Budget Increase Reduced and Kindergarten Moves to Full Day Program
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There was good news for Scarsdale taxpayers at the Scarsdale School Board Community Budget Forum on Thursday April 8th. The Board is now projecting an $800,000 surplus from this year’s budget as a result of lower than expected expenses for electricity, natural gas, health insurance and salaries for teacher aids. The Board agreed to pass this savings back to the taxpayers, and as a result, the projected school tax increase for 2010-2011 will be 2.56% for Scarsdale residents and 5.7% for those in the Mamaroneck Strip. Given that the Board began the process with a projected 8% increase, School Board President Barbara Kemp was very pleased with the results and credited Scarsdale teachers for contract concessions and residents for their participation in budget discussions.
The Board decided to continue with plans to repave at the Middle School and renovate bathrooms at the Heathcote School, two projects that might have been cut if the additional funds had not been found. Though the Board cautioned that it is difficult to project future budget growth, they provided a very tentative estimate of a 5.3% budget increase for 2011-12, citing looming increases in the cost for health insurance, fuel and retirement charges.
The conversation then turned to the transition of the kindergarten program from the current callback schedule to full-day kindergarten for all. Superintendant McGill attempted to clarify how the administration had come to the decision and dispel a few misconceptions.
Though some felt that this was a major change that required a study before implementation, McGill contended that the program shares the same goals for learning and growth of the current kindergarten curriculum. He contended that the new schedule will provide added time and flexibility and is not a curriculum shift as we experienced with the transition to Singapore Math.
Though there was talk of a district-wide meeting to explain the change, McGill said that specifics are particular to each school and classroom and that meeting on a community-wide basis did not make sense. In addition, no committee had been formed to study the change.
On scheduling, he could not provide parents with specific schedules, as this will be dependent on the number of students in each section. Programming will be done by the Elementary School Principals in the summer but will include time for small group learning experiences. He encouraged parents to meet with their principal if they had questions or concerns.
Assistant Superintendant Lynn Shain provided information on how parents would be informed and involved in kindergarten orientation:
There will be meetings at the elementary schools in late April and early May for parents of incoming kindergartners
In September, all kindergarten classes will be half days, and teachers will meet with parents to discuss their children’s needs
There will be regular opportunities for parents to participate in the program, by accompanying the class on trips, and participating in class activities
Shain also assured parents that the program offered posed no curriculum changes, just added time for learning and individual instruction.
Despite assurances, a small group of parents expressed their frustration and concerns. An Edgewood mother asked the Board if they had taken time to visit a call-back session at a district school. Calling the leap from Pre-K to a full day of kindergarten “a gigantic jump” she argued that children are tired, and prefer play dates at home. She challenged McGill to verify his claim that many Pre-K programs now run longer days than the current kindergarten.
A Greenacres mother, who is also a teacher in the South Bronx called the decision “mismanagement in the name of the budget,” something she has witnessed time and time again in the Bronx. She argued that philosophy should precede budget concerns and asked for the logic behind the decision. Furthermore, since the Greenacres school does not bus, she asked out this change would benefit students at her school.
Another emotional Greenacres Mom, said “shame on the Board.” Contending that “more is not always better” she asked the Board and administration to take a step back, do their due diligence and consider adding optional enrichment in another setting, such as Kids Base. Last, another concerned mother brought up over-scheduled children and asked what time would be left for free play and creativity.
The Board and Administration answered these concerns and ultimately agreed to schedule a program evaluation in the fall. Assuring the group that “nothing is written in stone,” the Board said that if changes needed to be made, it would be done.
Board members were asked to comment. David Gurin let the group know that the Board has received many emails about the change and said there was a 50/50 split on those for and against. Jill Spieler answered the Greenacres mom query about the benefit of the change in a school with no busing, by telling the group that the Board does what is best for the entire community. She also suggested that parents could still bring their children home for lunch if they felt a full day was too long. Jeff Blatt said that the strength of Scarsdale lay in our continued quest to do things better and felt secure that the program would be smoothly implemented. Linda Chayes was “excited” by the new schedule and said that the consistency of the same schedule each day would be better for some children. Elizabeth Guggenheimer assured residents that “we all have done a lot of thinking” and was pleased that the district had the resources to take this on. Mary Beth Gose was skeptical and said it was a “big leap of faith for her to support” the move. She was disappointed with the way the change had been presented, felt that the long day could be stressful for young children and wished to hear more from the kindergarten teachers.
Ultimately, the Board agreed to accept the change and next year, there will be a full day of kindergarten for all with a program evaluation scheduled for the fall.
