Four Exemplary Community Volunteers Honored at the Reimagined 2022 Scarsdale Bowl
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Everything old was new again at the Scarsdale Bowl dinner on April 28, 2022 when the event was reinvented after a three year gap due to the pandemic.
It was a night of firsts for the Scarsdale Bowl dinner – the first time that three years of honorees were celebrated together, the first time the event was held outside, the first time toasts were made on video and the first time it was moved to a new venue in Purchase.
The sold-out crowd of 271 attendees was ready to celebrate four worthy volunteers in an elegant setting. Though the event was originally planned to be totally outside, due to high winds and chilly temperatures, the cocktail hour was moved inside before dinner was served in a large heated tent. Among the attendees were former Bowl winners, the Bowl committee, members of the Scarsdale Foundation, former and present members of the school board and village board, village staff, village volunteers, realtors and tables of friends and family of the honorees, BK Munguia and Jonathan Mark, Michelle Lichtenberg and Terry Singer.
Chairman of the Scarsdale Bowl Committee Nancy Michaels had waited three years to host the dinner, which was originally planned for April 2020 and then delayed many times. She greeted the room by asking the honorees to stand, followed by their families, members of the Bowl Committee, past and present members of the Foundation, past Bowl honorees, honor roll recipients, election officials, the press, and all volunteers and supporters. Ultimately the entire room was on their feet giving themselves a round of applause in recognition of all the volunteers who make Scarsdale a special place to live.
Discussing the qualities of the honorees, she highlighted six characteristics they all share:
1. A sense of humor and ability to laugh at oneself
BK Munguia and Jonathan Mark
2. Diplomatic, good communicators and consensus builders
3. Thoughtful, considerate and inclusive
4. Willing to be wrong, take chances and think outside the box
5. Prepared
6. For community before themselves.
Rather than the traditional speeches from family and friends, this year professional videos were produced about each of the nominees, highlighting their contributions. With testimony from family, friends, fellow volunteers and the Bowl winners themselves, the videos were heartwarming, enlightening and entertaining. Kudos to Jamie Spielman, Mark Bliss and Sarah Singer for their contributions in filming, production and editing. Watch the videos here.
Also shown was a video of some of the students who were the beneficiaries of college scholarships from the Scarsdale Foundation, who hosts the Scarsdale Bowl and raises funds throughout the year to support community organizations, camp tuition for those in need but primarily funds for Scarsdale students in their sophomore, junior and senior years of high school. This year the goal was to raise $150,000 to give to students in need.
Each of the Bowl honorees did have the chance to come to the podium and receive the silver Scarsdale Bowl. 2020 honorees BK Munguia said, “If we have learned anything from these past two years of a global pandemic, it is the value of volunteers offering a helping hand and we hope that commitment to others springs eternal in the Village and Town of Scarsdale. We thank our family for their love and support of all the Scarsdale projects that engaged us, as well as all the friends we made who volunteered alongside us over the years.”
Michelle and Frank LichtenbergJon Mark added, “The mere existence of the annual Scarsdale Bowl award speaks volumes about what we value. The fact that an award, and one night a year, has been set aside to honor volunteers – each year for 79 years, even in the face of our global health crisis – supports my claim. Volunteering means stepping up to contribute time, thought and energy to a community activity for the collective good. On a good day – and most of them are, volunteering helps us work toward common goals and to knit us together as a community. Like any community, there are less good days as well. But on those days, our commitment to each other and an understanding that we are all in this together, helps us work through them.”
Michelle Lichtenberg, the 2021 honoree said, “It’s great to see long-term Foundation and Bowl supporters and people attending for the first time. It is thrilling to see so many Scarsdale expats. I forgive you (for leaving). To play with the African proverb “it takes a village to raise a child.” it takes a village to do just about anything complicated, nuanced and worth doing.”… When things seem to be spinning out of control in different parts of the country and the world, I feel lucky to come back to get my bearings in our town. True, our little slice of Camelot has an occasional thunderstorm, but compared to other places, it is merely a tempest in a tea kettle.”
And 2021 honoree Terry Singer said, “Gathering together to celebrate our culture of volunteerism exemplifies what makes Scarsdale so distinctive. Across our Village, numerous boards and councils do remarkable work. Organizations supporting our schools, recreation, governance, and welfare all comprise the fabric that makes Scarsdale exceptional. Everyone in this room is a part of this volunteer spirit, and tonight we can celebrate the accomplishments of our entire Community. I thank all of you for your many contributions that make our Village so special.”
