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Written by Joanne Wallenstein

Published: 08 December 2022

Created: 08 December 2022

Last Updated: 09 December 2022

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Three students continued to press for the inclusion of Asian holidays in the official Scarsdale Schools calendar at the Board of Education meeting on Monday December 5, 2022. They outlined the importance of Eid, Diwali and the Lunar New Year and suggested how these days could be marked and honored in the community.

Responding to the students, Interim Superintendent Drew Patrick thanked the students who “spoke so beautifully.” He said, “At our December 19 meeting we will share some draft calendars for next year, and the future, beyond next year, that illustrate a possible school year with those holidays recognized, and without. That will provide the community and the board with some time to think about what it looks like and what the trade-offs are both for next year and the future. At the January meeting, people can share their reflections and at the February 13, 2023 meeting we will make a recommendation of the 2023-24 school calendar.”

Here are the student’s comments:

Samina Malik of 77 Tunstall Road asked for Eid, Diwali and Lunar New Year to be included as days off on the school calendar. She said “People have not asked as they did not know it was an option. After the isolation of COVID we see how important it is to embrace our community. Why has this taken so long to be a main consideration? We found an article from the Scarsdale Inquirer in April 19, 1974 asking for the Jewish holidays to be school holidays to reflect the changing community. Almost 50 years later, over 150 Muslims students in our schools are asking for a similar consideration. We should not be asked to choose between our faith and our education. I recently spoke to Amy Paulin and Michelle Sterling. They said that NYC incorporated these holidays by changing the snow days to remote learning days. Other districts have made other accommodations.” She submitted a petition with the signatures of 200 families supporting the goal. She said, “Most years we would only need to 2 or 3 days to be added.”

Sajiv Mehta of 74 Drake Road said, “I am here to discuss the inclusion of Diwali, Eid and Lunar New Year as school holidays in the coming year. Diwali, the festival of light, is the most important day of the year for Hindus and is also celebrated by many Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists.”

“I joined Edgewood in third grade and each year the celebration of Diwali in my home was relegated to a short prayer session. As I have gotten older and my workload has increased, the duration of this session has gone down from an hour to just 20 minutes. While this year teachers were discouraged from giving much work on Diwali I still had tests and assignments due in the coming days that I could not ignore. The stress of balancing my tests and the holidays was too much which meant that I had to sacrifice the integrity of the holiday or my work. A few weeks ago when I discussed this with my friends, they also hoped that Scarsdale would incorporate Eid, Diwali and the Lunar New Year as holidays just like NYC public schools and many other districts. 23% of Scarsdale students are of Asian descent and according to an informal SHS poll, at least 40% of the SHS student body observes at least one of these holidays. While there are calendar challenges to deal with, solutions are possible. One option is to adjust the half days at the end of June to accommodate days off for Eid, Diwali and the Lunar New Year. Or to start a few days earlier in September so that all of us can celebrate our important festivals without stressing about how to balance our education and cultural events and identities.”

“It is crucial that we celebrate Diwali with every family member. We are not able to give Diwali the respect it deserves as the celebration is always incomplete. By giving us a day off, it is my hope that the board will enable families to be truly together on Diwali, Eid and Lunar New Year as soon as possible while we can still celebrate together.”

Daniel Hu, a sophomore spoke about what the Lunar New Year means “to me, my family and Scarsdale,” and asked the Board to consider adding a school holiday for Lunar New Year. He said, “Lunar New Year is a global celebration….you will see red calendars and red envelopes everywhere. However more and more Chinese students are missing out on this incredible tradition, mostly because of school. I was born in China and lived there for seven years. I can still remember this holiday and my grandparents giving out red envelopes and the joy of opening them. When I came to the U.S. I didn’t expect the same celebration but did expect to spend time with my family. This is missing for students here in Scarsdale. They have homework and tests the next day and too much stress on one of the most important days of the Lunar calendar. They can only see their relatives for a few minutes and only briefly taste the food it took weeks to prepare. If inclusiveness is one of your goals, I would strongly suggest that you broaden your inclusiveness toward the Chinese community which has grown tremendously over the past few years – and designate a specific schoolwide holiday for Lunar New Year.”

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Written by Wendy MacMillan

Published: 22 December 2022

Created: 22 December 2022

Last Updated: 22 December 2022

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Student well-being, inclusion, diversity and equity are being incorporated into the school curriculum in a focused initiative for students at all grade levels.

