Details

Written by: Joanne Wallenstein

Published: 25 May 2020

Created: 25 May 2020

Last Updated: 25 May 2020

Hits: 4184

Graduation -- it’s a rite of passage and a Scarsdale tradition that the SHS Class of 2020 will not experience -- at least not in the way they expected.

When the Scarsdale School District shut down suddenly in mid-March, most were taken by surprise. High school seniors left the school without the chance to even clear out their lockers. They did not have the opportunity to see their classmates or teachers and were left to wonder how they would complete their high school years. Would they get to say goodbye to friends, faculty and deans with whom they had forged long term relationships?

As the spring semester progressed, students speculated about what would become of all the end of year rituals…. senior options, senior transition day, the prom and graduation day. Would they be allowed to gather and celebrate their class and four years at the high school?

In May the school administration announced the formation of a Senior Events Committee, comprised of administrators, faculty and parent representatives to “create alternative senior experiences that captured the traditions of a Scarsdale High School graduation, while following the mandates and limitations of governing orders in place at this time.” Seniors, parents and the community at large were invited to send their ideas to the committee for consideration.

The initial action of the committee thrilled the class. On May 7 a surprise faculty motorcade drove through the streets of Scarsdale to deliver large “Class of 2020” graduation lawn signs to the home of each graduating senior. Spirits were buoyed when students saw their teachers in front of their homes cheering on the grads. Though the balance of the graduation plans were a closely guarded secret, the class remained hopeful that the committee had carefully considered many of their ideas and would come up with a plan to recognize each senior, despite the limitations of the social distancing laws.

However on May 22, seniors and their families received an email outlining the outcome of the committee deliberations. In his email, SHS Principal Ken Bonamo says, “We believe this plan achieves the goal of a local, student-focused experience that celebrates individual seniors and the Class of 2020 as a whole.”

The email said that prom was cancelled and outlined the procedure for students to drop off their text and library books and secure their graduation gowns, without leaving their cars. Students can have their graduation photos taken in cap and gown on appointed hours that were assigned by dean on June 11 and 12. The photo opportunity came with the following warnings:

Seniors should plan to arrive at the start of the assigned window (and no later than 15 minutes into the session).

● Parents and guests are NOT permitted to accompany seniors to the session.

● Seniors should arrive dressed in cap and gown, park in the track lot and enter through the athletic entrance.

● Seniors must wear masks except when their pictures are being taken.

● Seniors will form a socially distanced queue that leads to Gyms 3/4 and must wear a mask until it is their turn to be photographed.

● Once photographed, seniors must exit through the athletic entrance and leave campus immediately.

● It is recommended that caps and gowns are steamed or lightly ironed prior to the photography session.

● Seniors who cannot come at their assigned window can only be photographed during the make-up session.

● Photographs may be used by the school for other virtual events and will be mailed home with purchase opportunities for families.

If students wish to retrieve personal items from the school, they are required to make an appointment for a time between June 16-19 and wear masks and gloves when entering the school.

And what about the graduation ceremony? The memo said that it would be held virtually at 2:30 pm on June 23. Students and parents will be invited to view the ceremony online.

Following the ceremony, students and their families are invited to a car procession at Scarsdale High School where they would be cheered by faculty and staff at an appointed time. What about their diplomas? They will be mailed home. The high school yearbook, which is customarily distributed to seniors on Senior Transition Day in June will instead be mailed to seniors’ homes in August. There will be no formal opportunity to for students to sign each other’s yearbooks.

The reaction from some students and their parents was severe disappointment. They had suggested a wide range of creative ideas to the committee and wondered what had happened to their “out of the box” solutions. Had they even been considered? Who was on this committee, and were they really open to ideas? The graduation plans were primarily virtual and denied students the chance to walk in a processional, receive their diplomas and throw their mortarboards in the air. Was there no better way to celebrate their four years at Scarsdale High School?

One mom we spoke to questioned why the school had not surveyed the class to find out what elements of the graduation process were most important to them. If they had, she believes that most students would have asked the school to permit them to come to the school either individually or in small groups to be handed their diploma and photographed in the traditional setting. She said, that many other high schools in the tri-state area came up with creative ways to break the class down into smaller groups to carry on the usual ceremony over the course of several hours or days.

Another parent shared that one nearby district had postponed graduation and the prom until mid-July, in the hope that social distancing laws would be eased and the class could proceed with their celebrations, just a few weeks later.

Another pointed to a proposal from a Scarsdale parent who had located a large drive-in movie theater. The theater was holding the graduation date for the SHS Class of 2020 for a traditional ceremony, with students and their families watching from their cars, instead of the bleachers. However when the Senior Events Committee failed to respond, the facility was reserved by other high schools for their own graduations.

