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Written by: Wendy MacMillan

Published: 16 November 2023

Created: 16 November 2023

Last Updated: 16 November 2023

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Planning for the 2024-25 school budget will soon begin. As a preamble, the Board and Administration gave community members a chance to express their opinions, ask questions, or share their concerns about the development of the budget at a budget forum before the November 13 Board of Education meeting.

Here’s what they said:

Nan Mead spoke on behalf of the League of Women Voters and had a long list of prepared questions she asked the Board. One question was whether or not the 2024-2025 school budget would exceed the tax cap.

Irene Spiegel spoke on behalf of the Scarsdale PT Executive Committee and she too read a prepared statement. Among other items the PTC statement included, “The PTC EC would like to emphasize our continued support for the norms of small elementary class size, robust student supports at all levels, differentiated teaching and learning and the development of the whole child. We support and encourage initiatives related to student mental health and wellness as well as Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, and strongly encourage ongoing professional development and work with the school community to further these significant and essential aspects of the student experience. The PTC EC also encourages a continued commitment to the development of innovative, best-in-class curriculum practices.”

Ali Miller, a parent of Scarsdale students, shared her concerns about the health and safety of athletes on game days. Ms. Miller advocated for an improved emergency action plan, better cell service on Butler Field, and an ambulance on site during games for sports like football and lacrosse.

Manisha Marria spoke on behalf of the Scarsdale Middle School PTA Executive Committee and read a statement that, among other things, expressed their appreciation for the continued support of mental health and DEI initiatives. They would also like to make sure that the Board takes into consideration the increasing number of students who need extra support.

Mayra Kirkendall-Rodriguez spoke via Zoom and applauded the Board for hosting a budget forum in the evening because it allows for more residents to partake in the discussion and it makes room for more cognitive diversity. She went on to advocate that the BOE create a long-term financial plan, stating that it helps to maintain fiscal responsibility.

Administrators highlighted ongoing work with the district’s Strategic Plan and discussed the current budget and contributing factors such as: the tax levy, inflation, TRE/ERS, health plan experience, collective bargaining, and staffing needs and retirements. They shared the 2024-2025 “Budget Discussion Timeline” which includes another Budget Forum and Review on March 25th.

Wellness and Inclusion

During the Business Meeting, Superintendent Drew Patrick revisited some of the thoughts he shared in his “message to the community” in an email on November 8th. In the email Dr. Patrick related, “On Tuesday November 7th, our faculty and staff gathered for a Superintendent Conference Day. The day afforded us the opportunity to engage in learning and to collaborate around three primary things: student well-being, the belonging survey, and strategic planning. Below are some important updates related to each.” The email went on to explain:

“As educators, we recognize our special role in supporting our students and their wellbeing. We engaged in dialog about this role and the things our students are experiencing during our professional learning time on Election Day. As a whole faculty, we reflected on how to meet students where they are, and what we can continue to do to support them, especially during this challenging time. A subset of faculty also engaged in a workshop with Dr. Derrick Gay to discuss effective strategies that can help move conflict toward deliberation and discussion through empathy and understanding. Both experiences move us ahead in terms of our understanding and ability to provide our students with what they need to feel safe, supported, and remain engaged. We are committed to supporting each and every student.

Unfortunately, as these past few weeks have shown, Antisemitism and Islamophobia exist in our community, and we have had documented incidents of both in our schools. These events can have profoundly negative impacts on students and undermine the culture of belonging and inclusion that we strive to foster and that is necessary for our students to thrive. Any and every instance of anti-Muslim speech or action, Antisemitic speech or action, and speech or action targeting identity or expressing bias is totally unacceptable and will be appropriately and decisively addressed. We have and will continue to provide support to students who are impacted by such incidents and to apply our Code of Conduct to guide the application of appropriate consequences for such behavior.

While we do work to mitigate harm when done, we must strive as a community for prevention. All of us—students, parents/caregivers, faculty, and staff—must have the courage to speak up to educate one another as to the harms these actions have so as to prevent them from occurring. If and when incidents of hate, bias, or bullying of any kind occur, we must notify school leaders immediately, equipped with the knowledge that reports will be investigated without fear of retaliation. We are grateful to those who have spoken up, and ask that you continue to help us by making sure your children know how important it is to take a stand against such action and to speak up whenever they see, hear, or experience this. Students should reach out to a trusted adult in our buildings so we can provide the support and intervention necessary. As a reminder, if you have any concerns about the wellbeing of a student or need to report harassment or bullying of any kind, please visit this link to contact the building DASA coordinator. Furthermore, if you need to report a safety concern or a threat related to a school or a student, please contact the building's administration. Our collaboration is essential to keep students safe and experiencing a sense of belonging.”