At the December 19 meeting of the Board of Education Assistant Superintendent Edgar McIntosh presented an education report in which he highlighted progress in the area of WIDE (Well-being, Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity) and illustrated how connection to WIDE and sense of belonging, produces students who are not only good at learning, but good at life. Dr. McIntosh spoke of supporting student’s “Power Skills” (formally known as “Soft Skills”) such as teamwork, problem solving, communication, adaptability, critical thinking, and time management is essential to ensure that our students thrive.

Dr. McIntosh’s opened with an illustration of the long term plan to improve WIDE in the district. At the beginning of the 2021-22 school year the Compact Committee began its focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion which included the hiring of Dr. Gay as a DEI consultant. Dr. Gay provided DEI training and education for District’s leaders, BOE members and educators. Last year also saw the addition of dozens of more inclusive books added to school’s libraries.

This school year the Compact Committee expanded its focus to include “Well-Being” thus creating the acronym WIDE. During the 2022-23 school year a district wide PTA Well-Being Committee was formed in addition to the District’s new DEI Committee. This year’s work includes parent workshops, assured educator training, and the development of a survey to gather responses to already identified needs. The WIDE work by the Compact Committee will continue into the 2023-24 school year as the District aims for a holistic and responsive approach.

McIntosh also brought attention to the many ways that WIDE can be seen in action in the District including SHS’s collaboration with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater where students are learning dance and choreography from Alvin Ailey professionals. Also of note, when students were asked to create a profile of an SHS graduate, the first attributes outlined are being a critical thinker, a skillful practitioner, a lifelong learner, a compassionate leader, and a “Non-Sibi” community member.

In yet another example, SMS Librarian Shawna Frazin spoke about the use of books and reading fiction to prevent bullying and grow empathy. In addition to curating a list of high interest books that help grow empathy, Frazin also has students research articles that illustrate how reading fiction can influence empathy.

Participation in extracurricular activities such as clubs and intramurals can further foster a sense of belonging. Scarsdale High School offers 80 active student organizations and the middle school offers an equally robust slate with activities like the school play, knitting club, and modified sports.

The BOE then heard from SHS teacher Heather Waters about the importance of Global Learning and the exchange programs that offer our SHS students a chance to step out of Scarsdale and create global connections. Senior Carson Cohen spoke about his recent experience in his Italian exchange program calling his two weeks abroad “transformative”.

Dr. McIntosh called attention to the importance of Social/Emotional Learning (SEL) and the teaching of skills such as resiliency, self-regulation, and executive functioning. In an effort to streamline SEL and create a common process with shared information across all the schools, the district is exploring SEL curriculum such as CASEL and implementing structures such as Multi-Tiered System of Support which provides common processes, progress monitoring tools, and structure to support students who have needs in executive functioning, behavior, and the social/emotional realm.

School Social Workers

Superintendent of Special Education Eric Rauschenbach described that adding more social workers to our faculty has already proven to be greatly beneficial, overall, this year there has been less social anxiety and a marked improvement in academics. Rauschenbach explained that with the added social workers and the youth services programming at both SMS and SHS, counselors are able to be more proactive and keep small problems small instead of spending their time trying to put out bigger fires. In addition, the new social workers are pushing into classrooms to teach students about growth mindset, dealing with grief and loss, and social media awareness. The team is also streamlining processes and creating a Student Services web page where students can find support services all in one place.

Mr. Rauschenbach went on to detail new support programs at SMS and SHS. The groups focus on skills based individual and group counseling using the principles of DBT-mindfulness, managing emotions, enhancing relationships, and increasing distress tolerance. The students participating in the support programs report feeling marked improvements both socially and academically.

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Written by Joanne Wallenstein

Published: 21 November 2022

Created: 21 November 2022

Last Updated: 21 November 2022

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Peter Yaverbaum, Jacob Appel, Allison Weinberg, Howard Gertler, Peter Grosz and Adriana Souza from the SHS Class of 1992Though it’s been thirty years since they graduated high school, members of the SHS Class of ’92 seemed to pick up right where they left off at a panel discussion Saturday November 19, 2022 at the new Scarsdale Library, led by class member Allison Weinberg.

Introducing the panelists she noted that she has known one since birth, three since kindergarten and one since junior high school. She said, “It would be a cliché and yet also completely accurate to say that the 30 years since we graduated from SHS have flown by. And yet, somewhere along the way, we turned from kids into adults, and many of us now have kids in high school ourselves.”

