From the Library: Back to School Resources
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Here's information from Scarsdale Public Library for children and teens:
In preparation for the school year ahead, Scarsdale Public Library has been offering fun and engaging summer reading programs for children and teens. We would like to invite all parents to make sure their child has a Scarsdale Public Library Card this school year. With their card, your child can borrow physical and digital materials and make study room reservations. This fall, children can also look forward to a NASA reading program.
Our librarians are making sure teens have access to required reading titles, so they are ready for back-to-school discussions. We have a display featuring titles from the SMS Summer Reading Lists set up next to the café. Children’sLibrarian, Erin Goldberg, and Teen Services Manager, Jennifer Brinley, can also provide great recommendations to help with reading selections.
September is Library Card Signup month, and it is a wonderful time to sign your children up for a library card. For those last-minute reading assignments, they can download digital books through Libby or cloudLibrary, or catch up with their favorite graphic novels through Comics Plus. They can reserve study rooms to work privately or with up to 3 of their friends and can do so up to a week ahead of time using their Scarsdale Library Card. Students will also have access to tutor.com and LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com) for extra instruction outside of school.
Our Children’s team will be offering NASA's Artemis Project: To the Moon, Mars, and Beyond Reading Challenge beginning this September. Participants will discover more about the Artemis program and NASA’s plans for a new generation of crewed spaceflight by completing the activity badges in this reading and activity challenge. We challenge our patrons to read at least 600 minutes (about 10 hours) and keep track of their reading during the challenge on our Beanstack site. Hundreds of libraries across the nation will be reading and learning alongside us for a chance to win circulating backpacks of STEM-related resources from the Space Science institute.
Throughout the year, teens can look forward to studying and lounging in their Teen Room, and enjoying programs offered with their needs in mind. For those teens interested in volunteering, our Teen Department is always looking for new members to join our Teen Advisory Board (TAB) to help guide the direction of teen services. During the school year, staff members stay late to offer study nights to provide a space for youth to prepare for final exams.
If you have not already signed up for summer reading, there is still time to enter to log minutes and win prizes. Register for either the Children’s or Teen summer reading programs on our website, scarsdalelibrary.org. Students can even print out a list of the books they have read to show their teachers all the reading they have completed this summer.
Attention Parents: New Podcast Offers Answers to Tough Questions
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Danielle Freilich and Jordana Fruchter, Hosts of the Podcasat No Silly Questions for ParentsWhat is the difference between a progressive and traditional school? How much independence should I give my child? Should I teach my daughter her letters and numbers before Kindergarten? Is educational programming a good kind of “screen time?” My middle-schooler has a lot of homework. What is the optimal amount?
What is the trajectory for language development in babies? Maybe my teen should just drop out of school altogether and become an entrepreneur! Is higher education even valuable anymore? What does it mean when the teacher tells me my child needs help regulating his body?
Calling all parents! Do these questions sound familiar? They certainly do to us! As school leaders, we’ve been fielding these questions, and many more, for years from our friends- moms and dads looking for reliable information.
I’m Danielle Freilich. Born and raised in Scarsdale, where my parents Mark and Karen Hauser still reside, and where I got married about a year ago this time! For the last decade, I’ve worked in schools, as a teacher and principal, and currently support administrators across the country at an educational consulting firm.
My friend Jordana Fruchter, also a school leader and the director of a popular Preschool in Tribeca, and I noticed how often we were finding ourselves on long calls with friends, helping them pull up their local school reports online, supporting them in the process of navigating services for their child, or providing insight into developmental questions about their children. Throughout all these conversational threads, we aimed to keep the temperature down!
For our peers in Scarsdale- the decision of where to send their kids to school is made somewhat easier by the truly phenomenal public schooling. Scarsdale is heralded far and wide for its stellar educational programing. With test score proficiency and graduation rates in the high 90’s, and a 13:1 student to teacher ratio, Scarsdale is helping set a national standard of achievement.
But for many others, the decision can feel daunting. No one explains to parents what the different pedagogies are, what to look for on a school tour, how to find the best fit for your child given their unique strengths and personality, and what to do when your child is experiencing learning challenges at school.
Parents have a significant amount of twists and turns to navigate on the path from Preschool through 12th grade. What behavioral and therapeutic services might be beneficial at school, if, and how, to assist with homework, and when to intervene or step back with respect to your child's digital life. You get the picture.
We could see there was a need to provide parents with answers they could trust, from true experts in the field and the most current research, and so our podcast “No Silly Questions,” was born.