The Singer Family
The new dinner format made for a festive and enjoyable tribute to four beloved Scarsdale residents. The event was a triumph of flexibility and adaptability and a recognition that institutions must change with the times.
Scarsdale Bowl Committee
Committee Chair: Nancy Michaels
Class of 2022: Sergi Flaster, Michael Rosen, Svati Shashank, Scott Silberfein, Loretta Vickers, Han Zhou
Class of 2023: Becky Bach, Sara Farnsworth, Adam Hellegers, Eric Lichtenstein, Margot Milberg, Erika Rublin, Beverly Thornhill
Scarsdale Foundation Liaison: Jennifer Love
Non-Voting: Michelle Lichtenberg, Ex-Officio, Abby Sroka, Secretary/Treasurer
To support the Scarsdale Foundation, click here to make a contribution to the 2022 honor roll in recognition of your favorite community volunteers.
Scarsdale Foundation Board: Michelle Lichtenberg President: Elyse Klayman, Suzanne Seiden, Marc Greenwald, Jennifer Love, Randy Guggenheimer, Tom Giordano, Anne Lyons, B. Kathleen Munguia
The Scarsdale Bowl Committee
The Scarsdale Foundation
Ceske Provides Update on District's Issues with the IRS
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What is the status of the Scarsdale Schools District’s tax issues with the IRS? At the April 25, 2022 meeting of the Board of Education, Board President Karen Ceske provided the following update on IRS matters:
(From Karen Ceske- reformatted for clarity)
Tax counsel has provided the following update on the status of the Q4 2020 matter:
First, the Appeals Officer confirmed that the Q4 2020 tax payment of $843,558 has been posted to the District’s account and has been properly applied to the outstanding Q4 2020 tax.
Therefore, as of April 13, 2022, the outstanding balance in Q4 2020 is a total of $460,609, comprising:
- a failure to deposit penalty in the amount of $410,178
- a failure to pay penalty in the amount of $38,138 plus interest
- a lien fee of $80 plus interest.
As instructed by the Appeals Officer, the District has made a payment in the amount of $85, representing the lien fee plus interest. Tax counsel has been told by the Appeals Officer that the Appeals Officer is in the process of drafting a final penalty abatement recommendation for the Appeals Officer’s manager to approve and sign. This process takes approximately two to three weeks. If and when the final penalty abatement recommendation is approved, the Appeals Officer should instruct that penalties and the related interest be adjusted to zero. This process takes approximately another two to three weeks.
Once the District’s account for Q4 2020 is fully paid, meaning the tax is paid, the lien fee plus interest is paid, the penalties are abated, and the interest is adjusted to zero, the District should receive a notice from the IRS stating that the balance of the District’s account for Q4 2020 is zero.
The Appeals Officer has advised that the lien should then self-release 30 days after the balance of the District’s account for Q4 2020 is zero. The District should receive a notice from the IRS when the lien has self-released.
After receiving this notice, the District anticipates pursuing the additional steps of having the lien fully withdrawn from all records by submitting a petition to the Appeals Officer, who has agreed to assist in submitting the petition to the Advisory Office.
After the Advisory Office considers and hopefully grants the District’s request for lien withdrawal, the Appeals Officer should issue a written decision, which will comprise only a very brief summary of what occurred over the course of this case as well as the final disposition of the matter. The Appeals Officer predicted that a decision will be issued no earlier than mid-July.
Additional IRS notice received by the District:
The Board and the District’s tax counsel have recently been made aware by District administration of another notice received for a similar issue to the Q2 2021 issue.
On April 4, 2022, the District administration received a Notice CP207, dated March 28, 2022, for Q3 2021. Specifically, this notice alleged that, like in Q2 2021, the District failed to submit or failed to submit a properly completed Schedule B with its Q3 2021 Form 941. However, we note that, unlike the Q2 2021 issue, this Q3 2021 notice is only a request for more information, not a penalty.
The District’s administration submitted a response to this notice on the same day that it was received. Both the Board and the District’s tax attorneys were made aware of both the notice and the response to the notice only after the response had been submitted by the District administration. The District’s tax attorneys have reached out to the Revenue Officer with which they have been working on the Q2 2021 issue to also discuss the Q3 2021 issue, but have not yet received a response. The District’s tax attorneys will continue to provide updates to the Board on both the Q2 2021 and Q3 2021 matters as they arise.
Geese Gotta Go
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Excrement on our fields and in our parks is just one of the problems posed by flocks of geese, which seem to multiply each year. After several reports of an aggressive goose on the grounds of Scarsdale High School, the school made attempts to keep pedestrians away from the nest with signage and fencing. When that didn’t work, they knew that the nest had to be relocated. In order to do so legally, they applied for a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to move the nest. Now in receipt of that permit, the nest will be moved.