From High Rollers to the High Seas in Edgemont
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This weekend was packed with lots of activity in the Edgemont community. Parents jumped back into the “spring sports shuffle,” shuttling their kids between practices and games. Saturday night was the Annual Spring Fête High Rolling for a Winning Education, fundraiser put together by the Edgemont PTA/PTSA which took place at the Elmwood Country Club.
Over 375 parents traded in their jeans and yoga pants for dressier attire and came together to raise money for the Edgemont school district, while enjoying a casino themed party. Event co-chair, Julie Hallowell said, “A lot of us move here because of the school district. The Fête is a great way for the community to support the PTA and PTSA and to give back.”
Couples caught up over food and drinks, tried their luck at craps, blackjack and poker, and bid on dozens of silent auction items. The real excitement came towards the end of the evening when some higher ticket items, like a week at a house in Sicily, an Italian feast for 30, and even a stay at the InterContinental Hotel in Bora Bora, went up for bids at the live auction. An Indian dinner for 14 brought in a whopping $3500. Co-chairs of the event, Tami Hass, Beth Tomkiewicz, Elizabeth Troop Rothstein, Alix Brown and Julie Hallowell oversaw an army of volunteers who made the Fête a fantastic night out for everyone who attended.
Despite the fact that some parents were still recovering from the night before, both Greenville and Seely Place Elementary schools' students took part in the annual Art Day event, organized by co-chairs Sara Blotner and Donna Berger. This year’s theme was High Seas Adventure. Kids created large-scale masterpieces from supplies like cardboard boxes and fabric to pipe cleaners and paint. The Edgemont High School gym was transformed into an ocean filled with pirate ships, sea monsters and mermaids. The kids all left with smiles on their faces, along with a healthy dose of paint.
Betsy Cadel, is a freelance writer and Edgemont resident, who is still trying to get her son’s clothes clean.
Growing Up Online April 15
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Just how radically is the internet transforming childhood? Are our children growing up online? Explore the impact of the internet on your family at an event sponsored by the Scarsdale PT Council on Thursday morning April 15 at 9:15 am in the Little Theatre at Scarsdale High School. Two speakers have been invited to address the community and share their views on maximizing the benefits and mitigating the risks of your children’s use of the internet.
Rachel Dretzin, the award-winning PBS producer of Growing Up Online and Digital Nation will discuss what she learned when exploring the children and the internet for her two documentaries. In Growing Up Online, she interviewed and filmed experts and children to find out what kids do online, who they communicate with, what they discuss and the implications of the virtual world on the real world.
When asked what she learned from the process of creating Growing Up Online, she replied:
To my great surprise, I've found myself being more liberal about the time my own children spend on the Internet than I was before I started reporting this program. They're living in a wired world. There's no putting the genie back in the bottle, and their lives will only benefit from learning how to use this extraordinary technology wisely and well. But I do think that when my children reach adolescence (my oldest is almost 10) I'll be much more vigilant as a result of what I've learned working on this program.
There is an age -- and I'm sure it's different for every kid -- when children are simply not emotionally mature enough to handle the social Internet without adult guidance. While teenagers need privacy, I want to be sure my own kids are ready for privacy online before handing it to them. The risks of them losing their way are just too great.
Dretzin is an award-winning filmmaker who has been producing documentaries for Frontline since the mid-1990s, with a focus on films that critically explore contemporary American life and culture. Her latest project, Digital Nation which was broadcast on Frontline in February, is a year-long, multiplatform initiative investigating how new technologies impact the way we live. Digital Nation, which is a follow-up to Dretzin's Emmy-nominated film Growing Up Online, makes use of user-generated content and an ongoing, transparent reporting process in a unique collaboration with the online audience.
Dretzin and her husband, filmmaker Barak Goodman, are joint partners in Ark Media, a documentary production company based in Brooklyn, New York. Dretzin has a degree in history from Yale University and lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with Goodman and their three children, ages 12, 9 and 7.
Also on hand, will be Jerry Crisci, who heads up Information Technology for the Scarsdale School district. Jerry Crisci will discuss concrete ways to guide your children’s use of social networking and the internet to minimize distractions and dangers. Crisci is intimately aware of the educational needs and values of the Scarsdale community and is well positioned to offer parents practical advice.
Join the PT Council for what promises to be an enlightening event:
Date: April 15, 2010
Time: 9:15 – 11:00 am
Where: Scarsdale High School Little Theatre
School Budget Woes
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A $647,000 decrease in the assessed values of village properties will have an impact on the school budget for 2010-2011. The Village of Scarsdale received an unprecedented number of tax appeals from property owners last year; 500 grievances in all, which according to Village Manager Al Gatta, was double the number from the prior year. This decrease in anticipated tax revenues will cause a loss of $400,000 to the projected school budget and necessitate a raise in the tax increase to cover the school budget.
