Parents Ask for Heightened Security at Scarsdale Schools
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The entire country was stopped in its tracks on Friday when the news emerged that a gunman had done the unthinkable, killing 20 innocent first graders in their Connecticut classroom. He stormed the school on an ordinary day, without warning and with no apparent motive. And since the murderer then killed himself, leaving no note, the reason for his brutal rampage may never be known.
Now reality is setting in for all parents who have to drop their children off at school this week. School, a place that parents often consider a safe haven, is feeling anything but secure.
On Friday, School Superintendent Michael McGill sent the following email to school parents – and we have received several letters in response to his note from parents who feel we can do more to safeguard our children at school.
Here is Dr. McGill's original email, a response from Dr. Tanya Drajic, mother of three children in the Scarsdale Schools and Dr. McGill's reply to her letter:
(From Dr. McGill)
Dear Members of the Scarsdale Schools Community:
As we learn the details of this morning's horror in Newtown Connecticut, we're living out yet another of those nightmare moments that have become all too familiar in recent years. Our hearts go out to the children, parents, teachers and all the other residents of a stricken community.
We have absolutely no reason to make a connection between what's just occurred in Newtown and reality here in Scarsdale. Nonetheless, I've asked our principals to take particular care in enforcing existing safety precautions and to review building safety procedures with their staffs. Also, as appropriate to children's age, staff will do their best to provide reassurance, a sense of stability, and opportunities to come to terms with events that defy understanding. Finally, the following website offers parents information about discussing traumatic events with children: http://www.nasponline.org/resources/crisis_safety/terror_general.aspx If you have questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact your building principal or school psychologist.
Evil and fear are in the world. It's given to us to stand against both. Ultimately, our best protection against the darkness is our own courage, our humanity and one another. Please know that our children's well-being is foremost in the minds of Scarsdale's teachers, school leadership, and support staff.
Sincerely,
Michael V. McGill
Superintendent of Schools
(From Dr. Dragic)
Dear Mr. McGill,
Thank you for reaching out to the Scarsdale community after the unspeakable heartbreak that descended upon the families of Newtown. This was truly an act beyond the light of reason.
I was surprised, however, by your words that "We have absolutely no reason to make a connection between what's just occurred in Newtown and reality here in Scarsdale." Mental illness, violence and easy access to very powerful firearms are a reality in all of America, including Scarsdale. What happened in Newtown could happen anywhere, anytime, and is happening at an alarming and growing frequency all across the country. This is a fact and the Scarsdale community is not immune to this fact.
I therefore call upon you not just to "enforce existing safety precautions" but to improve them. And I call upon you to involve faculty, staff, parents and the Scarsdale Police Department in this effort. These different arms of the community should work together to come up with the best possible, reasonable improvements to our schools' security. Clearly, no school can be made unbreachable, but there is much room for improvement.
Currently, unchecked entrance into Scarsdale schools during the day is fairly easy. I do it on a regular basis in order to deliver forgotten items to my children. The Middle School does not even have a buzzer system at the front door and its side doors are often unlocked. At FME, workers are constantly entering and exiting side doors that are not closed properly. I am sure the situation is no different at the other elementary schools and the high school.
Surely, security could be made tighter if not foolproof, including buzzer systems, double doors, self-locking outside doors with entrance cards, rule enforcement, dedicated receptionists, etc. I am also sure that the parents of Scarsdale will support such efforts because our children's safety is paramount and we are not naïve about the world we live in.
I look forward to hearing from you on this issue.
Regards,
Dr. Tanya Dragic
(mother of Alex, Hanna and Sophie Maddon)
(From Dr. McGill)
Dear Dr. Dragic,
Thanks for your e-mail.
First, the initial part of my earlier message was simply intended to communicate we had no reason to believe Scarsdale students were in immediate danger as a result of the events in Newtown.
More broadly, of course, you're correct that schools -- and everyone else -- are vulnerable to acts of unspeakable violence in a culture where access to firearms is all-but-unfettered and where mental health issues are often ignored. Like everyone else in our region, I'm personally shaken by Friday's events. I assure you that we will review our existing procedures to determine what, if anything, more we can reasonably do to be sure children are safe.