Parents are also cognizant of the fact that the laws are evolving daily, and what is illegal today might be permissible by late June. On Friday May 22, Governor Cuomo announced that groups of up to 10 people are now permitted to gather, and that Westchester County had met the criteria to begin Phase 1 of the re-opening this coming week. With the wheels in motion, what might be permitted in just a few weeks if the administration could wait to finalize their plans?

A group of parents of seniors are lobbying the school administration to use their critical thinking skills to come up with some more creative solutions. They say that a virtual graduation ceremony is no substitute for the real thing and are asking the school to reconsider.

However, there are as many views as there are people in Scarsdale. Yet another mother of a graduating senior defended the administration and the committee. She said, “I know the school has the best interest of my child in mind. They care about the kids and I am confident that the leadership did everything possible. I am sure they considered all the logistical and legal constraints and did what they could do given the situation. Perhaps they could have done a better job communicating their process, but I know they spent considerable time making these decisions. It is a disappointing time, but people shouldn’t focus their disappointment on the school.”

Details

Written by: Jordy Love

Published: 19 May 2020

Created: 19 May 2020

Last Updated: 19 May 2020

Hits: 2596

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Raider pride and spirit remains strong. Even though Scarsdale fans won’t be cheering on their athletes this spring, the community has come out in full force to help support our frontline workers.

Scarsdale High School’s Maroon and White raised over $2700 to provide meals for the White Plains Hospital staff through RAIDER STRONG tee shirt sales. Maroon and White, the athletic booster organization responsible for providing funds for equipment for SHS and SMS athletic teams and physical education programs not covered by the school budget, created an online store for Scarsdale families and teachers to sell long and short sleeve tee shirts.

Maroon and White partnered with Gianonni’s Deli to provide one sandwich, drink and chips to a WPH staff member for every shirt sold. SHS senior athletes helped deliver the tee shirts throughout the community. Over 600 meals will be delivered to the frontline workers this week. Maroon and White also sold 782 Raider face masks. A second webstore for additional masks will open soon and will provide an opportunity to all buyers to purchase an additional mask for SPD, SFD and SVAC first responders.

Details

Written by: Joanne Wallenstein

Published: 12 May 2020

Created: 12 May 2020

Last Updated: 09 March 2022

Hits: 4029

(Updated 5-14) Though the Board of Education was expected to finalize the 2020-21 Scarsdale School Budget at their May 11 meeting, some last-minute changes brought the proposed tax increase down and necessitated an additional meeting for final budget approval on Wednesday May 13.

What happened? The long and short of the story is that first, the Board decided to transfer $700,000 from debt reserves into the proposed budget to begin renovations of the Scarsdale High School auditorium. The total estimated cost of the project is $1.9 mm, but architects determined that some of the necessary updates could begin with the $700,000 in funds approved by voters in the 2014 bond.

See below for a list of items that will be addressed, with work expected to be done during the summer of 2021.

Second, due to the closure of school, the district realized savings and anticipates that the fund balance at the end of June would be $24,734,716, or 3.95% of the total budget. The maximum a district can hold is 4.00%, so the $24.7 million is higher than usual.

Several Board members advocated to take more funds out of reserves this year to soften the impact on taxpayers. Traditionally the board uses $1.1million of reserves in the following year’s budget. At previous meetings, the board had agreed to take $350,000 more out of reserves for a total contribution of $1.45 million. At Monday night’s meeting, Board member Scott Silberfein again raised the possibility of increasing the contribution from reserves. After considerable debate, the Board coalesced around adding another $300,000 to the 2020-21 budget, making the total contribution from the fund balance $650,000.

Third, the Board held a lengthy discussion about allowing taxpayers to pay their school taxes in two installments, rather than in one payment in September. This decision is ultimately up to the Scarsdale Board of Trustees as the village collects taxes, but the school board agreed that they support this change and asked the village board to explore installment billing and other avenues of tax relief for homeowners.

Accordingly, if payment were made in two installments in September and January, Assistant Superintendent Mattey estimated that the school would lose about $75,000 in interest on the uncollected funds.

These three decisions changed the projections that Assistant Superintendent Mattey presented at the outset of the meeting. When he refigured the impact of all these adjustments, at the end of the meeting he projected a 1.19% budget to budget increase, a tax levy increase of 1.66% which translates to a 1.498% percent increase for Scarsdale residents and a 2.31% increase for those in the Mamaroneck strip.

Coming to consensus on these issues took considerable discussion.