Belonging Survey

Dr. Patrick also highlighted the introduction of the new Belonging Survey and said it is, “Well-timed given the circumstances, a critical next step in our work around wellbeing, inclusion, diversity, and equity (WIDE) is our belonging survey. We have partnered with the Search Institute to develop and implement the survey to students in grades 4-12 and all parents/caregivers, faculty, and staff. The survey is built around Search’s Developmental Relationships framework, and in fact we deployed it to our faculty and staff this week.” Parents and caregivers should expect an email later this week explaining the survey in greater detail.

Also discussed both at the BOE meeting and in his email are the upcoming World Cafe sessions. “The next steps in this process are to seek your voice, vision, and values at one of three interactive World Café dialogs taking place in November and December.

Wednesday, November 15: 7:00 - 8:45 PM – Scarsdale Middle School (Gymnasium)
Wednesday, November 29: 7:00 - 8:45 PM – Greenacres Elementary (Learning Commons)
Wednesday, December 6: 7:00 - 8:45 PM – Zoom (registrants will be sent the Zoom link)

Sign up to attend one of the sessions. To learn more, view this brief video.”

Athletics

Later in the Business Meeting, Athletic Director Ray Pappalardi gave a Fall Athletics Update. Mr. Pappalardi highlighted many great accomplishments of this season, some of which include:

For the first time in recent memory, Cheerleading has produced 5 All-League and 2 All-Section athletes in the Fall Gameday Season.

With her best race of the season, Rachel Rakower finished third in the Girls Class A (large school) championship race, becoming the first Scarsdale girl to qualify for the New York State Championships since 2002. This past weekend, Rachel placed 63rd at the NYS Championships.

Football and Girls’ Volleyball completed their seasons as Sectional Quarterfinalists.

Field Hockey had a strong year finishing as Sectional Semifinalists.

Girls’ Soccer performed well sharing a League title and ended their season as Sectional Semifinalists.

Girls’ Swimming and Diving has 4 swimmers going to states; This coming weekend, Sunny Kang - Individual Medley; Lori Jiang - Individual Medley and Backstroke, Joy Kang and Catherine Fogli will join Sunny and Lori in the 400 Relay.

Boys’ Volleyball completed their season with League and Section titles, losing in the subregional championship to the likely State champion.

Boys’ Soccer secured the League, Section, Region, and NYS Championship for the 2nd year in a row.

In Girls’ Tennis, Emma Ha and Kay Cotrell earned the Sectional Title and were State runners-up as a doubles team. In the team competition, the Girls’ Tennis Team has won their League, the Section, the Region, and the State for the third consecutive year. The girls team have not lost a match since 2018, an unbelievable 15-0 record 77 consecutive match winning streak

For other highlights or to watch the BOE meeting in its entirety, click here.

Wendy MacMillan is a former teacher and now a proud mom of two, school aged children. With a background in psychology, education, and mindfulness, Wendy has long been passionate about wellness and helping others.

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Written by: Joanne Wallenstein

Published: 04 November 2023

Created: 04 November 2023

Last Updated: 04 November 2023

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For the third straight year, the Varsity Girls A Tennis Team clinched the NYS championships at Billie Jean King Stadium in Flushing Queens on Friday November 3, 2023.

Since tennis became a team rather than an individual sport three years ago, the depth of the talent in Scarsdale has worked to help the Scarsdale team win the title. The team is armed with three strong singles players and four strong doubles teams, all who contributed to getting them to the finish line for the third straight year.

In fact, the Varsity A Girls Tennis Team has had 77 straight wins and has not lost a match since 2018.

On Friday, the team had two rounds. The day began with a semifinal match against Williamsville East in the morning. The team swept the Division 1 semi-final, defeating Williamsville East, which was the fourth seeded team, 7-0.

At 3 pm the girls took on Syosset, the second seed, who had defeated Bethlehem that morning.

Again they pulled through. The three singles players barely lost a point coming off the court with the following scores.

Katie Kendall 6-1, 6-0
Charlene Dong 6-0, 6-2
Giana Marks 6-2, 6-1

It’s remarkable that Kendall and Dong are only sophomores and have the skills and the temperament to play so well under such high pressure. And Gianna Marx is now a three-time state winner.

The doubles teams also did well – losing only one match.

