How Will the NYS Property Tax Cap Affect Edgemont Schools
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In June, 2011 New York State leaders enacted the law (generally known as a "two percent tax cap") that placed restrictions on how school districts and municipalities may increase their tax levies. The new law has left many school districts scrambling to figure out their best course of action. At the November 8th Edgemont BOE meeting, Superintendent Nancy Taddiken reported that it is likely that there will be a gap between what "we are allowed to raise by simple majority vote and what it will cost Edgemont to provide a budget that maintains all existing programs and personnel."
At the November 22nd BOE meeting, which was packed with parents, residents, and teachers, Ms. Taddiken reviewed the extensive list of possible cuts to the school programs if the BOE decides to stay within the tax cap. Among the possibilities are cuts in the teaching staff at all three schools, meaning larger classes across the grades, the reduction or elimination of day and overnight trips (such as sixth grade camp and ninth grade camp), and the reduction or elimination of consultants. There may also be fewer electives offered at the high school as well reductions in foreign languages choices (currently 4 languages are offered: Spanish, Latin, French and Italian), and a reduction in lab hours for the three lab sciences. Cuts may also occur in the sports area and in extracurriculars. Most parents in the audience were not pleased with any of these changes to student programs.
Some parents in the audience asked if the BOE was considering proposing a budget that exceeded the state cap in the hope that a super-majority (60%) of the voters approve it. The Board responded that this is under consideration as well. In the past few years, Edgemont voters have indeed approved the school budget by more than 60%. No one knows yet if any Westchester school will propose a budget increase above the NYS tax cap (a number that is reported as two percent, though there are allowable exclusions including increases in the state-mandated employer contribution rates for teacher and employee pensions that exceed two percentage points). This year, the budget development timeline has been accelerated requiring the district to submit their budget to the Office of the State Comptroller by March 1, 2012
Although Albany promised mandate relief for school districts when the tax cap became law, there has not been much in the way of relief. Nancie Ellis, an Edgemont resident and parent, said, "Edgemont shouldn't be confined to a 2% tax cap when they are forced to pay for unfunded state mandates which rise more than 2% each year. For example, the teacher pension fund cost has increased a tremendous amount this year. Eliminating certain mandates such as paying for busing to private schools could save the districts tens of thousands each year. This isn't a black and white issue. For the past 5 years, the town taxes have increased at a larger percentage than the school taxes. With everyone's taxes rising, people are making more certiorari claims, which lowered their taxes and raised the taxes for those not making the claims."
If Albany had given school districts mandate relief perhaps the schools could bring in lower tax increases without cutting staff and programs. But mandate relief will not happen in time for this upcoming budget season. Click here for an article on "Understanding New York State's Property Tax Levy Cap As It Relates to Public Schools"
Edgemont residents can learn more about the tax cap by attending BOE meetings (the next meeting is on Tuesday, December 13th at 8:15 pm in the high school LGI room). The board and administrators welcomes your views on budget cuts and on whether or not the school district should present a budget that supersedes the cap.
Scarsdale School Board to Host Community Budget Discussions
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The Scarsdale Board of Education invites Scarsdale residents to participate in the budget-planning process for the 2012-13 school year. We encourage you to advise us in conversations about financial and program projections and the decisions we face. Share your views with the Board about student needs, possible program initiatives, and how we might best balance sustaining the excellence of our schools with budget pressures and the challenge of controlling tax growth
Interested community members are invited to sign up for one of two meetings scheduled for January 2012:
- Wednesday, January 11th, from 7:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m. in Room 170-172, Scarsdale High School, Brewster Road side
- Wednesday, January 18th, from 10:00 a.m.–12:00 noon at the Girl Scout House on Wayside Lane.
Note: Snow date for Budget Forums is Thursday, January 19th at 10:00 a.m. at the Girl Scout House on Wayside Lane or Thursday January 19th at 7:30 p.m. in Room 170-172, Scarsdale High School, Brewster Road side
Meetings will be open to the public; although advance registration is requested, it is not required. Please RSVP to the District office at 721-2410 or email lrehm@scarsdaleschools.org.
If you cannot attend either session, the Board will welcome your comments at a regular Board meeting, or in writing to 2 Brewster Road or to BoardofEd@scarsdaleschools.org. Let us hear from you.
