At the October 12 meeting of The Scarsdale Board of Education Superintendant Michael McGill gave an update on the progress of the district’s transition from AP to AT courses and also commented on the school’s response to the Labor Day incident.
The District is now in the third year of the transition from the Advanced Placement courses to the Advanced Topics courses. McGill was pleased to report that the AP test scores last May were consistent with prior years, indicating that the AT courses have not caused a decline in AP test scores, as some had feared. In addition, both students and teachers report a high level of engagement with the new curriculum.
McGill then turned to the Labor Day incident which he said had generated a substantial amount of interest inside and outside the community. He reported that school officials only heard about the fight through the grapevine, two weeks after it occurred, but were bound by the Code of Conduct to investigate. Despite their efforts, they were unable to determine who was involved or what had happened.
The District spoke with their lawyers and determined that they could not act arbitrarily and impose blanket penalties on large groups when they did not know who was at fault. However, Principal Klemme did meet with the sports teams to let them know that if further incidents occurred involving individuals on a team, group consequences could be invoked. Klemme asked the students not to back the school into a position where everyone would have to suffer for the actions of a few.
In order to address the issue, Principal Klemme has scheduled meetings with parents, students and faculty to discuss morals and ethics and determine how to engage the entire school community in thoughtful and reflective discussions on the issue.
McGill then gave his own point of view, saying that the incident raised important ethical issues about the school’s role in the community. He feels that most parents do value character and decency and don’t want bad conduct to be ignored. Parents want students to know that misdeeds will have meaningful consequences yet these consequences need to be reasonable, in proportion to the offense and not have life-changing ramifications.
In closing, he said that our common goal should be to do better. On behalf of the school board, Board President Jill Spieler thanked McGill for the administration’s sensitivity to the issue and asked the community to be patient while the school works through the issue.
Next up was an informative five-minute video of a Singapore Math Lesson in a first grade classroom. For those who are not familiar with Singapore Math, the video demonstrated how children using manipulatives to work through math problems. It looked like they were learning and having fun.
Dr. Robert DiYanni, the district’s Director of Art and Aesthetic Education gave an annual update on our art program. The Lincoln Center Program has grown and this year, 90 faculty and 2800 students will see visiting artists and participate in Lincoln Center Programs. Also discussed, were a mime theatre piece, a program called Louder than Words that involves communication through gestures, and an experimental dance work. The Board discussed the concept of living with ambiguity and how this idea could be explored at all levels – elementary through high school.
Gifts in the following amounts were accepted by the Board:
- $450 from the High School PTA to cover specialists to work with school psychologists
- $367.25 from Maroon and White for trophies
- $3,500 from Maroon and White to cover costs of lights on Raider Pride Weekend
- $500 from the PT Council for Raider Pride weekend
- $7,500 from the Scarsdale Football Board for lighting for sports events
If you thought that slavery, or the peculiar institution, had no history in Scarsdale, read ahead. It turns out that slavery in Scarsdale is as old as Wayside Cottage. In fact, Thomas Hadden, who may have been the original resident of Wayside Cottage was a very prolific man who had three children by his wife plus five more with his “Wench Rose”, the family’s slave. Rose’s children, Amos, Lazerus, Dinns, Jacob and Eleanor are all listed as beneficiaries in Hadden’s will, which was handwritten and dated 1761. Unlike Thomas Jefferson who is said to have kept his relationship with slave Sally Hemmings under wraps, the Hadden will is upfront about the “Wench” and her children and stipulates that they are to be freed upon Hadden’s death and each is to be given 25 pounds of good and lawful money.
The impetus for the project is a planned visit on October 27 by author Marilyn Nelson who will discuss her book, Fortune’s Bones. Nelson a former poet laureate from Connecticut has written an elegy to a former slave from Waterbury. 
If you are aware of any original documents involving slavery in town, please comment below and we’ll pass the information onto the Middle School.
At the annual fifth grade rocket launch at Heathcote, students built rockets powered by fire, water and air, using recycled soda bottles. They measured the height of the rocket’s trajectory and analyzed it as a function of the amount of water (ml) and air (psi) inside the rocket.
A March 2010 diagnosis of breast cancer brings Nancy Kardon, a certified Iyengar yoga teacher onto a new healing journey. This month she begins inspirational groups called Beyond Breast Cancer: Restorative/ Recuperative Yoga and Meditation” in Scarsdale and Greenwich, Ct.
On Monday September 27, O. Rogeriee Thompson became the first black person and the second woman to serve as a full judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit. She also happens to be a 1969 graduate of Scarsdale High School, where she attended as the second STEP student, moving here from her home in Greenville, S.C. to live with Scarsdale host parents Jane and Donald Johnson, who attended the reception on Monday.