On the decision to fund auditorium improvements, several members of the Board were strongly in favor as they were eager to comply with the wishes of parents and the PTA who supported the work. However, some were concerned about what changes the COVID crisis might require to open school in the fall and wanted to keep the funds in reserve for maximum flexibility. Ron Schulhof said, “I think it’s prudent to keep money in the reserves in case the school needs to be reconfigured to facilitate social distancing. It came up very late at the last meeting. I don’t think the community has enough time to opine at such a late point in the budget process.”

Scott Silberfein responded, “We have $23 million in reserves – how would it hurt to use this $700,000 for the auditorium? … (SHS President) Deb Morel has brought it up at every meeting. This isn’t impacting our taxpayers and that’s why I am comfortable doing this.”

Alison Singer also supported the transfer. She said, “I think it was clever and creative to look for a way to use the funds in the debt service account to fulfill our obligation to do something about the auditorium. Now the architects have found some projects that it is wise and prudent to use these funds for, so I support it.”

A similar discussion ensued about using additional funds from the fund balance to decrease taxes. Scott Silberfein said he would like to use as much as the Board was comfortable adding. Assistant Superintendent Stuart Mattey cautioned” the Board might be digging a hole that it might be difficult to get out of next year.”

Board President Pam Fuehrer said, “If we do adopt this, we have to change the property tax card which we are due to approve at this meeting. If we make that change, we will meet again to approve the edited card.” She later said, “I think it’s very clear that as a board we have a lot of positions on this and I think as a board we understand the value of respecting those differences and find something that is going to make a difference to our taxpayers but maintain our concerns about uncertainty next year and the impact on next year’s budgeting, all of which are reasonable and have been brought to us by leadership. Coming to a compromise number at $200,00 could go a long way. We have to come together on a number and move forward.”

Carl Finger proposed adding an additional $300,000 from the fund balance to the current budget, saying, “It’s not so big that we can’t come down from it or refund this amount next year. It’s a good compromise and a good number.”

At that point, there was general agreement on the$300,000. However Ron Schulhof objected to the process. He said, “I just want to point out, at our last meeting when we were scheduled to vote we made $1.4 million in changes. Now we’re making another major change. It does not give the Board or the community time to opine on this. From a process standpoint I am struggling to understand how we got here and it’s disappointing.”

Chris Morin defended the changes. He said, “We’re finally listening to the community. We’re hearing taxes are too damn high, we want to renovate the auditorium and we want to pay taxes in installments.” Scott Silberfein concurred saying, “I don’t want to leave the public with the headline that we made $1.4 million in changes and never spoke to them about it. We have been talking about the fund balance and the auditorium for weeks and months. We have been as responsive as possible in listening to our constituents.”

(Updated 5-14)

At the May 13 meeting, the budget below was reviewed, including the changes noted above. You can see the Property Tax Report Card that you will receive in the mail here:

Here are a few highlights from the public comments portion of the meeting:

Marshall Kitain of Fox Meadow Road asked how schools can open in September, saying “e-Learning is not workable in my home…. Parents are not trained educators. I recognize that now there is no other option, but I implore the board to develop a plan to open school in September especially for our youngest learners.

SHS PTA President Deb Morel said, “The Executive Committee is thrilled about the board’s consensus to use the $700,000 from debt reserve to begin work on the auditorium. It is the right and responsible thing to do. Thank you!”

Nicholas Thompson of Forest Lane asked the board for a flat or 0% tax increase saying that people aged 20-34 years-old would not be able to stay in town.”

Mayra Kirkendall-Rodriguez talked about the financial stress on parents. She discussed the districts triple AAA bond rating and said the district should use it. She suggested an analysis to figure out how much fund balance could be used without affecting the rating. She said, “Should a bond be issued for the auditorium renovations?” She favored installment payment for school taxes.

Eric Lichtenstein of Richbell Road echoed Marshall Kitain’s comments about e-Learning and the difficulty in educating young kids. He said, “It is difficult and challenging for the young kids to spend their time on Zooms. There is no replacement for in school classrooms. I would encourage the board to keep the synchronous learning consistent. For instance, they are not all in the morning…. It is difficult if things are happening at various times in the day. Have all the learning in the morning and teacher planning in the afternoon.” He added, “I want to bring up graduation for the middle schoolers and the elementary school students. Plan something special for fifth and eighth graders who are moving up.”

Art Rublin of Donellan Road voiced “support for the budget that you are putting together” He said, “I think the auditorium is a good development… I think there will a lot of support in the community.”

Diane Greenwald of Oak Lane thanked the SHS faculty and senior class student government for arranging a wonderful event. She said, “teams of masked teachers drove beeping across town to deliver nearly 400 signs to mark the homes of the class of 2020 and cheer for them as they approach their derailed milestone graduation. I felt like the entire community was rooting for our teens! I am so grateful for this joyful act of kindness for my kid and yours! This is Non sibi -- This is why I live here. This is why I support our schools.”

