Tony Wagner, author of Creating Innovators and The Global Achievement Gap will visit Scarsdale on Wednesday, December 5th from 7:30-8:30 pm. This free presentation in the Scarsdale High School auditorium is open to all members of the Scarsdale community but attendees are asked to register in advance at www.scarsdaleschools.org/tonywagner. Tony Wagner is the first Innovation Education Fellow at the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard. He was the founder and co-director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His most recent book, Creating Innovators, provides a roadmap for parents who want to help their children prepare for the workplace of the future. Attendees must register for this event, even if they registered for the original Tony Wagner presentation. Please register at: www.scarsdaleschools.org/tonywagner. Copies of Dr. Wagner's book, Creating Innovators, will be available for purchase at this event.

On Saturday November 17 at 9 am, the Scarsdale Alumni Association and Scarsdale High School will present the 2012 Distinguished Alumni Award Ceremony. Since 2005, the Scarsdale Alumni Association, in a joint effort with Scarsdale High School, has honored 90 distinguished alumni. This Saturday Scarsdale alumni and residents are invited to attend the ceremony to honor the 2012 Distinguished Alumni in the SHS library at 9:00 AM. Parking will be available on the Post Road parking area.

The Alumni Association is proud to announce the list of 2012 Distinguished Alumni honorees:

• George C. Branche, III, M.D. (SHS ‘74) – Leader in the field of Sports Medicine - Association of Tennis Professionals Physician of the Year.
• Meredith Gavrin (SHS ‘87) – Educator, Founder of New Haven Academy
• Jonathan Haidt (SHS ‘81) - Leading Professor of Ethical Leadership, Author
• Alison Knowles (SHS ‘51) – Guggenheim Fellow, Avant-Garde Renowned Artist
• Randal (Randy) Livingston (SHS ‘71) - Business Leader, Led two companies through IPO, CFO of Stanford University
• Charles Maier Ph.D. (SHS’ 56) – Professor, Author, Director of the Center for European Studies at Harvard
• Michael Mark (SHS ‘68) - Grammy Nominated Musician/Composer
• Stephen J. Nicholas, MD (SHS ‘78) - Leader in the field of Sports Medicine - orthopedic team physician for the NY Jets and NY Islanders.
• Michael Roth (SHS ‘79) - Award Winning Violinist
• Cynthia E. Rosenzweig Ph.D. (SHS ’66) – NASA Expert in Climate Change
• Christopher Schroeder (SHS ‘82) - Tech Entrepreneur, Investor, Author, Expert on Startups in the Middle East.
• George Zimmer (SHS ‘66) – Business Leader, CEO/Founder of Men’s Wearhouse

Ricardo Garcia-Amaya, President of the Scarsdale Alumni Association said, “I welcome all Scarsdale alumni, students and Scarsdale residents to join us at this very special event. Over the past six years that I have been leading the Scarsdale Alumni Association, I have been on a quest to understand the identity or persona of our alumni community. If I were asked to choose a title that most closely defines our entire alumni community, it would be “activist. “ If I were to choose a noun, it would be nonconformist, always questioning and challenging the status quo. This is considering the fact that we currently have the graduating classes of two transformational decades, the 1960’s and the 1970’s, at their peak of their careers. But you will see plenty of examples that this trend continues. And those Distinguished Alumni who have a chance to visit a classroom and speak to SHS students on the day prior to the ceremony will likely agree with me that what we have at SHS is a goldmine of highly educated, future activists ready to be unleashed into the world.”

Register for this free event at www.scarsdalealumni.org/da2012 . Morning refreshments will be served. Complete biographies of all Distinguished Alumni honorees can be accessed at Scarsdale High School via the wall-mounted touch-screen computer kiosk beside the photo display located in the new Commons area. The biographies of the new honorees will be published on the Scarsdale Alumni Association’s website, www.scarsdalealumni.org .

