State of Emergency Rescinded in Scarsdale
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- Written by Joanne Wallenstein
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(Updated Saturday 2-15) Schools were closed again on Friday giving families an early start to the vacation. Due to the state of the roads, the district did not feel it is safe for buses to travel.
Mayor Robert Steves rescinded the state of emergency that had been imposed on Thursday at noon on Friday but asks residents to refrain from parking on the street to allow the Village Sanitation Department to continue to plow. About 1" - 3"snow of new snow is expected today, Saturday.
Schools were closed again on Friday February 14, the 4th day in just two weeks, due to winter storm PAX and will remain closed for a week for the Presidents Day vacation.
Ten Scarsdale Teens Recognized at 2014 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards
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- Written by Marie Ceske
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Ten Scarsdale students were recognized for their writing and artwork at the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards the annual, national competition for creative teens. Dating back to 1923, the awards have become the most prestigious recognition program in art and writing for students in 7th through 12th grades. This year, the competition received 255,000 works nationally across 28 categories. Before judging at the national level, submissions are judged at the regional level and selected submissions may be awarded gold keys (most accomplished), silver keys (distinguished), or honorable mentions (promising). The students who receive gold keys are then entered into the national competition, where they may receive scholarships, medals, and publication in literary magazines. National winners will be announced on March 17th.
In Writing, seven Scarsdale students received regional awards this year:
• Freshman Sabeen Khan: Honorable Mention – Personal Essay/Memoir
• Sophomore Marie Ceske: Silver Key – Poetry
• Junior Maggie O'Keefe: Honorable Mention – Poetry
• Junior Sarah-Judith Bernstein: Two Honorable Mentions – Poetry
• Junior Cailey Martin: Two Silver Keys – Poetry; Three Honorable Mentions – Poetry; Honorable Mention – Personal Essay/Memoir; Honorable Mention – Short Story
• Senior Rachel Wolfe: Two Gold Keys – Poetry; Silver Key – Poetry; Silver Key – Persuasive Writing; Two Honorable Mentions – Poetry; Two Honorable Mentions – Personal Essay/Memoir; Honorable Mention – Writing Portfolio; Honorable Mention – Short Story
• Ishwar Mukherjee from Scarsdale Middle School was recognized with a Silver Key in the short stories section for his holocaust based story "Hard Times Ahead". He also received an Honorable Mention for his nineteenth century slavery-centric short story. "Betting Blind".
In Art, two Scarsdale High School students and one Scarsdale Middle School student received regional awards:
• Junior Maggie O'Keefe: Gold Key – Painting; Three Silver Keys – Drawing; Three Honorable Mentions – Drawing
• Senior Kara Schechtman: Honorable Mention – Drawing; Honorable Mention – Photography
• 8th Grader Linna Yao: Three Gold Keys – Drawing; Silver Key – Drawing; Honorable Mention – Photography
For some teens, art and writing are important forms of self-expression. "Writing helps me figure out my thoughts and kind of make sense of myself and the world," stated Rachel Wolfe. "When I'm really invested in a piece and super excited about whatever I'm working on at the time, I'll write for two hours a day, but I'll also go through stages where I hardly do any writing for weeks. " Cailey Martin agreed; for her, school and extracurricular activities can get in the way of writing. However, once inspiration hits, she is hooked. Martin commented, "Sometimes I'll be trying to fall asleep, really late at night, and I'll sit up suddenly because I have an idea, grab my notebook, and write for a couple of hours because I don't want to lose the inspiration. I've lost a lot of sleep over it!" Regardless of the different ways or circumstances for inspiration, art and writing can be essential hobbies, even a passion. Maggie O'Keefe said, "Art is one of the major priorities in my life. Either by drawing, painting, illustrating, designing, I always have to be creating or else I feel dull." She hopes to become involved in the arts as a profession. O'Keefe feels that "as of now, I am open to learning anything and everything, I just want to keep on creating."
Several winners have shared their some of their works:
I Disappoint You By Rachel Wolfe
All their expectations have been met.
I make myself small, so should you.
I give out what I get.
I live on a string, a marionette.
Alarm clock Monday, there's my cue.
Their expectations cannot be reset.
Inherited like an oppressive debt,
I target my friends—interest due.
I give them what I get.
The path to perfection is already set.
They repaint my smile, you can't see through
The expectations I have met.
There's something still I feel I must do—and yet
you disappoint me, I disappoint you:
I give out what I get.
My real lips are glued shut,
My real smile askew.
Their expectations won't let me forget.
I try to stop – I write a vignette.
But even still, there is no way to undo—
All the expectations I have met.
Must give out what I get.
Lipstick by Cailey Martin
Girl plops herself down in front
of a pink and white vanity, shivering
with the chilly dejection that comes
from chasing comets, feeling vain
but rather plain at the same time.
