Seniors Deserve a Break
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Spring Break trips have been a tradition for seniors here in Scarsdale. Some view it as a rite of passage and others see it as a time to let loose free from the pressure of homework or college admissions. Either way, all the seniors know that their time at Scarsdale High School is running out and many want to mark this milestone with a celebration.
Seniors often go to beach destinations – the Bahamas in particular. Part of the appeal of the Bahamas is that the legal drinking age there is 18, so seniors who are of age can drink. The seniors who are underage usually find a way around it because rules are more relaxed in the Bahamas. The Bahamas embrace the influx of seniors and has clubs to attract them, increasing the appeal of the Bahamas as a Spring Break destination. However, the relaxed nature of the Bahamas isn’t really safe. Some seniors get caught up in the excitement and get out of control, make mistakes, and get in trouble. School Administrators highlight these few cases in an attempt to dissuade parents from permitting their kids go on Spring Break.
While a few get out of control, the majority of seniors manage to make good decisions and still have fun. The quintessential senior Spring Break doesn’t necessarily have to include going to the Bahamas, tanning by day, and getting so drunk you make bad decisions at night. In fact, only a very small percentage of the nearly half the senior class who went on a Spring Break vacation got into trouble.
This April, when seniors grudgingly returned to school after vacation, people reacted to this year’s set of unfortunate events from Spring Break. The call for “alternative Spring Break” has emerged, where seniors would do a service project instead of hitting the clubs and the beach. Critics of Spring Break argue that the time and money spent on trips where bad behavior occurs would be better directed to a positive, fun, and rewarding community service experience. While I think that’s a great idea, I don’t think advocates of alternative Spring Break can expect that seniors will drop the idea of relaxing on the beach and enjoying piña coladas in favor of a community service alternative. It’s not likely that beach trips will be abandoned because underclassmen look forward to the day when it will be their turn to board the plane to the beach.
That being said, critics of the out-of-control Spring Break trips should start with a more subtle approach – encouraging those who decide on beach destinations to pick a safer area, perhaps Florida, and encourage kids to keep the focus on relaxing and enjoying the company of friends rather than drinking. There are so many seniors who went to the Bahamas or Florida and stayed in control that it is not fair for critics of Spring Break to say that all Spring Break trips end in trouble or mistakes.
Spring Break trips can really go two ways. Students can drink too much and get in trouble or, the break can be a time to relax, free of the pressure of college admission and the competition at Scarsdale High School. Most trips are the latter and only a few abuse the privilege and get out of control.
I believe that seniors deserve a break after four years of hard work, demanding teachers and schedules. Letting loose on Spring Break doesn’t have to mean abusing alcohol. Seniors can still go to the beach, get tan, enjoy the occasional strawberry daiquiri and enjoy some innocent fun.
Melissa Tucker is a sophomore at Scarsdale High School
Take NYS Public School Education with a Grain of Salt
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The cacophony over what to do about public school education and when to do it and how to do it… is deafening. The disconnects have run absolutely wild.
In Washington, President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan propose changes to No Child Left behind, some good some bad; National educational standards are proposed; Diane Ravitch (the former spouse of NY's Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch), once a major champion of choice and accountability recants: http://bit.ly/cxImQ3; business and thought leaders such as Bill Gates bemoan the quality of education in the US and the quality of output; and California pink slips 36,000 teachers; school budgets across the country are decimated; the charter school fight rages on and on in New York siphoning scarce tax dollars to create select public school enclaves that are free to ignore the state mandates and labor rules by which the rest of the public school system must abide. Teacher bashing ensues unabated on editorial pages and in Newsweek: http://bit.ly/9H6U3T. In New York if the Governor’s and New York State Senate's proposed budget is approved, over 15,000 teachers are slated to be laid off statewide -- with no plan or regard as to what impact that will have in the classroom. Many school budgets being devised by school boards and administrators throughout New York State appear by and large to be coming in at or below 2% over the previous years' budgets. Given the cost drivers school districts must deal with, that's pretty damn good. There is plenty to argue about regarding what ails our educational system -- but in New York, much of the blame lies in Albany -- and the legislature's symbiotic relationship with those who first and foremost put the blind protection of public employees over students.
Yet even in our own dysfunctional New York State -- a rare bit of thoughtfulness and sanity is peeking through -- courtesy of a 25 year veteran of the New York State Senate, Suzi Oppenheimer. It's taken her the better part of a year, but Sen. Oppenheimer is beginning to grow into her role as Chairperson of the Senate Education Committee. Just last week Sen. Oppenheimer sponsored and the senate actually passed legislation to begin to peel back the rampant growth of unfunded mandates on school districts. To be frank, the legislation barely scratches the surface of the need to eliminate reams of existing mandates on school districts. Mandates are among the primary cost drivers that have caused explosive growth in property taxes. The Mandate Relief bill prohibits the legislature from imposing future unfunded mandates on school districts after the start of a school year. This is woefully inadequate -- but like the national health reform legislation – at least it’s a start.
Yet the Mandate Relief bill will likely die in the State Assembly. The reason? A series of laughably ignorant editorials eviscerating a small portion of the bill -- a part of which would have school district contingency budget CPI cap formulations be based on a 5-year rolling average vs. whatever it is year to year: http://bit.ly/ad6Mj8; http://bit.ly/chgLk9. These editorials – blind diatribes without context - have rocked the Assembly sponsor, Amy Paulin to back off: http://bit.ly/9lwbS7. Remember, in New York, the school tax is the only tax New Yorkers actually get to vote on each year (outside of big cities). If the school budget vote fails, then school districts are mandated to adopt a budget that is no higher than the prior year's budget plus the lesser of 4% or the CPI. This year the CPI was less than zero – so school districts whose budgets that are defeated at the polls will be faced with budgets with zero increases – and in the wonderful world of public school mandates and contractual obligations – heads will roll and students will get screwed.
