Community Reacts to Regents' Visit to Scarsdale
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Chancellor Merryl Tisch of the NYS Regents along with newly-appointed Regent Judith Johnson came to Scarsdale last week to discuss state testing and the new teacher evaluation system on a panel with State Assemblywoman Amy Paulin and Scarsdale Schools Superintendent Thomas Hagerman. The auditorium at SHS was filled with concerned parents, teachers and administrators. Here are comments from the Scarsdale community on the event:
Diane Greenwald, who is a Co-Chair of the PTC Legislative Committee expressed her gratitude to the Scarsdale Forum for providing a platform for this expert panel to engage on educational issues with our community.
Greenwald said, "Judith Johnson focused on values that I treasure; the equitable, rich and developmentally appropriate education for all our children; the transparent creation of flexible State policies that include input by educational experts and offer space for local control; and her commitment to the professional development of teachers as valued partners.
Regent Johnson inspired me with hope that there will be a voice of reason participating in the educational leadership of New York State. She is brave, articulate and knowledgeable about the complex issues that are impacting the education of New York's children. Right now, she is asking the right questions about how the government can best and first serve our students."
"I was pleasantly surprised that Chancellor Tisch came to our community and listened to the wisdom of this panel. I hope she heard the consistent concerns expressed about the over-use of unproven and poorly conceived high stakes tests. Her comments to the press in support of the current testing regime lead me to fear that she does not hear the thousands of voices across New York frustrated by this approach. I hope she listened to the cries for local control and the dismay around the damaging effects of the teacher evaluation system that defy logic and undermine quality education."
Nan Berke is a Scarsdale parent and co-chair of the 
Suburban Consortium for Public Education, which is a group of parents and administrators representing 39 school districts in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties, (including 3/4 of the school districts in Westchester). She said, "I have the highest respect for our new regent Judith Johnson, and I am confident she will help bring sanity to education policy in NYS. She is an incredibly experienced listener, collaborator and doer. She wants what is best for our kids. What a breath of fresh air!
I was disappointed that Meryl Tisch did not speak at last week's panel, but hope she was listening.
One parent at last week's panel said we should focus on the kids and not on teacher evaluation models. This seems so misguided. Scarsdale spends millions each year on those state tests and their sole purpose is to evaluate teachers. As John Oliver pointed out on his show last Sunday, they are a lousy way to measure teachers' effectiveness. NYS needs to devise sound, evidence-based models for teacher evaluation. That's why the most urgent thing for our state's education policy is to extend the state's June 30th deadline to amend the teacher evaluation system. It will take time and input from experts to devise something that actually works.
Joe Vaughn, who teaches Physics at SHS and coaches the speech and debate team said, "I thought that Regent Johnson was fair minded in her responses and clearly on the side of kids. I was heartened by how she seemed willing to ask important questions about the role and nature of the Pearson tests. I was also heartened by her statement that she does not approve of tying teacher ratings to student test scores, especially when the quality and applicability of those tests are in question. I have hope that her voice will be a moderating one among the Regents when they meet. During the forum, she noted a place on the NYSED website where she invited feedback. I hope that the entire community takes her up on this opportunity. I was disappointed that Chancellor Tisch was unwilling to be on the panel, but since we were able to hear the thoughtful insights of Regent Johnson, I was not too upset at her unwillingness to dialogue with the Scarsdale public."
Jerry Crisci, The district's Director of Technology said, "I thought that all three 
panelists did a terrific job. I'm grateful that the Scarsdale Forum was able to bring the issues surrounding the APPR to the public, and I know that the remarks shared at the meetings will foster rich dialogue about this critical issue that affects all children in NYS. I was impressed with Regent Johnson, and I hope that she is able to use her influence to implement the ideas that she shared with the audience."
Superintendent Thomas Hagerman was on the panel and commented, "I felt privileged to be co-panelists with both Assemblywoman Amy Paulin and Regent Judith Johnson. Amy has been a true champion of local efforts to bring about meaningful changes rather than those that are being driven by political forces. And, I was heartened by Judith's comments as well, both in terms of her reasoned beliefs around the use of standards and the purpose of assessment, but more importantly about her strong commitment to equity, public education, and local control. I am confident that Judith has the experience and knowledge to be an advocate of region and to be a part of major change efforts within the Board of Regents. In terms of Meryl Tisch, I was appreciative of her attendance, and I hope that many of the perspectives the panel and community shared will resonate with her in terms of the careful balance between accountability and the implementation of public education within the contexts of real communities, many of which, like Scarsdale, is getting a lot right."
