Help maintain our excellent Scarsdale schools and become a candidate for the Scarsdale School Board Nominating Committee this year. The School Board Nominating Committee (SBNC) is a group that identifies, proposes and nominates qualified candidates to run for the Scarsdale Board of Education. The SBNC includes 30 voting members representing each of the five elementary school neighborhoods. Each year ten new members are elected to serve a three-year term on the SBNC.

"Candidates for the SBNC have a unique opportunity to serve as representatives for the community and, if elected, to help identify the very best candidates for trustees for our schools," said Lisa Rodman, spokesperson for the SBNC Administrative Committee, the group that organizes the election for SBNC candidates. "The non-partisan system works best with a full slate of candidates -- at least two candidates for each open seat, for a total this year of 20 candidates for the 10 open seats. We urge all of our neighbors to consider making this very important contribution to our non-partisan system and to our schools by seeking election to the SBNC."

To become a candidate, complete a biographical form and submit it, with a candidate petition with ten signatures, by November 20, 2012 to the SBNC Administrative Committee, P.O. Box 172H, Scarsdale, NY 10583. These forms can be downloaded from www.scarsdalesbnc.com and are also available at the Scarsdale Library and Village Hall.

If you are interested in becoming a candidate or have questions, go to the SBNC's website at www.scarsdalesbnc.com . Also, feel free to contact the SBNC Administrative Committee Co- chairs: Josh Glantz at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or Wayne Aaron at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Service on the SBNC is a truly great way to serve your community. Please become a candidate.

(Pictured at top: Jonathan Tamir, Chair, School Board Nominating Committee and Erin Foster, Vice-Chair School Board Nominating Committee)

Over 700 parents and teens attended a session on teen driving safety sponsored by the SHS PTA on the evening of Wednesday, September 12. Though attendance was required in order to get a parking permit in the high school lot, the session was anything but a routine information session. The sobering presentation from the parents of a Rye Brook high schooler who lost his life in a car accident left many in tears.

The event for incoming seniors, which was also made last year, is designed to warn students to drive responsibly and head off accidents. It opened with words from the school’s new Principal, Kenneth Bonamo, who relayed that one in three teen deaths are caused by car accidents. After delivering a few more chilling statistics, he introduced Terry Frank, an outreach worker from Scarsdale Family Counseling who explained how to obtain an on-campus parking permit and bumper stickers that read “DDDD”, which stands for “Ders don’t drive distracted.” The bumper stickers are $8 each, and proceeds from the sale go towards raising awareness on driving safely.

The next speakers were Tina and Rick Blank. They told the story of their 16-year-old son, Michael who died in December, 2000 after a car accident caused by speeding. The heartbroken parents took the audience through the full story of the awful night when Michael was coming home from a friend’s house and lost control of his speeding car that flew into the air and crashed into a telephone pole. When the police first rang the doorbell at the Blank’s home to tell them the news, they assumed that Michael had a few broken bones, but nothing too serious. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Michael actually had no broken bones, no scratches or cuts, and at first sight appeared to be fine, just asleep. Sadly, he had suffered serious brain trauma as a result of a head injury and was brain dead. The doctors told Tina and Rick that he had only a few days to live.

Over 1000 people attended Michael’s funeral and the following year Rye Brook’s basketball team went undefeated en route to a state championship, which they dedicated to Michael. After the Blanks spoke, a recording was played of the police officer that arrived first at the scene and Michael’s best friend. They both added their takes on the story.

Tina and Rick Blank tell their story year after year in the hope of preventing other students and parents from facing a similar fate.

The speakers had a power effect on the audience and many were crying and wiping tears from their faces. The disturbingly powerful message of the assembly was that speeding was not worth it, and the audience received that message loud and clear.

Photo: L to R: Jamie Tanzer-12 grader at SHS who started the "Hang a Tear, Save a Tear" program at SHS, Rick Blank and Tina Blank, who told the gripping story of how their son Michael paid the ultimate price for driving too fast. Photo Credit: Nana Berke

Article contributed by SHS Senior Peter Simon

Incoming Scarsdale Board of Education President Liz Guggenheimer opened the first meeting of the 2012-2013 school year on Monday night, September 10 and said she looked forward to another exciting year. Immediately prior to the meeting, the Board met with members of Scarsdale’s Parent-Teacher Council to discuss how the Board and Scarsdale’s PTAs work together, and Guggenheimer urged residents, including parents and students, to watch the Board of Education meetings and visit the BOE website to keep informed.