Here is a letter (April 19, 2022) from Scarsdale High School Principal Kenneth Bonamo that explains the issue:
Dear Members of the SHS Community:
As you may know, our campus is home to many Canada geese every Spring. Unfortunately, a pair of roosting geese has nested directly against the east side of the science wing. This has become problematic because the male has exhibited extremely aggressive behavior toward all who come near the nest or this pair of geese. Some students and staff members have reported this aggressive behavior to the point of being physically attacked by the gander.
Our buildings and grounds team attempted to mitigate this situation by installing temporary fencing and signage to keep people away from the nest and to protect them from the goose. This has proved to not be much of a deterrent for the geese or their curious onlookers.
Because of the particularly aggressive nature of the goose’s behavior and the location of the nest adjacent to a highly trafficked walkway, as well as in light of the upcoming carnival this weekend, we have made the decision to have the nest removed. This will safeguard individuals as well as the geese themselves. Given the nesting patterns of Canada geese, removing the nest is the only way to get the geese to leave the area.
We have applied to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and have been granted a permit to remove the nest. We have arranged for our licensed game removal contractor to remove the nest. We have been advised that the geese will linger for a while before leaving the area.
Please know we exhausted all our options before making this decision, but given the circumstances this is the only way to maintain the safety of the community and the geese themselves.
Sincerely,
Kenneth Bonamo
Principal
Patrick Named Interim Superintendent: Yang to be District Director of Digital Learning
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Dr. Andrew Patrick has been named Interim Superintendent of the Scarsdale SchoolsIt’s official! Dr. Andrew Patrick, an Assistant Superintendent at the Scarsdale Schools, has been named interim school superintendent for July 1, 2022- June 30, 2023 while the Board conducts a search for a new superintendent to replace Dr. Thomas Hagerman who announced that he will leave Scarsdale for the Latin School in Chicago at the end of the school year.
School Board President Karen Ceske announced his appointment, citing his “deep knowledge of, and true passion for, education, along with leadership expertise, a collaborative nature, and exceptional interpersonal and communication skills.”
She said, “We are confident that Dr. Patrick will provide important continuity for our students and schools in the year ahead, and we are delighted to welcome and work with him in this new role.”
Patrick has 20 years of experience in education and is currently the Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources and Leadership Development, where he has been responsible for the recruitment, selection, induction, and retention of many faculty and staff across the District. He has served as the lead negotiator in collective bargaining with all seven unions; he also oversees the District’s self-insured health plan.
Before coming to Scarsdale in 2016, he worked in the Bedford Central School District as Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment from 2008-2016; Earth Science, Biology, & Environmental Science Teacher from 2002-2008; and Science Department Coordinator from 2004-2008. He also taught Earth Science and Biology at Clarkstown High School South from 1999-2002.
He has a Bachelor of Science in Biology-Geology from the University of Rochester; an MS in Geology from the University of South Carolina; an Ed.M. from Bank Street College of Education, where he was a member of the Future School Leaders Academy; and an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from Manhattanville College, where he received Manhattanville’s Outstanding Leadership Award in 2018.
Under the terms of his agreement, while serving as interim superintendent he will be on a leave of absence from his position as Assistant Superintendent and will be entitled to return to that position when his job as interim is over. His base salary will be $300,000. You can see his agreement here.
William Yang
Commenting on his appointment, Patrick said, “Thank you to the Board of Education and the trust and confidence you have exhibited toward me. I feel fortunate to be in Scarsdale. I am overwhelmed by all the emails I have received and want to express my gratitude to everyone who has reached out. I want to thank Dr. Hagerman who has been generous and supportive throughout my six years here. We have a lot of planning to do but I am confident that we will enter 2022 with positive momentum."
William Yang
In other personnel news, Patrick also announced that William Yang, the current Assistant Principal at Edgewood Elementary School will be appointed the district’s new K-12 Director of Digital Learning at the next meeting of the Board of Education. Yang started working in Scarsdale in 1999, worked for a few years in Chappaqua and returned to Scarsdale in 2016. In Scarsdale he has worked as the head elementary technology teacher, the teacher in charge for Fox Meadow and the technology teacher for Greenacres School.
Village Board Receives Feedback on Proposed $62.6 mm Budget
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Village Trustees are in the process of receiving commentary on the proposed 2022-23 village budget.