Library Accepts Gift and Hosts Reception for Story Project
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Former Trustee Stacey Brodsky and her husband David Brodsky have made a gift of $10,000 to the Village toward funding for a Master Plan for renovations and additions to the Scarsdale Library. Acceptance of the gift was announced by Trustee Marc Samwick at the April 28th meeting of the Village Board. He explained that the Brodsky's recently moved to Manhattan after living in Scarsdale for over 20 years. During that time they were avid volunteers in the Village where Stacey was a PTA President, served on the Board of Architectural Review, the School Board Nominating Committee, the Board of Scarsdale Library and ultimately four years as Village Trustee. David Brodsky headed the Procedure Committee, the School Board Nominating Committee and chaired the Scarsdale Bowl. Samwick said, "we should be humbled by their generosity," and encouraged others to follow their lead and "give generously" and "volunteer for the village and local organizations."
The gift will be used for a master plan for the library which is headed for a major transformation. The space will be expanded, new meeting spaces will be built, there will be improved technological features and it will serve as "a multi-purpose community asset for generations." The project is expected to cost $12 million, which will be generated through fund-raising and monies from the Village.
On Thursday night April 30th, the library will hold a reception for the grand opening of the Scarsdale Library Story Project exhibit, which tells the personal experiences of residents at the library. The public is invited from 6:30-7:30 p.m. to view the exhibit in the library's Scott Room.
The framed presentations include a description of the individual experiences of current and former residents as well as a photo of each writer. The Scarsdale Library Story Project explored the role the Scarsdale Library plays in the life of residents. The interviews were held at the end of last year.
"This exciting program was inspired by the national oral history project StoryCorps," said Michelle Lichtenberg, Library Board President. "We had a wonderful response to the project and the participants provided both enlightening and emotional recollections showing the important and many faceted roles the library plays in the life of our community. Now, those who read the brief stories can share the experiences. We hope it will provide an incentive for others to participate next year."
What's In for Spring at the Golden Horseshoe
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Now that a few daffodils have emerged, it looks like there might be spring after all. Warmer weather means a change in wardrobe and to find out what's in for spring we took a stroll around the Golden Horseshoe to see what's in store for the whole family.
We began at Beginnings where we learned that distressed denim and relaxed, slouchy boyfriend jeans are de rigueur. Color is back too – check out these bright silk blouses that can be worn with long, layered necklaces and something fringed to complete your "bohemian look" that's fashion forward this year.
Next door, Cheryl's Closet caters to the over-50 market with fashion to make any silver fox look young. There are white jeans that fit the mature figure by "Piece of Cloth" to be worn with colorful t-shirts and summer sandals. They've got a little black dress for any occasion and custom knit sweaters that can be made in all sizes and colors. They also carry and discount great handbags from MZ Wallace. For Mother's Day order a custom necklace with 
mom's initials.
Infiniti is greeting spring with a camp party, this Sunday from 11-5. There will be photos, raffle prizes and even s'mores to set the tone for camp this summer. The store is stocked with loads of fun camp gear and clothing for tweens include P.J. Salvage Pajamas, I Love Camp beaded bracelets, psychedelic towels, laundry bags shirts and sweatshirts – and almost everything can be personalized with your camp name. Join the camp party on Sunday April 19th from 11 am – 5 pm at Infiniti in the Golden Horseshoe.
Neil's is primed for spring and summer with loads of merchandise in bright colors featuring emoticons, team logos and patterns. For boys and big boys there are Nike Elite shorts and socks, t-shirts and sweatshirts displaying college and team names and board shorts in stripes and plaid. Girls will love the fuzzy PJ pants and short shorts, along with Soffe and distressed denim shorts. Pair those with a t-shirt with an emoticon and Nike flip-flops and you'll be ready for the pool or summer camp. Phyllis, who has run the shop for over a decade, says fashion this year is back to Woodstock with fringes, sherbet colors
and frayed jeans. Special offer – buy over $250 in merchandise and they'll sew on nametags for free.
Earth Day 2015: Go Green at Home
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In honor of Earth Day and every day, here's a reminder that "Going Green" doesn't have to be a daunting task that means sweeping life changes. Simple things can make a big difference in conserving energy, saving water and reducing pollution.
The contents of this list might not be new, but they bear repeating. Sometimes it takes a few reminders to establish new habits. Here are things you can do at home to honor Earth Day on April 22 and to help save our environment.