The School Board had previously announced an estimated 2.93% increase in school taxes for Scarsdale residents and this new development will mean that the Board would have to add on an additional .36% increase to fund the budget, bringing the total to 3.29%. Therefore according to School Board President Barbara Kemp, the Board will now look at three options:
1) Further cuts to the budget
2) Increased use of reserve funds
3) A school tax increase of over 3%
The decrease in the tax base was disappointing news for the Board, the administration and the community as everyone had worked hard to formulate a budget that would maintain programs and small class sizes without unduly increasing taxes. Concessions from the Scarsdale Teacher’s Association had allowed the administration and the Board to keep increases below 3%, a level that the community seemed to deem palatable.
With this new twist, the administration and the Board will be forced to revisit some difficult decisions.
Kemp also announced that the Board would form an Exploratory Revenue Committee to investigate alternative sources of revenue for Scarsdale Schools. The committee will be staffed with representatives from the School Board, parents of Scarsdale students and members of the community at large. The Scarsdale League of Women Voters undertook a study of School Foundations and Kemp hopes to have that study to consider as well.
In other news, the Board met with parents of High School students before the start of the March 17th meeting. Parents expressed concern about a decrease in the size of the high school faculty, as five positions have been left unfilled. Kemp let parents know that until students sign up for classes for next term, it will be difficult to assess the impact of these staff vacancies.
The administration has recommended changing kindergarten to a full-time program, and eliminating the callback schedule. The Board supports this move and at the meeting the issue was hotly debated. The move to a full day program would save the district $50,000 in fees for busing and give every child a full afternoon at school. In support of this change, Superintendant Michael McGill said that the longer day would relieve a packed schedule, give children time to play and socialize and get the kindergarten classes and teachers in sync with the rest of the school. With more hours of school time, McGill did feel that teachers could still structure small group learning sessions with students, especially when their classmates were at specials. Additional federal funds would be available to pay for more aid time in the classes as well.
Parents came out to voice their opinions for and against. Skeptical parents questioned the move, as there were no study results to compare the two programs. Some felt that callback days were valuable as it afforded teachers the opportunity to give individual attention to students. Others wanted their children out of school early during the week for free play and were concerned about the transition from nursery school to a full-day program. The administration will be meeting with kindergarten teachers this week and will hold small community meetings to continue the discussions with parents about the new format.
The community is invited to another School Budget Study Session on Thursday April 8 at 8 pm.
Junior Olympics, Testing Days and More
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High School correspondant Melissa Tucker gives her views on issues affecting Scarsdale High School students:
Junior Olympics: At a house meeting last week, the ongoing Junior Olympics battle has been settled. For now. The plan is to have heavy police patrol the night before Junior Olympics, and if something goes wrong, Mr. Klemme will call the whole thing off. All juniors will be breathalyzed when they arrive at school, and students will not be permitted on school grounds before 7:30 A.M.
Frankly, I think students will find a way to misbehave no matter what preventative measures are taken. From the opinion of a sophomore who can’t wait to reunite with her elementary school friends for a day, the juniors should remember they aren’t just representing their grade, but could seriously jeopardize the event for everyone in years to come. If they misbehave, they will not only get Junior Olympics cancelled for themselves, but for all future grades. Is that really the legacy the class of 2011 wants to leave behind?
Testing days, which were under review, will still be in place for the third quarter. Approximately 300 students completed an online survey about the testing day system, and most students want to keep the system because they fear that without it, several tests could be scheduled on the same day. Personally I was furious when I heard the decision, because we already have the mercy rule here at Scarsdale, where students can only have two assessments, including tests, papers or project due on the same day. Most students don’t know about this rule, and some of those kids are afraid to tell their teachers that they have to move a test date. While that’s a legitimate fear, a rule is a rule, and if kids are so afraid to speak to their teachers they can go to their deans. In my opinion, we should at least try one quarter without testing days and see what happens. We can always reinstitute the system. If we keep the system, I think the rules need to be more clear, and all students need to be aware of these rules.
Disaster Week: SHS students celebrated for three days when they got phone calls from Linda Purvis, announcing the cancellation of school for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The SHS community erupted instantaneously as those with and without power relaxed, knowing that we’d have a one and a half day week.
We milked our “snow days” to the last drop, using up every snow day before we had to add days back on. Although students rejoiced, we are now paying the price with schedule changes in most classes. The pressure is on next week as tests scheduled for this week were pushed back to next week, stacking the assessments before Spring Break. Most students find themselves with a major assessment in almost every class next week. Some students bargained with teachers to have tests delayed, claiming that the lack of power made it impossible to study. We all enjoyed our free days, but that call on Wednesday from Linda Purvis confirming the opening of school son Thursday sent us back to reality, with the sinking realization that it was time to crack open the books yet again.