Emma Ha/Kay Cottrell 6-3, 6-2
Isabel Lin/Jalyn Ryu 6-3, 6-3
Sophia Liu/Carly Alin 4-6, 2-6
Maya Vora/Yelena Sahakyan 7-5, 3-6, 10-2

It was a 6-1 win over Syosset. This is the third state title for some of the team members including Gianna Marks, Kay Cottrell, Maya Vora and Yelena Sahakyan.

Commenting on the win, Coach Jennifer Roane said, “Amazing ride with an amazing group of girls. The girls had a goal at the beginning of the season to repeat the league, section, regional and state champions. It's quite an accomplishment for a team to be state champions but to do that 3 years in a row is unbelievable. Over the three years we have had players graduate, so to win over the three years with a different girls playing on the team is a testament to how strong tennis is in Scarsdale. In the semis match against Williamsville East we won 7-0.  We had the same line up for the finals. We beat Syosset 6-1. I knew that Syosset was going to give us a battle. We beat them 4-3 two years ago in the state finals. After the semis the team refocused their mental strategy against Syosset. Every member of the team contributed to the success of a state championship."

And Kay Cottrell, who plays first doubles said, “I really tried to do the best I could with staying positive and cheerful during the season, which was not very hard considering the people I was surrounded by. Overall this season was really amazing and I think everyone of my teammates are sportsmanship winners in spirit.”

Maya Vora aded, "It was the perfect end to such a rewarding four years! It was especially exciting to experience states as a captain this year and help to create a positive attitude within the team."

Topping off the sweet victory, Kay Cottrell won the Sportsmanship Award and the official badge of the season showed a photo of three times doubles winners and team captains Maya Vora and Yelena Sahakyan.

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Written by: Wendy MacMillan

Published: 25 October 2023

Created: 25 October 2023

Last Updated: 25 October 2023

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Radio host Garrision Keillor from the long running show about a fictional Minnesota town called Lake Wobegon, often described the town as a place “where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.”

Perhaps the same can be said about Scarsdale.

Assistant Superintendent Edgar McIntosh reviewed the data on testing and college admissions for the Scarsdale School District on Monday night October 23, 2023, and the results are remarkable.

He opened by saying, "State assessments are just a small tip of the iceberg of the ways we assess our students… [There are a] multitude of ways we assess, monitor, and evaluate our student performance through common benchmark assessments, formative assessments, progress monitoring tools, and performance assessments. These assessments are much more meaningful than the snapshot these assessments provide. Performance assessments especially, provide us with information about how our students are progressing in the learning not easily captured in a standardized testing format. I look forward to highlighting some powerful performance assessments in an upcoming education report.”

Dr. McIntosh further explained, “Second, icebergs can be dangerous to unsuspecting ships. The interpretation of these snap-shot measures which lead to generalizations about schools, grades, and instruction is misguided. The purpose of this is to underscore that our schools are all well above state and lower Hudson averages- and have historical fluctuations of percentage points between schools. The reason for fluctuations that have happened predictably from year to year can be explained through the learning needs of a particular cohort, the number of students assessed, and other factors. They should not, as I mentioned, be interpreted to be a measure of curriculum attention or instruction at any given school, regardless of current “order”."

However, after stressful years of interrupted and remote learning during the pandemic, it appears that the district is on track and students are thriving.

The numbers demonstrate that elementary and middle school students are doing well on state reading and math tests, high school students are scoring high on SAT, ACT and AP tests, and despite the competitive landscape for college admissions, many are getting into “the list of 87 most competitive colleges and universities.

McIntosh said, “Students continue to demonstrate high levels of achievement,” and displayed the following charts to illustrate student success.

Below are some highlights from his presentation. You can view it online here.

You can also delve into more of the data here:

In the second part of his Education Report, Dr. McIntosh detailed the thoughtful and meaningful ways in which the district approaches changes to curriculum. He explained that Responsive Education creates meaningful improvement in curriculum, instruction, and assessment for student learning and is an approach that is based on research and allows administrators and teachers to be properly trained, and to have time to adapt and to review. What's more, Responsive Education embodies four important elements and maintains that change should be Research Based, Collaborative, Supported, and Appropriately Patient.

Dr. Mcintosh gave a highly detailed overview of how our district has had great success using the Responsive Education approach in the areas of Primary Reading, Interdisciplinary Learning, Math Alignment, and DEIB. For the full report click here:

In a later conversation, Dr. McIntosh stated, “The most impactful and student-centered change in curriculum, assessment, and instruction happens through a deliberate process that involves research, external and internal, meaningful collaboration (especially among and with those educators closest to the work), support (resources, time, encouragement, "bandwidth"), and an appropriate amount of patience.” He also added, “We are on the cusp of dedicating time to the strategic plan and know that, as we look to prepare our students for a changing world, recommendations will be made connected to instruction, assessment, and curriculum. It is important we are responsive in our approach.”

