done it by pocketing the cell phones while you’re in school. The problem is that we have no control over what they do at home. If they use AI for that stuff at home, then it’s a problem. That would probably be more on the parents than on the school board, because we’re just interested in the school and what we can do as a school. We can’t go into everybody’s home and say, “Put that phone away!” We do use our phones a lot; I do also. For me, it’s interesting, because when I grew up we didn’t have cell phones or computers.

Specifically for teachers who are using AI to grade students’ tests and assignments or using it in other inappropriate ways, do you think that the board should focus more on the teachers and watch them more closely?

Yes, we should definitely look at that and see if we can make it much more personal than AI. Because the teachers are being paid to teach the kids. That’s their job. It’s very important for the teachers to be able to do what they’re supposed to do.

What’s your position on the potential introduction of armed guards into the district’s security system? 

I am mixed about armed guards. I support them only being outside the schools and not with a gun in the schools. There are crazy people out there!

Can you please comment on the impact of the district restructuring, including successes and possible problems?

We have to look at it more closely. We have to see what we’re talking about as far as the restructuring goes and what it really means: whether it means closing the school or repurposing the school. We haven’t made any decisions on that yet. We have to hear from a lot of the people involved with our district as to what they think and how it would work. We need the information from all these people, so we have to see what they say.

Is there a specific reason for why decisions are made so slowly on the board?

There is slow progress within the board because everybody that’s on the school board really cares about the consequences of the decisions. They don’t just want to jump into a decision because it may sound right. You have to really research it, and we don’t do the research. The research gets done and then given to us. We just discuss it and make the decisions, so it has to be done carefully.

Communication is key in shaping school policy, yet many constituents often feel that the Board is not transparent enough. How do you believe the Board can better communicate with and involve parents and students in district decision making?

We just started the Ask Three Village website where you can ask questions about anything you want about the district. That was just started maybe three weeks ago. Again, we’re looking into what you’re talking about so that we can help everybody else and they can ask the questions and get answers. We’ve sent out this stuff through emails to the district, so it’s up to people to read it.

What do you say to voters who feel upset with the status quo of the district, whether because of high taxes, cuts to certain areas, or some other reasons?

What I feel is that we are trying to maintain the goodness and greatness of our school district. Sometimes, you have to do things that may not be so popular with your electorate, such as raising taxes. For instance, our tax cap this year is 4.54%, because we have a lot of construction to do that was supposed to be done with the bond. The bond didn’t pass, so now we have to use regular funds to do the things that are necessary. Because of that, the taxes have to go up a little bit. 

But look at what’s going on in the South Country School District. The South Country School District is proposing to raise taxes about 14% this year. That’s a lot of money, but it was because they did not monitor their spending; they actually overspent last year. We don’t do that. Our assistant superintendent of finance, Jeff Carlson, is fantastic, so we always maintain what we’re supposed to do. We always have outside auditors come in every year, and they check all our numbers and what’s going on. I know that because I’m also the chairman of the Audit Committee. 

I’m also on the Facilities Committee. Facilities, which includes maintaining the buildings, are what cost a lot of money. We’re talking about things like cupolas which were built a long time ago; they’re falling apart because of their age. We either have to tear them down or rebuild them. What’s interesting is that it would cost more to tear them down than to rebuild them. And if we do rebuild them, we would do it with new, longer-lasting materials.

Many Three Village students and graduates believe they had greatly benefited from the Intellectually Gifted program that was eliminated during the same budget process. Some parents had been attracted to this school district because of the program. Would you support reinstating it?

We would support reinstating the program — everybody on the board would — but it costs too much money right now. Because of what’s going on in the world with money and things, it becomes very difficult to be able to pay for stuff like that. We do have the STEAM program in place now, which is teaching everybody about science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. On the other hand, the IG program was for a very small group of kids, but they were very smart kids. We’d love to get the program back, but everyone and everything matters. Everything is because of money. And because of money, some of the things we’d like to keep, we can’t. 

Is it possible in the foreseeable future that this program will be reinstated?

Of course. Anything could be reinstated because the school board has the authority to say it. 

Do you personally think that this is a helpful program for students in the district?

Yes. It’s always good to be able to educate our smartest kids; it could definitely help them. However, you don’t want to just take things away from the regular kids just to do something extra for the IG kids, because that’s not fair. And so it depends again on money.

Extracurricular activities, athletics, and clubs have faced significant funding cuts over the past several years. Would you seek to reverse them in another term?

Always, because both my boys were athletes. They played varsity soccer, varsity tennis, and varsity lacrosse. All those things are important to maintain. As I said, kids are not just in school to learn their ABCs. They’re also there to learn how to react with other kids and that type of stuff. That’s what clubs and sports are for. All those things are important, so we should keep them all.

Will the board be doing anything to address cuts that have been made to the specific programs?

We can only adjust those things according to our budget. That’s what governs basically everything. Just to add more stuff would cause us to go over our budget limit. If you go over the budget limit, you need a 60% passing rate on the budget, which is very hard to do. But if you just continue with the tax rate that you’re allowed, then all you need is 50% plus one vote. So it’s always a problem with the dollars and cents.

Recently, we’ve seen many trends, including in Three Village, of students chasing achievements instead of deeply engaging with interesting subjects. Is there anything you could do as a board member to push students towards genuine intellectual curiosity?

We can talk to the guidance counselors and ask them to promote not only getting an A in math, but also learning about English and other things. 

Mental health is very important for students. Do you believe the district has taken enough initiative to address mental health? Are there any ideas you have to help support the spread of mental health awareness?

Unfortunately, there have been a lot more suicides with your generation than there used to be. Part of that could be attributed to AI, because of what it’s teaching the kids and not teaching the kids. And part of it is also just the change in the way we live now in this country.

To answer your question, we always try to, but we can always do more. I am not myself qualified to do stuff like that, but I will listen to whoever is and see what they say. If it makes sense, I’ll be very much in favor of it. As I said, our job is to educate students in all aspects of education. It’s not just English, math, science, and history. People have to learn about everything else that’s going on. It’s important to teach all that.

Do you have any other comments about the board or the upcoming election?

What’s interesting is that there are three spots available, and only three of us are running. That is interesting, because I’ve always had a competitive election in the past. It’s relaxing to not have to worry about that. But I would still come out and talk to Kaleidoscope anytime. 

Similarly, we have a meeting with the Three Village Civic Association on May 4 so that they can meet with the three candidates. More importantly, it’s also going to be a budget presentation to try to ensure that our budget passes. Because if our budget doesn’t pass, then it becomes a problem. In that case, we would have to decide whether to put the same budget up, which is a big problem, to lower the budget, which is a big problem, or to just go to contingency, which is an even bigger problem.