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Written by: Joanne Wallenstein

Published: 18 April 2016

Created: 18 April 2016

Last Updated: 19 April 2016

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Will it be Bernie or Hillary? The Donald, Cruz or Kasich? That's what will be decided in the New York State Primary on Tuesday April 19th. Those who are registered Democrats or Republicans can vote in the election which will determine how the state's 95 Republican and 291 Democrat delegates will vote at the party conventions. It's one of the first years in recent history where New York voters can make a difference, so if you are registered, be sure to vote tomorrow between 6 am and 9 pm.

Click here to see if you are registered to vote, for which party and to find your polling location.

The League of Women Voters of Scarsdale (LWVS) has circulated the following information about how the voting will be done for the two parties on Tuesday – so read below before casting your vote:

From the LWVS:

Voters must be registered in the Democratic or Republican party to vote in that party's primary in New York State.

In New York State, the Republican and Democratic Presidential primaries are organized differently.

Republican Voters will be issued a ballot with candidates listed. The voter will choose one candidate, but will not vote for delegates. Please be advised that some candidates have withdrawn from the race but are still listed on the New York Ballot.

Democratic Voters will be asked to vote for the Presidential candidate AND delegates for the Democratic convention. Residents of the 16th Congressional District will vote for 6 delegates (indicated on the ballot instructions). The delegates listed in the same row across from the Presidential candidate are the delegates for that candidate.

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Written by: Justin Cooper

Published: 06 April 2016

Created: 06 April 2016

Last Updated: 06 April 2016

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Marijuana use is on the rise in Scarsdale and the stakes are higher than ever. As we enter the month of April, we are steadily approaching the date 4/20, a holiday observed by marijuana users as a day to celebrate cannabis. Since the 1970s, 4/20 has been considered by many as "National Weed Day." However, Scarsdale, and the greater Westchester community, is reclaiming 4/20 by transforming it into "Healthy Teen Brain Day." April will be a month to recognize and spread awareness about the dangers of marijuana use and its adverse effects on the brain. To kick off the month, the Scarsdale Task Force on Drugs and Alcohol hosted a meeting on April 1st to discuss the pervasiveness and the dangers of Scarsdale teen use of marijuana.

At the onset of the meeting, Mayor Jonathan Mark issued a proclamation declaring April 20th to be "Healthy Teen Brain Day." Members of the community shared their opinions on this important topic. Susie Rush, representing the office of Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, announced the desire to make this a county-wide initiative.

Margaret Smith and Emily Vallario presented a slideshow analyzing marijuana use among Scarsdale teens and the latest research on marijuana and its impact on the teen brain. In the presentation, Smith and Vallario spoke on the recent Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) conference they attended where keynote speaker, Dr. Bertha Madras, delivered an impactful lecture on the dangers marijuana presents to the teenage brain. Among these dangers are loss of motivation, extreme anxiety and panic attacks, and memory loss. Additionally, recent studies have revealed that marijuana poisoning is becoming an increasing threat to teens. Marijuana poisoning is similar to alcohol poisoning, and it can cause fever, chills, vomiting and unconsciousness.

Smith and Vallario also shared data about marijuana use among Scarsdale teens. One of the most striking items shown in the presentation was the results of the PRIDE Survey of 2014, which showed that while freshman, sophomore and junior students at SHS reported using marijuana at levels below the national average, senior students reported higher usage rates. Furthermore, there was a steady increase in marijuana usage as grade levels increased. The entire presentation can be viewed on the Scarsdale PTA website here. 

Spring is typically associated with increased substance use, as teens move outside to enjoy the weather and attend many parties and gatherings that present opportunities for substance use. Advocates for "Take Back 4/20" believe it's important to take a stand now to keep the community's teens can stay safe in the coming weeks and months. As Dr. Bertha Madras stated in her keynote speech, "This is not a war on drugs, it is a defense of our brains!"

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Written by: Charles Miner

Published: 31 March 2016

Created: 31 March 2016

Last Updated: 31 March 2016

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Last season, the Edgemont Boy's Varsity Tennis team captured their 24th league title in their final regular season match against Keio Academy. This came as a surprise to many, as Keio had defeated Edgemont handily earlier in the season. The title marked a very successful season for first year head coach Mark Romney, who had coached the JV team for many years before taking over for Jeff Menaker last season.

Coach Romney's controversial decision to keep more than 20 kids on a team that has only 11 players in the starting lineup proved to be quite prescient. This gave Coach Romney the ability to rest key starters for some of the easier matches, while allowing other players to gain real-match experience. Because of the system's success last season, Coach Romney did the same with this year's team keeping 22 kids.

The most notable addition to this year's team is sophomore Janoscar Kjellberg. Kjellberg had played in seventh and eighth grades, but was unable to play last year due to a back injury. When asked about the setback, he said, "It was tough, but I put in a lot of time getting back into good tennis shape, and I feel as good if not better than prior to the injury". When asked about his expectations for playing first singles he said, "There are a lot of good players out there, but I feel I will be competitive in all my matches".

The projected second singles player is fellow sophomore Lucas Chan. This will be Chan's second year on the team. He moved around in the lineup a lot as a freshman, from first singles to first doubles.