98% of SHS Graduates go to Four Year Colleges63% of high school graduates attend the most competitive schools.SAT scores are remarkable.Students at SHS outperform comparable districts on SAT and ACT tests.Students are continuing to take AP tests and do well on them.Year over year ELA results for grades 3-8.Scarsdale students test well in comparison to those at comparable school districts and those at the lower Hudson Valley schools.ELA results by elementary school and year.Math proficiency for grades 3-8.Math test results comparison to comparable districts and the lower Hudson Valley.Math proficiency results by elementary school and year.

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Written by: Joanne Wallenstein

Published: 17 October 2023

Created: 17 October 2023

Last Updated: 17 October 2023

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Daniel Boniello, Meghan Lahey, Max Stossel and Chris CoughlinNot many social media entrepreneurs leave the tech world to teach parents and kids how to manage their use of social media. But poet, storyteller, filmmaker and educator Max Stossel has done just that. Stossel ran social for multinational brands, and later worked for a social media company where he designed some of the same notification structures to distract people that he now criticizes.

Stossel is the founder of Social Awakening, an organization dedicated to helping young adults and parents survive and thrive in the complicated digital world. Max is also the Youth & Education Advisor for the Center for Humane Technology, an organization of former tech insiders dedicated to realigning technology with humanity’s best interests.

So Scarsdale was fortunate to have him at the middle school on October 16 when he presented his insights to seventh and eighth graders during the day and then held a session for parents that evening.

Opening his talk, he asked, “How can something so wonderful as technology be causing so much stress and anxiety?”

He went on to explain that the apps on your cell phone are always on and constantly feeding you updates and notifications. In fact they are built to spur maximum user engagement, causing many to get addicted to the use of their phones.

And using these apps does not always make you feel good. Stossel displayed a chart of apps that improve your day, like utilities, fitness apps and audio books and those that make people feel angry and drained including gaming apps and social media apps like Streaks on Snapchat.

Streaks, which is a messaging service, measures the users number of friends and counts your streaks. It makes users competitive about their number of friends. Features like “Snap Map” lets your friends see where you are and leaves those who are elsewhere feeling left out and alienated. He showed the feeds that teens are receiving from Snapchat – some bordering on pornography and many inappropriate images. He said, “If social media were a movie it would be rated NC-17.”

About Tik Tok Stossel said, “It’s run by a Chinese company and has a significant impact on what kids do. But in China they don’t let kids use Tik Tok.”

He pointed out the disinformation being spread by YouTube videos which are widely watched. In fact the average time of a visit to You Tube in an hour. He said, “90% of the videos on YouTube will tell you that the world is flat. About the content he said, “You Tube curates what it sends you based on algorithms. It sends you to the most extreme version of whatever you believe.”

Dispelling some myths about the use of technology he said, “There is no such thing as visual multitasking.” For kids in school the people whose phone is in another room do five points better on tests than those with their phone nearby.

About social interactions, he said, “People use phones as a safety blanket to run away from each other and themselves. He said, “I am a big fan of “away for the day “programs where phones are put away during school hours.” He advised parents to “Create more spaces that are not dominated by social media and phones.”

About mental health he said, “The decline in free play for kids is leading to a decline in mental health. Let kids be kids.”

Stossel is a fan of the “Wait Until 8th” movement which encourages parents to wait until eighth grade before buying their child a smart phone. For safety and communication with younger children he advised purchasing a Gabb wireless phone or a Pinwheel kids’ phone, which are devices that allow you to communicate with your child while controlling their access to the web and the apps.

If your child asks for a new app, Stossel advises parents to download it on their own phone first and use it for a week. See what happens before providing it to your child.

Another strategy for decreasing the impact of technology at home is to have “device free” dinners where no phones or screens are permitted. Devices can also be banned from bedrooms and can all be stored at a communal charging station in the kitchen or living room at night. That way kids don’t have the option of staying up late with their phones and being kept awake by the blue lights.

He said that many people use their phones as alarm clocks – and wake up to their emails and messages. Why not use an alarm clock instead – and wake up with your own thoughts rather than messaging that is programmed for you.

Stossel also advocates asking your kids to help monitor their own screentime and use of social media. If controls are needed he suggested that parents confer with their children to come up with an acceptable plan. He said most kids are pretty reasonable.

See a video of one of his presentations here: