What happened at this week’s Board of Ed meeting?
Two mysterious announcements, an auditorium renovation update, a rolling gradebook discussion, and more.
BY DEBORAH SKOLNIK
School may have been out for the summer, but our Board of Ed members and district faculty were all in, working hard to set the stage for a successful 2024-2025. From hiring new teachers to acquiring new textbooks, there was a slew of topics to discuss at Tuesday evening’s BOE meeting.
School-year kickoff
After introductory remarks by Board President Suzie Hahn, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Drew Patrick gave details on how the new academic year will unfold. “The school year really started today, as we welcomed our new faculty on day one of our orientation program,” he said. The K-12 faculty convocation kickoff would occur the following day, he shared, along with orientation for 7th and 8th graders who are new to the district. The day after that, Thursday the 29th, 6th grade orientation and 9th grade A-school orientation would take place, along with orientation for new students. “We welcome all students back on Tuesday, September third, and we can’t wait,” Dr. Patrick enthusiastically added.
New playground and an assemblywoman's visit
Dr. Patrick then called attention to two events related to an upgraded community playground newly installed at Greenacres Elementary School. First, he shared, Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, who along with the Village made the new facility possible, would visit the site the following afternoon. The Board was invited to attend a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the playground on September 9th.
A mystifying lawsuit settled
In stark contrast to these cheerful remarks, Dr. Patrick moved on to a dark subject. “As many may be aware, in 2019, New York State enacted the Child Victims Act. It’s a law that extends the time frame during which a survivor of childhood sexual abuse can pursue criminal charges against their alleged offender. This legislation allowed victims to initiate legal action regardless of the length of time that has passed since the abuse took place,” he said. He then explained that during the evening, the Board would be asked to approve a settlement “in a legal matter brought under this very act.” Who filed the lawsuit, and why, was not explained.
Scarsdale is far from the only school system facing such legal action, Dr. Patrick stressed. “School districts across the state have been named in lawsuits stemming from this act, including Scarsdale,” he said. Nor does the lawsuit against Scarsdale stem from a recent event: “The allegations…date back to the early 1980s. If approved, the fully executed agreement will close the fourth of five CDA suits in which Scarsdale School District was a named defendant,” he explained. Dr. Patrick added that he cannot comment further on the matter at this time, and emphatically stated that our school system condemns all forms of abuse and mistreatment of children.
Heightened teacher awareness of student distress
Of course, awareness of such issues is far better than it was some 40 years ago, but our district plans to make people even more alert. “Twenty administrators were trained last week in the McGrath Response System,” Dr. Patrick said, referring to a comprehensive system for addressing harassment, misconduct, discrimination, and bullying in schools.
Later this year, staffers will also undergo a new level of training addressing these issues and sexual abuse, and will learn how to quickly and easily report any suspicions that something is amiss. Students, too, will be educated on these sensitive issues, in a manner built off the same response system. “We take this obligation very seriously, and our hearts of course go out to all victims of abuse and to their loved ones,” Dr. Patrick said.
Auditorium renovation news
Andrew Lennon, assistant superintendent for business, was next to speak and provided a detailed update on the renovation of the high school auditorium. “The [asbestos] abatement work in the lobby has begun, and…by the end of this week, we anticipate that the work will be completed,” he shared.
When students return to school, construction work will shift from 3:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. to minimize disruption. “We’re very excited that this project has begun finally, and we are optimistic that our timeline as of today remains intact,” Lennon said. There is still bound to be some displacement of students and classes. Theater and music programs will be moved to a rental auditorium at Iona, and students will be transported to and from the facility via bus.
Staffing updates
Meghan Troy, Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources and Leadership Development, had much to share in an update on staffing. The district will have 105 elementary sections, as budgeted. Special classes and Integrated Co-Teaching Classes (in ICT classes, students with and without Individualized Education Plans learn in the same room) will increase from 25 to 26. In terms of teaching assistants, there will be 26.5 this year. (The .5 person isn’t being sawed in half; they will serve this role on a part-time basis, and teach math at SHS the remaining time.) Although the number of teaching assistants exceeds headcount by one, the total expense still falls within the school budget, Troy added.