Some other key players for the club this year will be: second year singles player, Junior Lenny Marlow, fourth year starter, Junior Charlie Miner, and a trio of fifth year senior starters Berber Jin, Krishna Saraf, and Captain Aaditya Jain. Romney. The coach will have some excellent options for 3rd and 4th doubles, from a slew of talent including: Juniors Sarvesh Kaul, Danny Shifren, Steven Conway, Shane Englander, Ahmad Allen, Federico Reyes, Sophomore Liam Klein and others.

The seniors: Jin, Jain, and Saraf are very excited about this year's team, as they feel it is one of the strongest groups Edgemont has had in a while. When asked about the team Berber Jin said: "I think our team has the potential to not only win the league again, but really challenge top teams such as Scarsdale and Mamaroneck. If all our guys are committed and determined, we can really make a splash this year."

The Panthers seem to have all the weapons in place to have a successful season. It will come down to execution- will they be able to win enough matches to capture that 25th league title? Well find out!

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Written by: Marie Ceske

Published: 24 March 2016

Created: 24 March 2016

Last Updated: 29 March 2016

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This weekend, 359 Scarsdale third-, fourth- and fifth grade students participated in the PT Council's annual Young Writers' Workshop at the Scarsdale Middle School. The morning began with a presentation by keynote speaker and children's author Tommy Greenwald. Author of eleven books, Mr. Greenwald spoke about the challenges of getting children to read. He said the goal of his books is to make reading more appealing. The protagonist of his first, well-known series, Charlie Joe Jackson, named after his three sons, is a young boy who does not like to read – a character with whom many readers can relate. During the Q&A section, when asked why he writes, Mr. Greenwald responded: "Because it's awesome! I write stories to make kids laugh." He aspires to write books that are "funny, weird, and interesting." He also emphasized to the students that inspiration often comes from people and events that occur in real life and that much of his writing is realistic fiction and revolves around his own stories. As he said, "all writers should know that the things that happen around them could one day make it into a story." He also stressed the importance of resilience and editing – giving students a tangible example using the progression of a description about eating a French fries through three different drafts. He purposely misspelled the word "sundae" as "Sunday," imparting that computers can't fix every mistake. A writer needs to check his or her own work and shouldn't rely on computers. Lastly, he read a section from his new series Crime Biters, which turns his real life dog Abby into a crime fighter.

After the keynote speaker, each child attended two workshops of his/her choice from a list of more than thirty options. Among those options was a workshop on collage. Michael Albert, a famous pop artist, showed the students many of his works, demonstrating how he was able to visually represent different items of interest through magazine cutouts. Some of his featured works were a map of the USA, a map of different landmarks in New York City that took him 6 months to create, a list of the first 777 digits of Pi that took four years to piece together, the preamble, an animal collage, and a collage honoring the 13th Amendment. When asked how he decides what topics to explore, he said he usually picks a subject he's interested in, reads books or generally learns about it, and then makes artwork about that topic. After he showcased his works, the students had a turn creating their own collages.

In the workshop "Let's Add Emotion to Our Writing," workshop leader Scott Waxman spoke about the origins of emojis and how they can convey many different meanings. Using the saying "a picture is worth a thousands words," he asked the students to write down some ideas about what could be happening in response to different emojis and then had them create their own stories. When asked to share what they like about emojis, the students replied that emojis help express their feelings.

In another workshop, "How to Tell a Great Sports Story," Chris Raymond talked about the importance of setting a scene, developing a character, and using dialogue to convey ideas. He also instructed the young writers to use all of their senses so that people feel like they're actually there. He said that people are more interested when there are characters and dialogue woven into the story. A different sports story workshop, this one about creating your own fictional sports story, emphasized that as long as the story is fiction, you can start with something that happened and end with something that didn't so as to make the story more exciting.

Some other workshops included "Show Your Character," lead by Helen Bernstein, which asked students to create a character and then answer seven questions, such as what four words they would use to describe the character, so that students were able to more fully develop their descriptions. In "Passion for Fashion," students dressed up and then used descriptive language to describe the outfits of their peers. The last workshop visited, entitled "Imagine You're the Editor of Your Very Own Magazine," challenged students to write persuasive articles, such as one that argues for students having phones (his main point was safety). A final workshop discussed writing about food and challenged students to describe eating their favorite foods in descriptive and detailed ways.

The entire Young Writers' Workshop event ran smoothly thanks to the efforts of its co-chairs Isabel Finegold and Pam Fuehrer, the 75 parent volunteers, representatives of the SMS Student Organization and district custodial and audio/visual staff. Both parents and student volunteers commented that they had a lot of fun. As mother Jodi Cascade stated, "It's a nice thing to do as a parent because you get to be here with your children." Seventh grade S.O. representative Seth Jacobson talked about how he remembered the student representatives doing a good job when he was a student at the Young Writers' Workshop and now wanted to do the same. Scarsdale High School student Saadia Naeem decided to volunteer because the elementary students are so enthusiastic about the event. When asked, these students agreed that the event inspired them as writers and that they planned to attend the event again next year.