For your information, we already do coordinate with the Scarsdale Police Department -- and they with regional law enforcement agencies -- as well as with our parent-teacher organizations, in the developing and implementing security protocols. Each school regularly conducts safety drills, including lockdown drills, in response to a variety of security scenarios. The police also conduct training drills in our buildings. A district safety team is responsible for overseeing these procedures and practices.
While we can do what we can do to provide a safe school environment, the most important steps we could take as a community and as a nation would be to promote tough gun control laws and to begin to provide the kind of mental health services necessary to identify and treat young people before they become self-destructive or destructive of others. We will not extirpate evil, and human beings will commit terrible crimes in the future. But we can make a difference. We can make things better.
Please know that I take these matters very seriously. I know the superintendent and other educators in Newtown. I identify strongly with them and with the families in that community. I cannot imagine the horror they are going through. It is the last thing in the world I would ever want to happen in our community or any other.
Again, thank you for your e-mail. We will follow up, as I said, and work toward a better tomorrow.
Sincerely,
Dr. McGill
Dr. Dragic is the mother of three children, ages 10, 12 and 13, in the Scarsdale school system. She is a member of the faculty at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where until 2010 she ran a lab focused on HIV and Hep C research. Currently, She is involved in graduate and medical school teaching as well as research grant-writing activities at the College. She has a B.S. in Biochemistry and a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Paris.
Finally, Proof of the Value of Elementary Language Instruction
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A positive return on investment in elementary foreign language instruction was the highlight of the Board of Education meeting held on Monday night, November 19, at the Quaker Ridge School. A presentation by Beverly Bayson of the Center for Applied Linguistics, an organization hired by the board to evaluate the effectiveness of the foreign language program in the elementary schools (FLES), showed very strong evidence of the benefits to Scarsdale students of offering Spanish language instruction beginning in first grade. What the evaluation showed was that not only were students coming in to the middle school with a strong base for learning Spanish, but that even those choosing to take up French in sixth grade were progressing more rapidly than those beginning French without the benefit of having participated in FLES. The Center's research also showed that the performance of students in eighth grade Spanish who had gone through FLES was at a much higher level than that of the eighth grade students measured three years ago, who had not been exposed to FLES. Overall, the administration and Board of Education were pleased with the results of this study, as they clearly demonstrated the positive impact of the District's investment in elementary-level foreign language instruction.
Immediately prior to the meeting, the Quaker Ridge PTA hosted a conversation between QR parents, the BOE, and school administrators. What was most notable was the absence of requests for capital improvements, a departure from the common practice at other schools' meetings to ask for things like building expansion or enhancements to the physical plant. QR PTA President Kim Goldban introduced the PTA board, and spoke of the PTA's attempts to build on a theme of My Quaker Ridge, where everyone is welcome and participates, and diversity is celebrated. PTA goals mentioned making events more convenient and less costly, and emphasizing school spirit through regularly scheduled spirit days and a well-decorated building.
Parent and PTA board member Debbie Hochberg took the opportunity to question the BOE about its position on state testing. Hochberg stated that she didn't necessarily think that tests are a bad thing, and she asked why the district appeared to be pushing back on state tests. Board president Liz Guggenheimer answered that the Board Of Education recognizes that it's a complex issue. "The tests themselves are not evil," Guggenheimer said, "but the one size fits all approach is problematic, as is the amount of time devoted to it."
Dr. Michael McGill, Superintendent of Scarsdale schools, added that the administration's stance is that "we don't object to all standardized tests, in fact we see a place for them. But the amount of testing isn't okay, and the tests are being used inappropriately to rate teachers based on student test scores." McGill continued, "There is very serious debate in the professional and research community about whether you can use tests to determine who is an effective teacher and who is not." He went on to say that he would have fewer problems with periodic sampling of test results then with the current system, which he called "overkill." McGill said he'd like to see teachers assessed more organically, based on results of their day-to-day work.