The tentative operating budget is $62.6 million and would mean a 3.70% tax increase, translating to a $216 increase for the average homeowner. The increase is greater than last year as the trustees opted to reinvest in the Village’s aging infrastructure and address needs that have been deferred from year to year. The 3.7% increase falls below the NYS tax cap of 4.7%.
The budget letter from the Mayor explains, “This budget recognizes the deleterious effects of long-term deferral of investment needs in order to achieve an artificially low increase in the annual levy; it endeavors to refocus on achieving a state of good repair for our critical assets. Our expenditures must increasingly keep pace with the need to renovate, upgrade, or replace our equipment and infrastructure, as emergency repairs are extraordinarily expensive and service delivery interruptions are not acceptable. Furthermore, using deferral of expenses as a means to balance the budget merely shifts the burden to future budget cycles, fueling the increased likelihood of sharp tax increases once deferral is no longer an option. While staying within the tax cap, we must honor our fiscal stewardship responsibilities and appropriately fund our needs.”
Some of the items funded in the budget are outlined in the graphic below.
Namely, trustees agreed to hire four full time Village employees, including:
-A code enforcement officer to monitor construction noise, leaf blowers and other code violations.
-A full time naturalist at the Weinberg Nature Center to support additional programing.
-A maintenance mechanic for the Scarsdale Pool.
-Tree trimmer for Village wide tree maintenance.
Also in the budget is over $5mm to replace the Village’s fleet including vehicles for the Department of Public Works, anti-icing equipment and police cars.
For those concerned about our roadways, pathways, curbs, sanitary sewers and storm drainage, there is $3.7 million in the budget for road resurfacing, curbing, sewer improvements, storm drainage, culverts and catch basin cleaning.
Funds from the Village’s Parkland Trust will be used to construct eight pickleball courts ($410,000) in response to the growing popularity of the game as well for the replacement of the playground equipment in Greenacres ($40,000).
Part of the plan is to take advantage of current bond rates to issue more bonds to fund capital improvement projects. These include the pool renovations ($15 mm+), vehicle replacement ($1.79mm), transportation and mobility improvements in the Village center ($1 mm) and work at library pond ($235,000).
The Village has created a Citizen’s Budget Brief to explain what you’ll find in this year’s budget. Take a look at it here:
Village managers and trustees spent many hours crafting this budget and designed a new process to create it. According to the Mayor, the budget “strikes a reasonable and fiscally responsible balance between minimizing the tax burden and funding our most urgent priorities.”
However, the Fiscal Affairs Committee of the Scarsdale Forum, which is traditionally a conservative group, issued their report on the proposed budget on March 28, 2022 and was critical of several elements of the plan.
Specifically they objected to the hiring of new full time employees, the increase in capital spending, the use of fund balance to close the gap between expenses and revenues and expansion of debt. They chide Trustees for declining to accept the Forum’s recommendation to eliminate leaf collection, which they contend would have been a cost savings to the Village.
About the new employees, the Forum Committee reports argues that since the Village is unable to control the cost of employees and retirees they should only hire new employees if they eliminate other positions.
The Forum report also raises concerns about the extensive list of capital projects and the funding plan. The Village plans to issue $19.2mm in bonds to pay to rehabilitate the Scarsdale Pool ($15.2mm), improve pedestrian safety in the Village ($1 mm) purchase vehicles ($1.8mm), improve drainage on Catherine Road ($1 mm) and rehabilitate Library Pond ($235,000).
About the list of capital projects, the Forum report says, “The number of projects and the amount of capital spending in the Tentative Budget ($24.9 million) is unprecedented. It seems precipitous to spend so much cash (including the entire ARPA windfall and half the parkland reserve, as well as fund balance) and also plan to double Village debt in what is only the first year of transforming the Village government. Is staff looking for grants to fund some of these projects?”
They oppose increasing taxes to fund debt service “on projects that may or may not happen,”” such as the rehabilitation of the pool and the Placemaking Plan for the Village Center. Both of these projects have been studied but not yet approved. The Forum believes that the pool should continue to be funded by an Enterprise Fund and any work should be paid for by pool revenues. They state that it may not economically viable to rebuild the pool complex and the village should wait until community outreach and a marketing study is complete before borrowing the funds to renovate the pool complex.
Additional input on the budget is expected from the League of Women Voters of Scarsdale and a statutory public hearing on the budget will be held on Tuesday April 5 at 8 pm. Unlike the School Budget, the adoption of the Village Budget is not subject to a community wide vote, however trustees will vote on the adoption of the budget on April 26, 2022, prior to the deadline of May 1, 2022.