Our mission with this podcast is to lend our expertise in Preschool-12 schooling and curate credible and relatable conversations, so parents can make the best decisions for their families.
Our questions are sourced from you, the parents, and we cover anything and everything related to learning, education and development. You can listen to our episodes on Apple and Spotify, follow us on our instagram account @nosillyquestions, or submit a question of your own through our website nosillyquestionspodcast.com. After all, there is truly no such thing as a silly question!
Letter to the Editor: There is No Shortage of Baseball Fields in Scarsdale
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This Letter to the Editor was written by Gerald Antell Alan Garfunkel and John Lofaso, Co-Chairs: Crossway Lights Committee--- West QR Neighborhood Assoc.
Scarsdale does not have a baseball field shortage.
We read Mayor Veron's comments in the minutes from the June 14, 2022 Village Board meeting. In the Little League Lights and Fields section, Mayor Veron notes: “There is often a shortage of playable fields, and we struggle to meet the demand.”
We have attached the Baseball Field Use Summary that we compiled on May 23, 2022.
Please note that all information in the Summary was obtained from the Master Schedules for Scarsdale Little League (SSL), Girl's Rec. Softball and Scarsdale Youth Soccer Club (SYSC). Girl's Travel Softball does not post a Master Schedule on the web; field use information for this ISO came from Rich Massaroni of the Rec. Dept.
As the Summary shows, there were a total of 1,144 UN-USED, EMPTY baseball fields for the Spring, 2022 season during normal, play-time hours.
In fact, Scarsdale has a rather large baseball field surplus.
There are MORE THAN TWICE AS MANY EMPTY, UN-USED baseball fields each week during normal play-time hours than the total weekly games played by SSL.
Nevertheless, the SLL continues to publicly state that there is a field shortage and has proposed a lighted field to alleviate it. SLL further states that they are “turning away kids” from little league due to this “shortage”.
These statements from SSL are untrue, as clearly shown on the attached summary. This is simple arithmetic. SLL has made a choice to not use the fields that are available RIGHT NOW.
There is ZERO NEED for more baseball fields and ZERO NEED for a lighted baseball field.
Sincerely,
Gerald Antell Alan Garfunkel John Lofaso
Co-Chairs: Crossway Lights Committee--- West QR Neighborhood Assoc.
Responding to the letter above, David Krembs said:
"What about bad weather? What about wet fields?
What about availability of coaches and players?
What about the constraint that certain types of games (like 60/90 baseball) can only be played on certain fields (like Crossway and Hyatt)?
What about time constraints like playoff games that must be completed by a certain date, or makeup games that need to be squeezed back into an existing schedule in order to qualify for the playoffs?
Is it possible that the field schedule has empty space for those valid reasons? And is it possible that even with empty space on the schedule, it's still difficult to schedule games for those (and perhaps other) valid reasons? Which brings me to...
Have you asked the coaches and coordinators who actually schedule games (and who actually deal with real-world constraints) to explain what challenges they face and how lights would help?
I have read your analysis of field usage (it's a quick read), and I don't see how you can conclude that "There is No Shortage of Baseball Fields in Scarsdale" until you can show that you've accounted for all of that."
Boys Scouts Announces Troop for Girls
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Scarsdale’s Troop 4 is pleased to announce that this fall, it will have a girls’ linked troop for the first time.
Nationwide, in 2019, Scouts BSA, formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America, opened membership to girls ages 11 - 17. Scouting develops character, civic mindedness, leadership and physical fitness. Middle and high school-aged Scouts, with guidance from adult leaders, create and lead activities such as hikes, outdoor games, community service, and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) activities.
Any interested girl from Westchester is encouraged to join the troop. Girls in Troop 4 will design and lead their own activities. Additionally, they will participate in some events with the boys in the troop. Troop 4’s regular meetings are on Monday evenings. Troop 4 embodies the values of inclusion, tolerance, and mutual respect for all people.
A diverse set of parent leaders support Scouts in their goal to achieve the highest rank in Scouting, Eagle Scout. Each year, less than 7% of eligible Scouts have attained the rank of Eagle, since its inception in 1911. Due to its rigor, earning the Eagle Scout rank can offer lifelong academic, social, and professional networking benefits. Troop 4 is committed to supporting any youth wanting to earn the rank of Eagle Scout. The first cohort of female Eagle Scouts was recognized in 2020. In 2021, Rebecca Gilder, of White Plains, became the first female Eagle Scout in Westchester County.