Howard Gertler is an Oscar- and Emmy-nominated film producer whose most recent film, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, is currently playing in theaters. Among his other films are Shortbus, How to Talk to Girls at Parties, Crip Camp, and How to Survive a Plague. His films have won the Gotham, the Spirit, the Golden Lion, the Sundance Audience Award, the IDA, and two Peabodies.

Peter Grosz was one of the two very funny guys in the Sonic commercials for the better part of the last twenty years. He started his comedic acting career in 7th grade, when he won the Scarsdale Junior High School Speech Contest in the “humorous anecdote” category, and went on to present a hilarious sketch about riding the school bus to the entire student body. Since then, Peter has become a prolific television writer and actor who has won multiple Emmys for his work. He has been a writer for The Colbert Report as well as The Late Show with Seth Meyer, and played a recurring role on Veep.

After a long career in the corporate world, Adriana Souza is now building a foundation to support underprivileged youth in Africa by providing them with financial support as well as access to athletic equipment, apparel, seasoned tennis coaches, and training programs. Adriana is a volunteer EMT with the Scarsdale Ambulance Corps. In addition, she worked on the “front lines” during the height of the pandemic as a COVID-19 vaccinator, administering vaccines to thousands of New Yorkers.

Although Peter Yaverbaum went to medical school after 9-11, he felt pulled in a different direction and signed on with the New York City Fire Department where has been a firefighter in Lower Manhattan for fifteen years. His current position has him driving the fire engine in the SoHo / Little Italy / Chinatown neighborhoods. He says “he is so old that he is now at the age where he can wait on the street and send the younger guys in to actually fight the fires.” During the winter, Peter is also a part-time ski instructor in Colorado.

Jacob Appel is currently a Professor of Psychiatry and Medical Education at Mount Sinai, where he also serves as Director of Ethics Education in Psychiatry, Medical Director of the Mental Health Clinic at the East Harlem Health Outreach Program, and Assistant Director of the Academy for Medicine and the Humanities. Jacob is also the author of five novels, ten short story collections, an essay collection, a mystery, a thriller, a volume of poems, and a compendium of dilemmas in medical ethics. Prior to joining Mount Sinai, Jacob taught at Brown University and Yeshiva College.

Asked about their most salient memories, Jacob Appel remembered throwing a flagpole out of a third floor window when teacher Howard Rodstein turned his back.

Peter Grosz was in a study hall with math teacher Barbara Bierbauer when he decided to demonstrate some pyrotechnics that ultimately got him suspended from school. He was carrying a can of Rite Guard and a lighter – when used together can set off the fire alarm. He sprayed some Rite Guard on his desk, lit the lighter and when the teacher returned to the room she found the desk on fire! He remembers spending some time with Mr. McDermott suspended in “the tower.” Grosz’s mom was in the audience and verified the story which seemed funnier to her now.

Asked about their favorite teachers, Souza noted Rashid Silvera, calling him “an enthusiastic and dynamic man who met every student where they were, even modifying lesson plans for students.” She said he still attends every single reunion.

Howard Gertler remembered working on Maroon with advisor Chris Douglass, a long-time head of the English Department at SHS.

Asked what advice they would give young people just starting out, Peter Yaverbaum said, “everything was because I happened to be in the right place at the right time. Keep doing things that you love – and you’’ find opportunities.”

Grosz said, “I discovered improv comedy at Northwestern – and lucked into Second City where I took classes. I tell people to go to the place where people are doing what you want to do.
Put yourself where you’re supposed to be and keep trying.”

Jacob Appel admitted, “I sent out lots of writing. I have 21,000 rejection letters. George Plimpton from the Paris Reviewed once called me and said, “You sent us a story about bird watching. We did not like it but we think it’s great that people your age are interested in bird watching.” Appel continued, “I am still waiting for my big break. I brought a bag of signed books. Does anyone know Oprah?”

Souza added, “You are going to miss 100% of the opportunities that you don’t take. If you’re too scared to be rejected, nothing will work out for you.”

Asked how growing up in Scarsdale influenced their future, panelists first joked that no one ever admits growing up in Scarsdale, saying “Westchester” instead. However, Grosz said, “There’s a lot of money here and privilege. But there’s a lot of opportunity. It’s net positive.” Souza noted the wonderful network of successful people in every field. She said, “I have never met a group who has stayed as connected with their friends as Scarsdale alumni. People work in so many industries – there’s always someone to call.

The event continued on Saturday night with a get together at the North Street Tavern in White Plains.

Photo by Danielle Barro.