1. Change a light bulb
If every household in the United State replaced one regular light bulb with one of those new compact fluorescent bulbs, the pollution reduction would be equivalent to removing one million cars from the road.
2. Turn off your computers at night
By turning off your computer instead of leaving it in sleep mode, you can save 40 watt-hours per day. That adds up to 4 cents a day, or $14 per year. If you don't want to wait for your computer to start up, set it to turn on automatically a few minutes before you wake up or get to work.
3. Don't Rinse
Skip rinsing dishes before using your dishwasher and save up to 20 gallons of water each load. Plus, you're saving time and the energy used to heat the additional water.
4. Don't preheat the oven
Unless you are making bread or pastries of some sort, don't pre-heat the oven. Just turn it on when you put the dish in.
5. Recycle glass
Recycled glass reduces related air pollution by 20 percent and related water pollution by 50 percent. If it isn't recycled it can take a million years to decompose.
6. Wash in cold or warm water
If all the households in the U.S. switched from hot-hot cycle to warm-cold, we could save the energy comparable to 100,000 barrels of oil a day.
Only launder when you have a full load.
7. Use one less paper napkin
During an average year, an American uses approximately 2,200 napkins—around six each day. If everyone in the U.S. used one less napkin a day, more than a billion pounds of napkins could be saved from landfills each year.
8. Use both sides of paper
American businesses throw away 21 million tons of paper every year, equal to 175 pounds per office worker. For a quick and easy way to halve this, set your printer's default option to print double-sided (duplex printing). And when you're finished with your documents, don't forget to take them to the recycling bin.
9. Recycle newspaper
There are 63 million newspapers printed each day in the U.S. Of these, 44 million, or about 69%, of them will be thrown away. Recycling just the Sunday papers would save more than half a million trees every week.
10. Rethink bottled water
Nearly 90% of plastic water bottles are not recycled, instead taking thousands of years to decompose. Buy a reusable container and fill it with tap water, a great choice for the environment, your wallet, and possibly your health. The EPA's standards for tap water are more stringent than the FDA's standards for bottled water.
Chancellor Merryl Tisch to Visit Scarsdale
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The Chancellor of the NYS Board of Regents, Merryl Tisch, is coming to Scarsdale on Thursday April 30 at 7:30 pm to discuss the "Common Core and High Performers" with Scarsdale Superintendent Thomas Hagerman and NYS Assemblywoman Amy Paulin. The session has been organized by the Scarsdale Forum and will be held in the Scott Room of Scarsdale Library. Questions from the audience are encouraged.
Here's your chance to air your views on state testing and teacher evaluations and get answers to your questions.
Merryl H. Tisch New York State Board of Regents
Chancellor Merryl H. Tisch was appointed to the New York State Board of Regents on April 1, 1996 and has served continuously since. She was elected Chancellor by her colleagues effective April 1, 2009.
She is chairperson of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty and serves on the executive committees of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the Citizens Budget Commission. Additionally, she serves on the board of The Trust for Cultural Resources of the City of New York, the Graduate School of Education's Board of Overseers at the University of Pennsylvania and Sesame Workshop.
Dr. Thomas Hagerman Superintendent of Scarsdale Schools
Dr. Thomas Hagerman joined the Scarsdale Public Schools as its new Superintendent of Schools on July 1, 2014. Previously, he served as superintendent of the nationally renowned Winnetka School District 36 on Chicago's north shore. Dr. Hagerman has served as superintendent in both K-8 and K-12 high-performing school districts in communities similar to Scarsdale -- those with high expectations and exemplary achievement.
He obtained a bachelor's degree in English and a master's degree in Education from Lewis and Clark College, and a doctoral degree in Policy, Organization and Management from the University of Oregon.
Amy Paulin New York State Assemblywoman
Assemblywoman Amy Paulin has served the 88th New York State Assembly District (Scarsdale, Eastchester, Tuckahoe, Bronxville, Pelham, Pelham Manor, and parts of New Rochelle and White Plains) since 2001. She chairs the Assembly Committee on Energy, serves on the Committees on Education, Higher Education, and Health, and has a long, distinguished record of activism in public policy and community issues.
The Assemblywoman was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She is a graduate of the State University of New York at Albany and holds a Master's degree and has completed doctoral course work in Criminal Justice from SUNY-Albany.
For program and membership information, please call: 723-2829, e-mail: [email protected] or visit www.ScarsdaleForum.com.
