Police Nab 24 Underage Drinkers in Edgemont
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On Friday night September 16, following the homecoming football game at Edgemont High School police received a complaint about a large, loud party at 60 Seely Place in Edgemont.
Members of the Greenburgh Drug and Alcohol Task Force and uniform patrol officers went to the home and found a number of young people entering and leaving an open attached garage. Police found numerous teenagers inside the garage and open beer containers.
As a result of continued investigation twenty four (24) under aged teens were determined to be present and found to be in possession of alcoholic beverages. All were issued a summons for “Possession of Alcohol by a Person Under the Age of 21”, Section 65-c of the Alcohol and Beverage Control law. The minors were released to the custody of their parents or guardians. Court dates are scheduled this month at Town of Greenburgh Court and the investigation is continuing.
Also on Friday, September 16, 2011, members of the Greenburgh Police Drug and Alcohol task force conducted an investigation into the sale of alcohol to under aged minors in 19 locations throughout the Town of Greenburgh and the Villages of Irvington and Tarrytown. An underage agent was sent into stores in order to attempt to purchase an alcoholic beverage without proper identification. Though the agent was denied purchase in 16 locations, three stores sold alcoholic beverages to the agent without asking for proper identification. Two of the locations were in Tarrytown, but the third was the new Walgreens at 870 Central Park Avenue in Scarsdale.
The defendants were issued summonses under the Alcohol and Beverage Control law, section 65-1 for selling an alcoholic beverage to a person under the age of 21 and are due to appear in Town of Greenburgh Court later this month.
Perhaps, the kids who were partying in Edgemont bought their beer at Walgreens?
Enrollment Trends, Class Sizes and Teacher Hires from the Scarsdale BOE
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It was back to work for the Scarsdale School Board on Monday September 12. The meeting covered a broad range of topics, and here are the highlights: School Board President Jill Spieler announced the names of appointees to the new Education Foundation Steering Committee which will be chaired by Ellen Miller Wachtel. Committee members will include, Joyce Hirsch, David Shuster, Joshua Silverman, Eric Staffin, Florie Wachtenheim and Beth Zadek. The Committee’s Board liaison will be Liz Guggenheimer and Dr. McGill will serve as the administrative liaison.
The Steering Committee already held their first meeting and reviewed their charge. In the coming month they will identify school needs that could be funded by a foundation, fundraising strategies, community relations and governance and legal steps necessary to launch the foundation.
In addition, Spieler reported that the Board considered closing Huntington Road in between the Greenacres School and the Greenacres field during school hours per parent’s requests. However, the Village Attorney has determined that this is a state issue and that the Village does not have the authority to close the street without state legislation. The road closing would require a vote from the State Senate and Assembly and the Village has reached out to Amy Paulin and Suzi Oppenheimer.
In his remarks, Dr. McGill reported a smooth school opening and relayed that for the most part the schools were untouched by the storm. However, there was flooding in the Scarsdale High School basement.
Speaking about college admissions McGill reported that 66% of the SHS graduating class of ’11 were admitted to schools ranked “the most competitive in the country.” He said, “This is a very impressive statement about our families, athe students, and the school district – where teachers and administrators are determined to get the best out of each student.”
Joan Weber provided the personnel and enrollment report, and said that during the spring and summer the district hired 16 teachers, one nurse, and two civil service staff. At the high school, Fred Goldberg and Kelly Hamm are serving as co-principals and Chris Renino is a new assistant principal, Ann Liptak, a long-time English Teacher at SHS will now replace Renino’s as English Department Chair and former math teacher Doug Vermese is now a co-head computer teacher. In total, there were 11 retirements from the professional staff .
On enrollment, Weber provided the following numbers:
- 190 children left the district and 185 entered
- In the five elementary schools, 2143 students were projected and as of now there are 2,118 students. The district had projected 108 elementary school sections and there are currently 107. At Greenacres, the kindergarten split into four sections as did the fifth grade at Quaker Ridge.
- At the middle school 1,188 students were expected and there are now 1,158 and at the high school, 1,449 were projected and there are now 1,404. Overall the district has 4,715 students versus a projection of 4,769. The numbers are now in a state of flux and will be finalized in October.
It is interesting to note the following enrollment trends:
- The entering kindergarten class included 303 students, while the high school graduating class of 2011 had 374 pupils.
- Overall, enrollment is expected to decline by 15 students per year over the next five years.
- 74 new international families moved to Scarsdale this year from 23 countries.