Dr. Michael McGill, Superintendent of Scarsdale Schools, said that the schools had enjoyed a smooth opening and that the year was off to a productive start. Dr. Joan Weber, Assistant Superintendent for Personnel and Administrative Services, presented enrollment data. There are currently 4,753 students enrolled in the Scarsdale schools, exceeding last year’s enrollment by 50 students and exceeding the projection for this year by 90 students. Weber pointed to kindergarten enrollment as driving over half of the increase over projections, with 309 kindergarten pupils enrolled, while only 271 pupils were projected to enter the system this year. She also reported a large number of new international families in the district as also driving increased enrollment, with 15 different countries represented, and the largest cohort being from Japan. Weber reminded the board that enrollment numbers would be subject to further fluctuation, with official enrollment reported to the state on October 5.

Faculty had been budgeted at 452.3 full-time equivalents, but is actually at 455.2 full-time equivalent positions, resulting in a deficit of about $400,000 in salary accounts, according to Linda Purvis, Assistant Superintendent for Business.

According to Purvis, the 11-12 audit completed over the summer was satisfactory, showing a fund balance of 3.8% of budget, just under the legal limit of 4%. She reviewed facilities projects completed over the summer, including the replacement of the gym ventilation system in Edgewood, as well as replacement of stage rigging and electrical work in the gym and the replacement of the stage curtain. Fox Meadow installed a new playground that was funded by student fundraising, PTA donations and principal allocations. New cabinetry was installed in some classrooms at Greenacres, while at Heathcote, asbestos abatement took place in the auditorium, and new stage rigging and lighting was also installed in the auditorium. New sinks and cabinetry were installed in 14 Heathcote classrooms and 9 Quaker Ridge classrooms.

At the Middle School, the oil tank outside of the CHOICE building was replaced. A Stop Work order had to be issued on a project replacing stairs in Butler House, which was deemed as being conducted subpar by the hired contractor. Engineers and architects on the project are currently creating a list of defects that will need to be addressed. At the High School, the electrical system underwent an upgrade, attaching sump pumps and the heating system to the generator. The eyebrow windows in the gym that leaked after rainstorms, resulting in the gym being unusable after storms, were replaced, with positive results so far. Rooms 330 and 333 underwent large-scale renovations; heating controls in the building were upgraded with controls on all air-conditioned areas to automatically go off at 3:30pm unless manually overridden; and the cafeteria serving lines were redesigned and replaced to alleviated long lines.

Purvis is now working on a Facilities Master Plan to redesign underutilized areas in the high school, including athletic areas, fitness areas, the auto body shop, a satellite dining area, and the Center for Innovation.

Lynne Shain, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction, spoke about the work done this summer to develop common assessments in the schools that would “capture evidence of progress being made in documenting how students were deepening and strengthening their critical and creative thinking and problem-solving.” The district is currently in year 2 of implementing updated and revised common assessments that would assure consistency across all classrooms.

Also on the agenda for the meeting was the adoption of the Scarsdale Code of Conduct, initially adopted in the summer of 2001, with modifications. The main modification, intended to bring the code into compliance with Dignity For All Students Act, states that “No student shall be subjected to harassment by employees or students on school property or at a school function, nor should any student be subjected to discrimination based on his or her actual or perceived race, color, weight, national origin, ethnic group, religion, religious practice, disability, sexual orientation, gender or sex by school employees or students on school property or at a school function.” The Code was approved with this modification.

The final item opened for discussion was the Education Foundation program priorities. The Foundation was given 501 c3 status this summer by the IRS, moving forward the actualization of the Foundation. The Mission of the foundation has been identified as supplementing, not supplanting, funds in the school budget to support program priorities identified by Dr. McGill. The steering committee suggested three buckets that support should be aimed towards – curriculum research and development, technology and facilities. Board members weighed in on how they thought funds raised by the foundation might be directed, with an overall consensus that the foundation would help items from these three buckets be implemented with more speed and more fully than if having to depend solely on the school budget calendar.

Following the acceptance of a gift of $10,000 from the QR PTA to replace a 35 year old chamber kiln, and the acknowledgement of a gift from Friends of Music and Art to purchase books, Mrs. Guggenheim announced that the next board meeting would be held on September 24 at 8pm in Room 170-172 at Scarsdale High School, and the meeting was adjourned.

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.

This week it’s back to school for area kids and for some, it’s back to tutoring as well. Tutoring middle school and high school students for school subjects and standardized tests is a hot topic for many parents. Is it really necessary? Do kids who are tutored have an advantage? How much does it cost? Is it okay to use teachers from inside the district or not?

These are all questions that are debated by parents year after year.

To find out more about how much students are tutored and how much it’s costing their parents, we’ve designed a brief survey.

If you had a child or children in middle school or high school last year, please complete the survey-- once for each child in those grades. Whether your kids attend Scarsdale, Edgemont or another area district, please participate.

Your anonymity is assured. We will not see your email address or even your IP address!

So please take a few minutes to answer our questions. After we have the results, we will publish them for your review.

To start, click here:

Thank you,
Joanne Wallenstein
Scarsdale10583.com
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