The rolling average proposal makes sense. Most federal, state and local government accounting use multi-year averages to manage their budgets. And yes, this year such a computation would mitigate catastrophic school budget cuts. But most districts are aiming at or below 2% anyway -- unlike many towns, villages and counties which are hoisting double-digit increases on the taxpayer without the need for a separate vote. In future years when the CPI will skyrocket due to hyper-inflation -- this rolling average will serve to tamp down the inflationary increases that are sure to come. This is nothing more or less than a proposal for sound budgetary management -- and giving school districts, which always have to operate with one hand (or two plus a foot)tied behind their backs some ability to implement sound budget planning.
But in Albany it looks like nothing will change, mandates will run amuck, employee entitlements will be untouched, legislators will run for cover in what is likely to be an anti-incumbent election year, and...oh yeah, kids still need to be educated so they can race to the top. You would think a crisis would finally knock some sense and responsibility into our legislators. But no. Exhibit A: While Rome burns, Brooklyn Assemblyman Felix Ortiz introduces legislation to ban the use of salt in restaurants -- no joke: http://bit.ly/aP7eaD.
David A. Singer is a former political consultant/campaign professional and political junkie currently toiling as a lawyer in Westchester and managing real estate and media investments.
When Will Power Be Restored in Edgewood
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Currently (Mar 15th - noon) there is no visible work anywhere near Edgewood. The Mayor's message appears to try shift potential blame to Con-Ed. Bottom line... half a day Monday has already elapsed and there does not appear to be any visible effort to restore power to homes that have been without since Saturday. The mayor appears to try and shift focus to someone else. Where is the swift action commensurate to our tax bills?
Stephen Fridakis
Reader Feedback from the Storm
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The weekend storm wreaked havoc on Scarsdale, damaging homes and cars and leaving many in the dark. With schools closed, no heat, television or phones, life came to a stop. Fortunately the site stayed up and could be used as a communications vehicle. The Village television channels and email system were down so the Mayor asked us to send out updates to you about what was going on. With roads and communications blocked, it was terrific that users could share information on Scarsdale10583.com.
Many users sent in comments and photos of the storm to share and here are some of them:
In the words of Ron and Carole Parlato, we were “at war with nature. All we can say is thank you for what we have been given. When you think about the storm on Saturday evening it wasn’t so bad. All of our buildings and toys can be replaced. It makes you think that the most precious assets are our friends, neighbors and family. They are one of a kind and can never be replaced.
We should all appreciate the Scarsdale government, Building Department, Village employees, Police and Firemen who are doing an amazing job to protect the welfare and safety of our community. That you for those wonderful people in our life.” Here is how it looked from their neck of the ‘dale.
Other residents expressed concern for our safety. One reader wrote in, “are the police increasing the patrols of areas that are blacked out? Especially at night during the blackout?”
Some were pleased that Scarsdale10583.com was able to keep them informed:
“Thanks so much for your invaluable service in keeping us updated. What a great website and email list you have created. Way to go. Please keep the info coming.”
“What a valuable community service you are providing!”
“Thank you. This is so helpful.” Mayor Carolyn Stevens also sent her thanks "for helping us to get the information out. You have performed a public service."
Other’s sent in pictures of the startling scenes that surrounded them. You can see some of them here.
Thanks to everyone for making Scarsdale10583.com your community website.
Governor Richard Ravitch Now More Than Ever
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With the political implosion of Governor Paterson; with New York economy reeling; with a State budget deficit of $8.2 billion; with a State where no one has confidence in our government's ability to get anything done or get anything done right, it's time to call for a time out. David Paterson should cede the gubernatorial reigns to Richard Ravitch. And then, both the Democratic and Republicans parties should right now announce that they will cross-endorse Richard Ravitch to be Governor of New York State -- not just through the end of this year -- but for the following four. At 77 years old, Ravitch doesn’t want or need this. But we need Governor Ravitch now. He's the adult in the room. Ravitch has the gravitas, trust and respect of elected officials from both parties. And we need him to pony up for one term for the next four years to salvage the New York ship of state which is in a state of crisis, economically, structurally and politically. He should be a nonpartisan governor, and immediately call for a nonpartisan constitutional convention. The convention’s primary piece of business should be to discard our bicameral legislature, and in lieu, adopt and construct a one-house nonpartisan state legislative body. This can no longer be viewed as some absurd pie in the sky notion -- but the beginning of a path to restore trust in New York State government. There's no rational reason to have two legislative houses in New York State government.
Richard Ravitch has a storied and serious background. In many ways he was responsible for seeding the rebirth of New York City in the 1970s and 1980s that bore fruit. Heading and revitalizing the Urban Development Corporation and then the MTA -- Ravitch had almost as much of an impact on the physical and fiscal revitalization of New York as Robert Caro had earlier last century -- but without the arrogance of power. He's a realist -- and we're already hearing bipartisan calls for Governor Paterson to hand off the budget football to Ravitch now. The other announced pretenders for Governor, Andrew Cuomo and Rick Lazio are dwarfed by Ravitch. And even better, Ravitch doesn't want the job or need it. That's why we need Governor Ravitch now more than ever.
David A. Singer is a former political consultant/campaign professional and political junkie currently toiling as a lawyer in Westchester and managing real estate and media investments.