Meeting to Explore Elevated Crosswalk at Crane's Pond
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Here is a note from Paul Feiner regarding an elevated crosswalk at Crane’s Pond: The Town of Greenburgh will hold a community meeting at Crane’s Pond on Saturday, November 19th at 10 am to discuss the proposed elevated crosswalk that is being suggested for the road. In the event of rain or snow the meeting will be rescheduled for December 3rd at 10 am. The total cost for the crosswalk is $75,000 (using non taxpayer dollar developer escrow funds).
The consultant from the Birdsall Services Group will show residents exactly where the crosswalk is being placed. I want to emphasize that once the crosswalk is placed at the location the town will not spend any taxpayer dollars to remove the crosswalk in the event that the community does not like it. This has been my major concern over the years. If residents don’t want the crosswalk to be placed at this location please attend the meeting and speak up—before it is too late! Advocates of the crosswalk believe that the elevated crosswalk will slow down traffic and increase pedestrian safety.
Edgemont residents who have other town related concerns are invited to attend the meeting this Saturday at 10 am. We want to be responsive to the Edgemont community and are always interested in your feedback.
Sincerely,
Paul Feiner
Greenburgh Town Supervisor
Living to 100 and Beyond
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On a trip to Florida ten years ago, my sister and I spent some time visiting with my Grandpa Harry. As we walked around his condo complex, we couldn’t help but notice all the women calling after him.
“Harry, I need a jar opened.”
“Harry, I was hoping you could drive me to Publix later.”
“Harry, just the man I was hoping to see…”
Kind and quiet in a way that men aren’t these days, Harry was twice-widowed, living independently with a valid driver’s license. He was the Big Man on Campus.
My sister and I, worried about him being lonely and a bit stunned by all the female attention, suggested to him that maybe he should get a girlfriend.
He waved his hand off at us. “Eh…. Five or ten years ago, maybe. But now I’m just too old for that kind of business.”
He was 91 at the time. Clearly he felt that he would have been up to the task at age 86.
I thought about my grandfather a lot after attending the one-year anniversary celebration of At Home Scarsdale on Sunday, November 6th at the Scarsdale Woman’s Club.
At Home provides referrals to services providers, transportation to doctor appointments as well as social gatherings and events for senior citizens in our community. I was invited because of the work I do with the library.
The speaker was Edgemont resident Dr. Nir Barzilai, the Director of the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He ws invited by At Home coordinator Susan Gilbert. Barzilai is the head of the Longevity Project at Einstein. He took to the center of the room to talk about his study of centenarians (those who live to 100). If this sounds familiar, it may be because Barzilai's study was on the front cover of New York Magazine just two weeks ago for an article called “They’re Old, They’re Jewish and They Have DNA Like You Wouldn’t Believe.”
The amusing title pertains to the 540 Ashkenazi Jews he tracked all of whom have lived beyond the age of 95. In his presentation he focuses on Irving Kahn, an investment banker who, at the age of 105, still goes to work with his son and grandson at their offices in Manhattan every day. We also get a glimpse of his sister Helen, or “Happy” who died this past September at 109. Irving, Happy and their two other siblings all lived past the age of 100. In an obituary Happy was reported to reveal that the secret to her longevity was “chocolate truffles, hamburgers, Budweiser beer, cigarettes and New York night life. Strictly forbidden were vegetables, exercising, getting up early and complaining.”
Even if she had a dramatic flair, Barzilai’s study seems to corroborate Happy’s view. Indeed, the majority of those in the study were not incredibly healthy eaters and admitted to smoking at some point in their lives. Most didn’t claim to be terribly religious or spiritual. In fact, many just seemed to believe that their secret to living was, well, just living. Most, like the Kahns in the study, say that their family members also lived long lives. This leads Barzilai and his team to question if longevity is in the genes.
Why the Jews?
Of course that’s always been the question for the Jewish people. In this case, the answer is perhaps a bit more pedestrian than you’d expect: Barzilai explained that this group’s ancestry is fairly intact. While of course there is intermarriage, compared to other racial and ethnic groups there is less ‘cross-pollination’ so to speak. This is why Ashkenazi women often have to give what feels like a gallon of blood for genetic testing during their pregnancies. (At least that’s what it felt like to me). There is also a sizeable super-elderly population of this group in the area.
The Holocaust:
You can’t talk about this generation of Ashkenazi Jews without bringing up the Holocaust. While he didn’t offer the statistics of how many in the study lived in Eastern Europe during that time, Barzilai said that those who did live through Nazi Germany and the concentration camps -- statistically speaking, should not have survived until now. But they did. Again, this could be genetics. A tough gene perhaps?