"We continue to onboard our teacher aides and bus drivers,” Troy said. “I’m happy that we are almost fully staffed with the exception of a world language teaching position at the middle school.” Beyond that, a few other positions need to be filled. She proudly introduced new teachers joining the district this fall. [See “Who’s New?” below for the complete list of newcomers.]
The controversial rolling gradebook
There has been discontent among some Scarsdale parents about our town’s grading system for students. It utilizes a rolling gradebook, a document that combines all of a student’s assessments and assignments to calculate their ultimate grade. Dr. Edgar McIntosh, assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction, and assessment, led a discussion on the sensitive topic.
The gradebook, he said, “is the product of the intergration in research of the high-school assessment committee members, including students, building leaders, and teachers from each department,” he noted. “This committee will continue on this year to assess and evaluate the rolling grade book’s effectiveness in achieving its goals of increased transparency, flexibility, and student wellbeing.”
Last year, he said, the committee sought and received tremendous input from teachers, students, and the community regarding the grading system. “While the feedback from surveys was largely positive and suggested continuation, the committee indentified key areas for further inquiry—communication and feedback, timing of assignments and assessments, student motivation, and perceptions by colleges and universities.” The assessment committee will reconvene to consider this feedback and brainstorm ways to address concerns. Parents can expect to hear an update on the committee’s progress later in September.
New textbook and potential new class
Switching topics, Dr. McIntosh turned the Board’s attention to the subject of mutivariable calculus. The 2025-26 budget process will include a proposal to fund a summer-support program to provide an on-ramp for eligible students seeking to access the course. “Currently, students need to independently prepare themselves to take MVC, often by taking external summer or school year coursework,” Dr. McIntosh noted. The initiative, he added, was motivated by 10 students being eligible, and the desire to facilitate the best possible learning environment.
The class would avoid a problematic practice: creating a double accelerated track in middle school. “Research has shown [this] can negatively impact student learning and persistence,” Dr. McIntosh warned. “As noted by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, or NCTM…there is evidence that students who speed through content without developing depth of understanding are the very ones who tend to drop out of mathematics when they have the chance. Acceleration potentially decreases student access to STEM careers if it results in students dropping mathematics as quickly as possible.”
Board member Colleen Brown expressed reservations. “My concern around this course is the pressure it could put on students as being the most rigorous course that they need to now take…I just want to make sure that the students are educated on the benefits of maybe not pushing so quickly to get to the most rigorous [class] if that's not in their best interest,” she stated. Dr. MacIntosh said he respects those concerns, saying, “It is definitely something that I think is going to require robust and supported communication around what [the course] is and what it isn’t, and the pressure…part of creating the best learning environment is around student wellbeing, not to create a deficit in that area.” Further discussion ensued, but final decisions on the course will be made at a future date.
The first of two public comment sessions then commenced, but no member of the public appeared in person or online to address the Board.
Written communications and the consent agenda
Providing an update on written communications received by the board since its prior meeting, Board Member Jim Dugan noted that there were 13 such missives, although the subjects addressed within them were not specified. Next followed a consent agenda of 11 items, which may be viewed at the Board’s website, located here.
Money matters
District-wide Treasurer Lisa Zareski shared that the schools’ external auditors are in the process of finalizing their audit and preparing the financial statements, which will be presented in October. There will be several budget transfers, Zareski said: to cover part-time drivers and aides, to BOCES special education, between the schools’ two retirement systems, and to the extended school-year program for eligible special ed students.