Dr. McGill went on to refer to a faculty-endorsed statement that acknowledges that standardized tests, under certain conditions, can have value, but that these assessments doesn't come close to defining excellence in education. In other words, the approach of Scarsdale's faculty towards standardized tests is that the state can force us to take them, but not to assign meaning to them. Still, as Dr. McGill said, while he assures the faculty that you can't look at one score and have it be anything more than "temperature-taking," at one time or another, the danger is that "the emphasis placed on test scores out in the world makes it difficult for teachers to believe it."
When QR parent Jen Rossano followed up, asking if the administration is working with teachers to ensure that test preparation doesn't take up the entire spring, the answer was that teachers are being told to continue teaching what's best for the kids, not test prep.
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.
SBNC Administrative Committee Announces Candidates for the January SBNC Election
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This just in from the School Board Nominating Committee: The School Board Nominating Committee Administrative Committee has announced the candidates seeking election to the School Board Nominating Committee for a three-year term beginning in January, 2013. The candidates below are competing for two open seats in each of the five election districts in an election scheduled for Wednesday, January 16, 2013, in the Scarsdale Middle School auditorium from 7am to 10am and also from 2pm to 9pm. Biographical snapshots of all candidates listed below will be published on or before the first week in January:
Edgewood: Jeannine Palermo, Neil Pierson, John Souchack, Carolyn Stevens
Fox Meadow: Mary Blum, Deb Morel, John Spiro, John Zaff
Greenacres: Perry Braun, Kevin Higgins, Josh Weismer
Heathcote: Michael Blumstein, Daniel Goldman, Levi Litman
Quaker Ridge: Ronnie Hersch, Avner Ingerman, Amanda Rangaiah, Alison Singer
Also on the ballot will be proposed amendments to the Non-Partisan Resolution, which are described in more detail on the SBNC website at http://scarsdalesbnc.com/press/. Hard copies will also be made available at the Reference Desk of the Scarsdale Library and in the brochure racks in the lobby of Village Hall. As previously announced, there is a public meeting to discuss these changes on Wednesday, December 5, 2012 at 8:00 pm in the Scott Room at the Scarsdale Public Library. The Community is invited to this meeting. The SBNC candidates are also invited to learn more about how the SBNC works. After receiving public comment on the changes to the Resolution, the Joint Committee will finalize the language for its proposed amendments by December 15, 2012.
We urge members of the community to consider these amendments and, most importantly, to vote in the election on January 16, 2013.
The School Board Nominating Committee is a non-partisan organization made up of 6 residents from each of the 5 elementary school neighborhoods. The SBNC meets each year to review and propose candidates for the Scarsdale School Board election. The Joint Committee of the SBNC is made up of residents who have already served three years on the SBNC in addition to representatives from various community organizations. The Joint Committee's focus is on running the annual election that ultimately creates the SBNC.
Contact: Lisa Rodman, [email protected], 725-3435
Photo Credit: Nan Berke
Scarsdale Schools Adopt a Global View of Education
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The Scarsdale school district has always been looked at as a leader in education in the United States, so it makes sense that the district is now looking outside our borders for partners in improving education. At the Board of Education meeting on Monday night, November 19, Lynne Shain, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction, spoke about how the district is partnering with schools in other countries to identify best practices in education and to share these with each other. Shain's presentation, "A Global View of World Class Education," summarized Scarsdale's participation to date in the Global Learning Alliance(GLA), a consortium of international schools created in 2010 when Scarsdale asked researchers at Columbia University's Teachers College to gather evidence of what students in five of the world's high-performing nations know and can do, along with information on their curriculum materials, their teachers, their expectations and methods.
Schools in the GLA are from Finland, Singapore, Canada, Shanghai, and Australia, and include both highly selective independent schools and very diverse public school districts that are considered exemplars in their nation. According to Shain, it's always been possible to compare performance based on tests that yield quantitative results, but this is the first effort to share ideas about best learning and teaching practices. Members are working to develop a common language, identify common interests, as well as to develop assessments and benchmarks that transcend what current international tests can measure. Perhaps most importantly, working together will allow members of the GLA to make school to school comparisons and inform teaching and curriculum at the local level, where, according to Shain, instructional improvement actually occurs.