Amongst other requirements, to attain the level of Eagle Scout, Scouts must earn a minimum of 21 merit badges. All Eagle Scouts earn badges in 14 required topics touching on issues of citizenship, the outdoors, personal responsibility and leadership. Other merit badges are electives. There are over 100, such as American Business, Animation, Archery, Art, Bird Study, Chemistry, Chess, Crime Prevention, Disability Awareness, Engineering, Entrepreneurship, Fingerprinting, Game Design, Gardening, Journalism, Kayaking, Moviemaking, Music, Sports, and Theater.
Together with Scarsdale’s Cub Scout Pack 440, Troop 4 will host two recruiting events on Sept. 18 (outdoor games and sports) and Oct. 23 (pumpkin carving). Any rising sixth through 11th graders interested in joining Scarsdale’s Troop 4 may contact Scoutmaster Ted Mazza. Please visit Troop 4’s website and Facebook page.
Explaining why a troop for girls was needed, Mayra Kirkendall Rodriguez said, "Scouts started accepting girls nationwide in 2019, and one division has had girls since the 1970s.
In Scarsdale, Cub Scout Pack 440 started accepting girls in 2019. Some of those girls have now aged out of cub scouts and want to be in a Scout troop locally. Otherwise, girls who want to be in an integrated troop would have to go to Tuckahoe, for example, or White Plains to be in such a troop.
Being in Troop 4 allows girls to create and lead some activities just for themselves, and they can also have some meetings and events with the boys. Also, there are girls who want to achieve Eagle Scout, which has numerous, rigorous requirements involving community service, civic education, hiking, sports, the arts, and STEM."
Greenacres July 4th Celebration Returns After a Two Year Hiatus
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Over 300 people attended the Greenacres 4th of July Celebration that returned after a two year hiatus, led by a reinvigorated Greenacres Neighborhood Association. There were sack, 3-legged and spoon races, foul shot contests, running races and a candy hunt for the youngest in the neighborhood. The fire department arrived with their truck to spray everyone down and all the fun was followed by a patriotic program with remarks from Scarsdale Mayor Jane Veron. Here is what she said:
Greenacres, thank you so much for the invitation to join you today at your wonderfully warm, inclusive, and joyous Fourth of July celebration. I am beyond thrilled that we can all be back together to commemorate this important day, the day when America gained independence from British rule. Today, you are doing exactly what our founding fathers had hoped - John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail in July 1776 that we should celebrate with "pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports".
Greenacres, you lead with your traditional fanfare that bridges generations and strengthens our community. You certainly know how to put on a party! I am incredibly impressed by your volunteer spirit. It is no small feat to pull off this fabulous event. I would like to recognize your leadership with a big round of applause. I would also like to honor the children and families of Greenacres. Your spirit and enthusiasm are palpable. I am inspired by your festivities and have been a big fan of the fire hose highlight! Greenacres, your neighborhood association is a model for us all.
As many of you know, Scarsdale played a role at the very beginning. Not so different from today, in 1776, Westchester citizens had divergent opinions. Some preferred to keep the status quo, wishing to remain loyal to the King. Others sought change, becoming Patriots to demand independence. As reported in the book Of Colonists and Commuters by Diane Reische, most Scarsdalians kept quiet about their preferences. However, two Scarsdale residents Samuel Crawford (a cooper and militia captain) and Michael Varian (perhaps the namesake of your Greenacres street), bravely spoke up. They had a strong desire for independence and were determined to make their mark.
Down the street at the White Plains Court house, Crawford and Varian made history by seconding the motion that the Declaration of Independence be endorsed by the New York Provincial Congress. At that time, it was too dangerous to meet in NYC since the harbor was packed with 120 ships and 10,000 soldiers. The unanimous vote set the course for our Village, and we benefit today from the risks these patriots took hundreds of years ago.
This is a glorious day for celebration and reflection. We are proud of our country’s ideals: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Yet, our country still remains a work in progress - while we have made significant strides since our earliest days, we still have a ways to go. We are on a continued quest to afford equality and freedoms for all Americans, for all genders, races and ethnicities, for our underserved and underrepresented populations, for people with disabilities, and for our heroic veterans who have devoted their lives to serve our country. As citizens, we strive for security and safety, dignity and independence. Democracies are ever evolving, and what is most exciting is that each of us here has a voice. We must listen to one another and learn, no matter where we sit on the political spectrum. Let’s open our hearts and minds, and together carve a path for a better future. Happy July 4th!
