Board of Ed Catches Up with Greenacres' Parents

On Monday night, it was the Greenacres PTA leadership’s turn to meet with Scarsdale school administrators and members of the Board of Education. This meeting would typically be held on site at Greenacres but, given the uncertainty surrounding the availability of heat and power at Greenacres, the meeting was held in the Board of Education room at Scarsdale High School. PTA president Melissa Berridge began by asking about what Greenacres’ designation by the state as a “Rewards School” meant for the school, if anything. Both Dr. Michael McGill, superintendent of Scarsdale schools, and Lynne Shain, assistant superintendent for instruction, said that, despite numerous inquiries, they were unable to find out what being a rewards school meant for the school, and that, in fact, the only way they found out that Greenacres and Fox Meadow had been identified as reward schools was by coverage in the press, with no formal notification on the part of the state department of education. Greenacres principal Gerry Young informed the group that he’d been told that his school would be eligible for $155,000 in funds if they shared their best practices with non-performing schools, but he had not looked further into this.

Ms. Berridge then asked about funding for building improvements at Greenacres, noting the ongoing issue of dampness in the basement. Linda Purvis, assistant superintendent for business, stated the difficulty that the high water table under Greenacres’ building presented in resolving this dampness, but did say that solutions were being researched. According to Purvis, ongoing air quality monitoring at the school showed no danger to the students from this dampness. GA parent Ann Bohjalian suggested the replacement of the current system of small dehumidifiers that need to be emptied frequently with larger models with automatic drainage.

Next, Ms. Berridge asked if there was any plan to reexamine the full-day kindergarten program, now that it has been in place for a few years. Ms. Shain said that there was no plan for review beyond the surveys reported on in March of 2011. These surveys showed the importance of small class size, aide presence and small group activities in maintaining satisfaction with full-day kindergarten. Still, Shain said, “we endorse continuous improvement as a district,” something that’s been a focus of the district, along with encourage critical and creative thinking, non-standard problem solving, and rich, deep performance-based assessments that go beyond that required by the state.

Finally, Ms. Berridge asked about the possibility of PTA funds going towards technology purchases for the school. According to Jerry Crisci, director of technology for Scarsdale Schools, the current infrastructure at Greenacres and the other four elementary schools in Scarsdale cannot support any additional devices that require connection to the network. The infrastructure at Scarsdale Middle School was just redone, and the high school infrastructure is scheduled to be upgraded in December and January, and Crisci did say that there will be a technology proposal at a January Board of Education meeting that will lay out a roadmap for the future for technology at the elementary schools, at which point the PTA can revisit purchasing items such as Ipads for the elementary schools.

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.