On the whole, the group in the study is a healthy lot. They spend less time at the doctor’s office compared to the overall population. Barzilai showed that the health care costs for this group are considerably lower than those who live to the average age of 80. Many are in good health until the very end. That was the case with my grandfather. He was the picture of health until the very end. He had a fall, deteriorated quickly and six weeks later he was gone. He was about two months shy of his 95th birthday.
Barzilai is a dynamo. Witty and charming with a slight Israeli accent, the audience was rapt when he spoke. Not only did Barzilai want to look at these centenarians, but at their children- now in their 60s and 70s -- to see if, as he suspects, it may be in the genes.
He says that down the road, this study could lead to new drug therapies to keep people healthier longer and avoid or delay age-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Of course we all want our loved ones to live as long as possible, yet a society where 100 is feasible for an ever-growing population presents some serious social and economic dilemmas.
But for many in this group, social or economic dilemmas are beside the point. … staying alive and healthy is key. These folks just keep going, because they just keep going. As my grandmother (on my father’s side) who turns 91 at the end of this month explains, “There is always a wedding or a new great-grandchild or someone’s birthday for me to look forward to.” That, and a healthy batch of Law & Order reruns seems to be her secret to longevity.
If you are interested in learning more about this study or if you fit the criteria and want to take part in it (65+ and the child of someone who lived to 95+ and are of Eastern European Jewish descent) check out the website superagers.com.
(Pictured at top: Dr. Nir Barzilai)
After the Storm in Edgemont
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The unexpected snowstorm on October 29th caused widespread problems throughout the tri-state area and Edgemont was not spared. Sandra Miller of Con Edison reports that 100,000 customers in Westchester were affected, 3,000 of those in Scarsdale. Connecticut fared even worse. As of November 8th, a full 10 days after the storm, 23,000 customers there remain without power. Fortunately I did not lose power and was able to open up my home to Edgemont neighbors who needed a warm place to spend the night or a freezer to store their frozen goods. Thankfully, most residents in Edgemont did get their power back by Tuesday morning, well ahead of the initial Wednesday night estimate from Con Edison. All Edgemont schools re-opened on time on Tuesday morning and life got back to normal. Unfortunately even neighbors in Scarsdale, had to wait another day to have their power restored.
I contacted Paul Feiner, Town of Greenburgh Supervisor, to get his thoughts on the widespread power outages that occurred in Edgemont. Supervisor Feiner told me he was in constant contact with Con Edison officials from Westchester. He explained that Con Ed assigns government liaisons to all local governments and he sent all the complaints he received from residents to these liaisons. Feiner says that during this past storm, "They were not very happy with me---in fact they told me I was sending them too many e mails. I’m not sure if my constant communications helped a lot but I was not very happy with the time it took for the outages to be responded to." Perhaps it was all his emails and complaints that helped restore Edgemont's power well before the expected deadline?
Cablevision and Verizon also assign liaisons to government officials and Feiner sent them many emails as well. Feiner also has good relations with those liaisons but this was not always the case. Feiner recalls that: "Over a decade ago I was not very pleased with the response I received from Verizon. I wrote to Ivan Seidenberg, head of the company. He responded immediately. And—after that I started getting almost instant responses from Verizon every time I have a complaint."
Feiner believes in the importance of constant communication and keeping everyone informed with the most up-to date information during critical situations. He sends emails to people who subscribe to the town’s "e list" (approximately 1,500 people). He also uses social media, sending email alerts to his facebook friends (almost 4,000), linked-in contacts (about 1,000) and posting tweets on twitter. The town website also posts all his email reports. Additionally Feiner has his own blog www.paulfeinerblogspot.com.
Some local residents question why the power lines are not moved underground to avoid repeated power outages. Feiner agrees. "Con Ed says it’s too expensive to put wires underground. But I think it would be affordable if the wires were gradually placed underground. It would make sense to do this when roadwork is being done (for example: on Dobbs Ferry Road there was a major sidewalk, drainage, and traffic safety improvement project on the road. A left turn lane was created on Jackson Ave)... I feel that we're living in a third world country. Many of the Edgemont residents have experienced outages every few months. Con Ed should do a better job and be proactive---so the same people don't have repeat power outages every few months."
The October nor'easter will not be soon forgotten, but at least Edgemont was out of the dark quickly!