She continued, “School is the thing we sacrifice FOR. This is why we all work hard to live here. Quality education is the priority. I don’t always agree with every choice, but I have never seen a Village or a District professional or a Village or District volunteer be cavalier about the responsibility of spending funds. Ever. I hope you will feel good about your role as stewards in a balanced tradition, protecting valued investment into learning and development. You all work hard to propose a prudent budget that is responsive to the needs of the students, the values of the community, and the economic resources available at any given time. Furthermore, helping to keep our faculty and staff employed in such meaningful work is a privilege — for the children, for the economy, for society, for the future. Cutting taxes is an easy talking point but not always an economic positive. The Scarsdale School District is an important area employer, and cuts cannot be profound or deep without a ripple of negative consequences.”

You can watch the meeting online here.

The board will meet again on Wednesday May 13 at 5:30 pm to finalize the budget and approve the property tax report card.

Board members and Administrators will be participating virtually via Zoom. To view the Special Meeting live, click this link or access it via the District Calendar.

Details

Written by: Joanne Wallenstein

Published: 01 May 2020

Created: 01 May 2020

Last Updated: 25 March 2021

Hits: 2908

This letter was sent to Scarsdale10583 by Anne Lyons and BK Munguia from the Scarsdale Foundation:

Students who graduated from Scarsdale High School or lived in Scarsdale during their high school years and who have completed their first, second, or third years of college are invited to apply to the Scarsdale Foundation for tuition assistance. For the 2019-2020 academic year, the Foundation awarded need-based grants totaling $126,500 to 29 students attending private and state-supported colleges and universities.

Applications for the 2020-2021 academic year should be submitted online from the Scarsdale Foundation’s website: www.scarsdalefoundation.org (click on the College Scholarships link). Applications must be submitted by Monday, June 1, 2020. Contact Scholarship Committee Co-Chairs Anne Lyons or BK Munguia at: [email protected]. Please note "Scarsdale Foundation Scholarship Inquiry" in the subject line of your email applications.

The Scarsdale Foundation welcomes contributions from the community to augment the funds available for distribution each year. Contributions may be donated to the specially earmarked Scholarship Fund, enabling the Foundation to carry on the tradition of helping Scarsdale students in financial need pursue a college education. Donations may be made online by visiting the Foundation’s website: www.scarsdalefoundation.org or by check mailed to: Scarsdale Foundation, P.O. Box 542, Scarsdale, NY 10583.

The Scarsdale Foundation also hosts the Scarsdale Bowl Dinner where individuals are recognized for their volunteer work in the community. This year the Scarsdale Bowl Dinner has been rescheduled and will be held on Thursday, September 24 at The Brae Burn Country Club.

Contacts:

Anne Lyons
[email protected]
914-725-9810

BK Munguia
[email protected]
914-472-4053

This letter was sent to Scarsdale10583 from the Scarsdale Bowl Chairman Nancy Michaels:

Dear Scarsdale Community,

I hope you and your loved ones are safe. As we enter our second month of sheltering in place, many of us are getting restless. We want to keep ourselves and loved ones safe, but also want to find ways to help others in need and are missing social contact with friends and family. With Mother’s Day on Sunday, all I want to do is give my 89-year old lonely mom a big hug and tell her how much I love, appreciate, and miss her! Although I cannot see her in person, I will honor her for being a community volunteer by placing her name on the new Scarsdale Foundation Honor Roll. All Scarsdale volunteers are eligible to be part of the Honor Roll, including former residents. Our village is built on the work of all of our volunteers who support Scarsdale in big ways and in small ones, in our schools and in civic life, in soup kitchens and on local boards, and we are better for their service.

I encourage everyone to show gratitude to all our mothers and community volunteers by naming them on the Honor Roll. Volunteers will receive an email certificate and will be recognized in print and online media, and at the Scarsdale Foundation Bowl Dinner. For $25 per volunteer, you can honor as many volunteers as you choose. It is a way to acknowledge those who serve in the more prominent ways and the quieter ways as well.

The money raised will help The Scarsdale Foundation provide need-based scholarships for Scarsdale college students in their sophomore, junior, and senior years in college. Our goal is to raise $150,000 to ensure that our students have a bright future. With the rescheduling of the Scarsdale Foundation Bowl Dinner, from this spring to fall (September 24), funds are critically needed to help students now.

Please go to ScarsdaleFoundation.org to honor friends, neighbors, community members, everyday heroes, and all the moms out there who make a difference.

Shine on Scarsdale!

Nancy Michaels
The Scarsdale Foundation Bowl Committee Chair, 2020