On Monday night, it was the Greenacres PTA leadership’s turn to meet with Scarsdale school administrators and members of the Board of Education. This meeting would typically be held on site at Greenacres but, given the uncertainty surrounding the availability of heat and power at Greenacres, the meeting was held in the Board of Education room at Scarsdale High School. PTA president Melissa Berridge began by asking about what Greenacres’ designation by the state as a “Rewards School” meant for the school, if anything. Both Dr. Michael McGill, superintendent of Scarsdale schools, and Lynne Shain, assistant superintendent for instruction, said that, despite numerous inquiries, they were unable to find out what being a rewards school meant for the school, and that, in fact, the only way they found out that Greenacres and Fox Meadow had been identified as reward schools was by coverage in the press, with no formal notification on the part of the state department of education. Greenacres principal Gerry Young informed the group that he’d been told that his school would be eligible for $155,000 in funds if they shared their best practices with non-performing schools, but he had not looked further into this.

Ms. Berridge then asked about funding for building improvements at Greenacres, noting the ongoing issue of dampness in the basement. Linda Purvis, assistant superintendent for business, stated the difficulty that the high water table under Greenacres’ building presented in resolving this dampness, but did say that solutions were being researched. According to Purvis, ongoing air quality monitoring at the school showed no danger to the students from this dampness. GA parent Ann Bohjalian suggested the replacement of the current system of small dehumidifiers that need to be emptied frequently with larger models with automatic drainage.

Next, Ms. Berridge asked if there was any plan to reexamine the full-day kindergarten program, now that it has been in place for a few years. Ms. Shain said that there was no plan for review beyond the surveys reported on in March of 2011. These surveys showed the importance of small class size, aide presence and small group activities in maintaining satisfaction with full-day kindergarten. Still, Shain said, “we endorse continuous improvement as a district,” something that’s been a focus of the district, along with encourage critical and creative thinking, non-standard problem solving, and rich, deep performance-based assessments that go beyond that required by the state.

Finally, Ms. Berridge asked about the possibility of PTA funds going towards technology purchases for the school. According to Jerry Crisci, director of technology for Scarsdale Schools, the current infrastructure at Greenacres and the other four elementary schools in Scarsdale cannot support any additional devices that require connection to the network. The infrastructure at Scarsdale Middle School was just redone, and the high school infrastructure is scheduled to be upgraded in December and January, and Crisci did say that there will be a technology proposal at a January Board of Education meeting that will lay out a roadmap for the future for technology at the elementary schools, at which point the PTA can revisit purchasing items such as Ipads for the elementary schools.

Tracy Jaffe is a graduate of Brown University and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. A past president of Heathcote’s PTA and Scarsdale PT Council, Tracy has 3 children in the Scarsdale school system, and currently sits on the boards of Scarsdale/Edgemont Family Counseling Services and the League of Women Voters.

We asked Scarsdale School Board President Liz Guggenheimer for an update on the reopening of the Scarsdale Schools and here is what she shared on November 1, 2012: I hope you, your family and the entire school community are managing safely and well under the circumstances. Below is my most current information. (I too, like many staff and families, am without phones, email, internet, but I am temporarily at an internet site and well)

- As of last night only Heathcote and Scarsdale High School had power. As far as I know, none of the schools have Internet connection or phones.

- The Village has been doing a great job clearing streets, and the School Administration and Village officials are in contact and coordinating. Clearing the streets and ensuring public safety are an important priority.

- We can consider openings (full, partial) once the streets are clear and power and phones are restored in the schools.

Here is the text of the October 31st email from the School District to school families:

This is Linda Purvis, Assistant Superintendent for the Scarsdale Public Schools. Five of the District's seven schools have no electrical power and we have been told that the earliest power could be restored would be Friday afternoon. Many roads are still blocked off and communication systems are down.

Accordingly, based on the information we currently have, Dr. McGill has decided that it would be prudent to close schools for the remainder of the week (Thursday and Friday.) We will re-open on Monday. You will be notified if there are changes to this schedule.

Thank you for your patience. Please stay safe.

And here is the last message from SHS Principal Kenneth Bonamo:

I hope you and your families made it through the storm safely. I wanted to share with you two quick bulletins.

First, end-of-marking-period testing (the tests that were supposed to begin today) will be postponed until at least 3 days after our return to school. A specific testing schedule will be shared by the end of our first day back. Second, the house meeting has been rescheduled to Thursday, November 8.

Again, I hope this message finds you safe and sound, and I wish us all a speedy return to normalcy.