Girl brushes her hair, brushes her
teeth– but she doesn't like what
she sees, so she puts lipstick on
the mirror; not on in the mirror
but on the mirror, painting glass
a deep smooth crimson shade
of shade. Slow strokes, creamy
blend; rounding precarious corners
and trying not to have an accident.
Cars on the freeway, switching lanes.
Creamblend cream blend cream
blend. Lipstick melts down the mirror
now, cascading like so much spilled
blood, mirror smiling bright and rosy
while girl looks on with indifference
Residents and Officials Voice Concern About Cuomo's Consolidation Proposal
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- Written by Joanne Wallenstein
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Governor Cuomo's latest proposal to force local municipalities and school districts to consolidate is causing concern among Scarsdale school administrators, the Board of Education, residents, the Village Manager and even the Mayor.
Under the proposal, which was unveiled in Cuomo's State of the State address on January 22, the Governor is recommending a two-year property-tax freeze for homeowners if their local governments and school districts meet two conditions: 1) Stay within the tax-levy cap both years and 2) implement a shared services or administrative consolidation plan that saves 1 percent of the levy a year for three years. Homeowners who earn less than $500,000 per year and live in districts where both the school and village comply with the mandate, would qualify for a tax rebate. Current estimates project that qualifying homeowners would receive an annual rebate of between $150 to $350.
The measure's intent is to reduce the number of municipal governments and school districts across the state by offering taxpayers incentives to force their local governments to consolidate and cost-save. For example, if the Scarsdale School District were to participate, it would form a consortium with the largest school in our regional district, which is New Rochelle, share services and potentially eliminate duplication to save money.
Administrators and educators who lead local schools and governments are already feeling the heat from two years of budgeting to the state-imposed tax cap. This new move is seen by some as yet another state mandate in the absence of any reforms to address pension and retirement costs, state testing costs, special education costs and other mandates that have squeezed local budgets. As School Board member Mary Beth Gose said, "Some suspect that Cuomo is pandering to voting blocs and using this proposal to extend the tax cap."
Speaking at the Scarsdale School Board meeting on Monday night January 27, Art Rublin and Diane Greenwald of the Coalition for Scarsdale Schools, said, "There are serious concerns about the threat posed by the proposal from Governor Cuomo. " It "compounds challenges for schools" who will need to "either forgo revenue or seek an override." Quoting the NYS School Boards Association, Rublin said, "Schools will be unable to continue services without exceeding the tax cap."
Greenwald continued, saying, "We are not sure how much more savings can be squeezed out of school districts. The Governor's proposal is dangerous given the high percentage of local taxes that contribute to our local revenues... We all want to protect what we have built."
Scarsdale Village Manager Al Gatta was also skeptical about the possible effects of forcing consolidation. He said, "In regard to the 2% cap on the property tax levy, we have been informed by the State Controller's Office that the Village of Scarsdale's cap for the 2014-2015 budget is 1.48%. This information makes the already challenging task of staying within the cap for the 2014-2015 budget much more difficult. After a number of years of adhering to the cap and as the smaller communities begin to show the impacts from the service reductions and deteriorating infrastructure, these communities, by default, may have no alternative other than to merge services and even consolidate with the larger jurisdictions."
Consolidation and merger as a matter of public policy in itself can have benefit, but it is prudent to look at impacts on quality of resulting programs and to analyze end costs. In a sense to force a consolidation or a program merger as a means of addressing the overburdened property tax may prove disappointing by not bringing better service levels or the expected decreases in property tax levies.
If the use of the property tax were the problem, would it not be better to address the matter as a tax issue and explore ways to more fairly and equitably fund local governments? Tax reform and how to fund local governments seems to me to be a more straightforward approach in dealing with the property tax problem, rather than forcing situations where communities make decisions that may not result in better government or quality of life for residents."
However, State Assemblywoman Amy Paulin emphasized that this is an opt-in program and participation is not 
mandatory. She argued that only those villages and school districts who would benefit from the program would participate. As only a subset of Scarsdale taxpayers would qualify for the $350 checks many in Scarsdale would see no financial benefit from a program that would mean major changes to their Village services and schools. She said, "If the threshold is too high, districts will not want to comply." She also said that the state budget has just been proposed and that legislators will assess the reaction of their constituents and negotiate with the Governor during February and March.
During a discussion about the proposal at the Monday night BOE meeting, Board President Suzanne Seiden said she met with Scarsdale's Mayor Robert Steves and they came up with the idea of issuing a joint statement in objection to the consolidation proposal. At the end of the night, the Board of Ed agreed to work on a joint statement between the Scarsdale Village Board and Scarsdale School Board stating their concerns about the measure.