In terms of class size, Weber provided counts on class sizes at the middle school and the high school. Average class sizes at the high school are as follows:
- English 22.4 students
- Social Studies 22.5 students
- Math 20.9 students
- World Language 16.6 students
- Science 21.8 students
Overall 7.7% of high school classes have over 25 students which is an improvement over last year.
Rather than supply average class sizes at middle school, Weber provided stats on the percentages of students in classes of various sizes.
- For Spanish 6.5% of students are in classes of 26 students and 3% are in a class with 27 students.
- In French classes, 18.8% have classes of 26 students
- In math, no sections are larger than 25 students.
Retirements: Edgewood School Principal Scott Houseknecht offered remarks about retiring third grade teacher Margaret O’Farrell who taught there for 24 years. Saying “she will be remembered with great fondness,” he told the group that O’Farrell “made a point of knowing everyone: and was “truly everybody’s teacher.” Among her contributions to the school were the Chinese New Year parade and the third grade musical production, a favorite among students. O’Farrell acknowledged everyone with a birthday card and had more visits from returning students than any other teacher.
Weber ended by reporting that the District will be actively recruiting a new Principal for SHS and hopes to announce an appointment by the Spring of 2012.
Last, the state’s new Race to the Top legislation will require Scarsdale to develop teacher evaluations and evaluate all teachers on a 100-point scale. A certain number of points will be derived from student performance on state tests and local assessments will account for 20 points of the 100 points. Scarsdale is now in the process of developing our own assessments for this portion. The November Board of Education meeting will be devoted to a discussion of this topic.
Freshmen Find Their Way at Scarsdale High School
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September 1st was Orientation Day for incoming freshman at Scarsdale High School. Implemented a few years ago, the transition day gives incoming 9th grade students a chance to get familiar with the sprawling high school before the pressure is on to find their way to class. The day began with an assembly for the 400 newcomers to the school where older students performed skits and freshman were given student planners.
Students were broken into smaller groups and taken on tours of the school by peer leaders and upper classmen and introduced to all of the high school clubs and extracurricular activities at a club fair in the afternoon.
This year, student government leaders organized another activity for the freshman. The student government asked many local retailers for donations for sandwiches and had each freshman make a sandwich to be given to Grace Church Community Center. Each sandwich was accompanied by a personal note to the recipient, written by a new 9th grader. Teachers Kathleen McGreal, Jen Wagner, Tammy Marchini and Kate Krahl were just a few of the teachers on hand to lead the sandwich-making effort. School Government Advisor Neil Ginsberg counseled incoming freshman and implemented this community service activity.
For lunch, the Peer Counseling Team of Terry Frank, Lauren Pomerantz, and Emily Vallario with student peer leaders hosted a barbeque. Here they are manning the barbeques on a very steamy day.
Best of luck to the class of 2015!
Pictured at top: Student Government Advisor Neil Ginsberg counsels newcomers
FEMA Recovery Center Open in White Plains
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The first step is to register: by calling FEMA’s registration number 1-800-621-3362; or on line at www.disasterassistance.gov . For those with speech or hearing disabilities, use the TTY number at 800-462-7585. FEMA strongly advises people to register in advance of visiting the disaster center.
In addition to state and federal partners at the center, staff from the county Department of Social Services will be on hand to help residents. There will also be representatives from the Small Business Administration, who can explain the low-interest loan packages available to individuals, nonprofits and businesses of any size.
(photo credit: Bruce Wells)
Why Does Con Edison Treat Westchester Residents Like Second Class Citizens?
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Here is a letter written by Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner about Con Edison repair work in Westchester: To the Editor: Hurricane Irene left a good portion of Greenburgh and Westchester out of power. Con Ed issued a press release after the storm that indicated that most of their NYC customers would have their power restored by Tuesday night and Westchester customers would get their power restored two days later--by late Thursday night.
I realize that Con Ed cannot restore everyones power immediately after a storm but question why Westchester ratepayers are treated like second class citizens. After every storm Westchester customers wait much longer to have power restored than our NYC neighbors. We pay the same rates as NYC customers pay but don't get treated equally. Why should NYC customers always get their power restored first--a few days before Westchester customers?
My home phone is ringing off the hook with calls from senior citizens and disabled residents who experience real hardships whenever there are power outages. I think it would be fairer if Con Ed treated all of their customers the same----and if they would spread their crews around their service area until power is restored to all. Another option: they should rotate the order of service restorations--during one outage NYC should get service restored first and Westchester second. The second outage Westchester gets power restored first and NYC gets it second.
PAUL FEINER
Greenburgh Town Supervisor