The core capacities identified by the research team as important in the 21st century should sound familiar to followers of Scarsdale's education system, as they include critical thinking, creative thinking, communication, and global perspectives, all values currently being emphasized here in Scarsdale.
Members of the GLA convened in Singapore this past August and uncovered similarities and differences in their educational systems. While among these high-performing districts there are differences in the length of the school day and school year, class size, hours worked by teachers and strength of unions, they all share ideologies that include having clear mission statements that foster critical thinking and non-standard problem-solving; a research-based approach to curriculum, instruction and assessment; and a strong spirit of service and contribution. Also, in all GLA schools, professional development is strong and comprehensive, and there is a high level of parent engagement.
Attitudes towards teaching seemed to be the most important differentiation of success among districts. Trust of teachers and teacher autonomy, two values that some consider as being undermined by the State DOE's imposition of assessments on local school districts, were presented as very important in schools in other nations. Dr. Michael McGill, Superintendent of Scarsdale Schools, pointed specifically to the experience of teachers in Finland, where there is stiff competition to be accepted into a teaching program, with only eight universities offering such programs, and where once in the program, all teachers are trained uniformly and by professors with PhD's. Said McGill, "It would be unrealistic to think we can replicate standardization here, but unless we address basic problems such as the quality of our teaching pool, it is unclear how much progress reforms can make." Joan Weber, Assistant Superintendent for Personnel and Administrative Services, agreed, emphasizing the difference in mindset towards teaching in the U.S. and in Finland. "In Finland, teaching is defined as a profession," she said, "as opposed to a civil service approach," in the U.S., and that pay in both is commensurate to the views taken in each country.
Shain brought back examples of work done in GLA schools, and is sharing it with Scarsdale faculty in an effort to learn from it. The GLA will be working to develop protocols to judge their own work, which will then be exchanged, with ensuing dialogue about how the work was produced, is it replicable, and how can other districts emulate it. Members of the GLA hope to reconvene next year, although when asked by Board of Education member Jonathan Lewis whether the group had sufficient resources to continue, Shain responded, "No, not what we need to keep going."
For more information on the GLA, go to the website: http://blogs.tc.columbia.edu/worldclasseducation
SBNC Administrative Committee Announces Public Comment Meeting to be held on December 5, 2012
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Each year, the Joint Committee of the Scarsdale School Board Nominating Committee convenes to consider whether to make changes to its Resolution after the SBNC election. This year, there are ten proposed amendments. Copies of the proposed amendments are available on the SBNC website at: http://scarsdalesbnc.com/press/. Hard copies will also be made available at the Reference Desk of the Scarsdale Library and in the brochure racks in the lobby of Village Hall.
All Scarsdale residents are invited to a public meeting to discuss these changes on Wednesday, December 5, 2012 at 8:00 pm in the Scott Room at the Scarsdale Public Library. SBNC candidates are also encouraged to attend this meeting to learn more about how the SBNC works.
After receiving public comment on the changes to the Resolution, the Joint Committee will finalize the language for its proposed amendments by December 15, 2012. The election to vote on the amendments, and to vote for this year's SBNC members, will be on Wednesday, January 16, 2013 in the Scarsdale Middle School auditorium lobby from 7:00am-10:00am and also from 2:00pm to 9:00pm.
We urge members of the community to consider these amendments and, most importantly, to vote in the election on January 16, 2013.
The School Board Nominating Committee is a non-partisan organization made up of 6 residents from each of the 5 elementary school neighborhoods. The SBNC meets each year to review and propose candidates for the Scarsdale School Board election. The Joint Committee of the SBNC is made up of residents who have already served three years on the SBNC in addition to representatives from various community organizations. The Joint Committee's focus is on running the annual election that ultimately creates the SBNC.
Contact: Lisa Rodman, [email protected], 725-3435
Photo Credit: Nan Berke