Learn more about this issue on the Scarsdale PT Coucil webpage here:
Friends of the Scarsdale Library Say Thank You!
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To the Editor: On behalf of the Friends of the Scarsdale Library, we would like to express our gratitude to so many in the community for making our fourth Spelling Bee a tremendous success. The funds raised will be used to upgrade the Library's lobby and entryway.
Our congratulations to all the team members and particularly to our winning team, the Library Trust-Bees (Seth Ross, Terri Simon, and Florie Wachtenheim)!
We would like to thank our fantastic emcee Ed Coleman; our judges NYS Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, Deputy Mayor Jonathan Mark and Spelling Bee Committee member Margaret Smith; our photographer Larry Smith; our tech crew including Steve Bogardus, Dave Berry, and Kamal and Rohan Mehta; and our many "worker bees" who helped out during the evening.
Please support our generous sponsors: Platinum: Thomson Reuters; Diamond: Mercedes-Benz of White Plains, Paul Hastings LLP, and Sara & Rick Werder; Gold: Country Bank, Houlihan Lawrence, Julia B. Fee Sotheby's International Realty, Drs Renu & Anil Lalwani, and Margaret & Laurence Smith; and Silver: Christine & John Bensche, Buzz Potential Inc, Coldwell Banker, Linda & Jonathan Flaxer, Frank's Home Improvements, Drs Lopa & Mantu Gupta, Prudential Centennial Realty, Rachele Rose Day Spa, William & Cynthia Roberts, Vintology, and A.G. Williams Painting Company. Numerous "Friends of the Bee" also made donations to help us achieve our goal.
Our heartfelt appreciation to TestTakers for donating an SAT study course; our other auction and raffle donors (Pole Position Dance & Fitness, Rachele Rose Day Spa, Skin TheraP, SoulCycle, Steve Sohn's Jujitsu Concepts/Krav Maga, and Yoga Station); our team prize donors (BlueQ.com, Chat, Eastchester Fish Gourmet, Masala Kraft, Moscato, and Patisserie Salzburg); and our refreshment donors (DeCicco Family Markets, Fresh Market and ShopRite).
And we are BEEholden to our unBEElievable committee: Christine Bensche, Liz Blagg, Ellen Brodsky, Mona Longman, Carolyn Mehta, and Margaret Smith.
Sincerely,
Renu Lalwani and Sara Werder, Spelling Bee Co-Chairs
CNC Nominates Lee, Pekarek and Samwick for Village Trustee
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Citizen's Nominating Committee Chairman David Irwin announced that the committee has nominated three candidates to serve as Scarsdale Village Trustee. At their 1/22 meeting, the committee selected David Lee, Deborah Pekarek and Mark Samwick as its nominees for the three open positions on the Scarsdale Village Board.
Trustee David Lee is completing his second year on the Village Board and is being re-nominated for a second two-year term. During his first term as a Village Trustee, David has served as chair of the Board's Law and Recreation Committees and served as liaison to numerous Village councils and organizations. He has coached for many years for the Village's recreation leagues as well as for travel and little leagues. David is a lawyer specializing in the area of trusts and estates. Commenting on the news, Trustee David Lee said, "I'm really delighted to be given a further opportunity to serve on Village Board. The Board's work is both interesting and, at times, quite gratifying when we develop solutions to some of the more challenging issues that our community faces. I also take great pleasure in working closely with the high-quality people we have both on the Board and on our Village professional staff.
Deb Pekarek has extensive experience as a volunteer for Scarsdale organizations. These include, among others, serving as President of the Greenacres Neighborhood Association, 1st Vice
President of the League of Women Voters, Co-Chair of the Scarsdale Forum's Sustainability Committee, Secretary/Treasurer of the Scarsdale Bowl Committee and a number of positions with the Junior League of Central Westchester. Professionally, Deb has worked as a teacher and in various other educational positions. About her nomination, Pekarek said, "I am thrilled to have been nominated and look forward to continuing to serve Scarsdale."
Marc Samwick is a real estate investor and developer whose real estate investment activities are concentrated in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. Marc has extensive volunteer experience with Little League baseball. He just completed three years of service on the Board of Scarsdale Little League and he has coached over 20 Little League teams over the past 15 years. Marc also currently serves on the Finance Committee of Westchester Reform Temple and as an Alternate on the Scarsdale Planning Board. Reached today, Marc said, "I am happy and honored to receive the support of the Citizens Nominating Committee. I look forward to having the opportunity, if elected, to serve our community as a Village Trustee and I will strive to meet the high standards established by the Village Trustees, Mayor and professional staff."
If elected, the two new nominees will fill the seats of Trustees, Kay Eisenman and Jon Mark, who will complete two years of service on the Board of Trustees this spring. The village-wide election is scheduled for March 18, 2014.