Superintendent evaluation switch
The method by which the Board evaluated the performance of Superintendent Patrick changed this year. “For the first time, the board utilized the New York State Council of School Superintendents evaluation template, as well as the super eval platform. Prior to last year, the board had used the rubric developed by the New York State School Boards Association. This change was made after a careful review of both templates and extensive research on the superintendent evaluation practices of neighboring school districts. The board may also choose to use a third party framework or develop its own framework,” Hahn shared. Board members agreed that the Council evaluation form was superior to the previous one. Board Member Ron Shulhof will speak to super eval about some concerns.
Gifting policy review
Board Members Jim Dugan, Amber Yusuf, and Colleen Brown recently investigated the district’s gifting policies (not parents’ and students’ gifts to teachers, but gifts to Scarsdale’s schools).”The gist of what we're proposing is with respect to higher-value gifts, a more thoughtful process around consideration of those. And with that, a built-in measure of time to consider higher-value gifts and the implications of those with respect to the impact both to the gift recipient, but also from an equity perspective and other perspectives to the district generally and to those who are not receiving a high value gift,” Dugan explained.
“What I think happened in recent years that very high-value gifts have been of course well-intentioned…but have come to us with not a lot of time to consider occasions and possible equity concerns,” Dugan added. And we want to address that by building in some period of time for those considerations to take place at the board.”
Dembitzer expressed reservations. “I just don't quite know how we would define material disparity…would we then potentially not approve a gift because there's a material disparity potentially between the schools? I feel like any gift could show that,” she said. Brown expressed hope that for major gifts raised by entities such as the PTA and Maroon and White, the organizations already do talk amongst themselves about the possibility of large disparities. Dembitzer added that gifts are often coordinated in tandem with the schools’ wants. The Board plans to establish a dollar figure beyond which gifts will need to be discussed (potentially $1,000) as well a time frame that better allows for such consideration.
Much was discussed in the meeting, which lasted roughly two hours.
Board community engagement
Schulhof segued to a discussion of the Board’s desire to interact more with the community. Throughout the summer, he said, the Board explored ways to communicate to Scarsdale residents better. “We looked at both what we do internally, and what a lot of other public boards do,” he explained.
Board member Robert Klein stated that the Board realizes that not everyone is eager to share ideas and feelings either in writing or at a Board meeting. “We started…introducing this notion of a Board coffee,” he said. The proposed format would be three to four opportunities at different times during the day when two Board members would host an informal coffee, where people could share their thoughts in a low-key way.
Social media may seem like an ideal platform for communication, but Board members cited pitfalls. “We talked about potentially posting informational notices, potential calls for feedback, information on our board, copies, things like that. We had a lot of ‘what ifs’ in our discussion, and we had a whole list of questions for our board lawyer [such as who speaks for the board, First Amendment rights, and whether it would be permissible to turn off comments if desired],” Dembitzer explained. After checking with other local school boards and learning they aren’t on social media, the Board decided against it. Dr. Patrick urged parents to sign up for ParentSquare and the district’s Facebook page. The district will be updating its own webpage as well. Shulhof suggested that updates such as Board coffees be announced to the public during Board meetings.
New textbook!
Dr. McIntosh presented a new textbook, Building Java Programs: A Back to Basics Approach. “There hasn’t been a core textbook for Computer Science 913. Rather, instructors drew from an assortment of resources,” he said. “This well-researched and rated text would provide a more consistent, transparent path for students and provide them with concrete support materials to enter the world of coding, creating a common language and foundation…It will serve students who go on to take one of our robust menu of STEAM classes such as electrical engineering, robotics, mobile app design, or at entrepreneurship where a stronger knowledge and flexible skill of coding will help students in imagining and realizing their projects and applications.”
Policies and insurance
A variety of policy updates were discussed that are part of the district’s partnership with the New York State School Music Association. Dr. Patrick also discussed the schools’ stop-loss insurance. (This type of risk-management insurance protects self-insured employers from catastrophic financial losses in excess of predetermined levels.) This year, the board will return to a previous provider, Sun Life, for the coverage.
Another mysterious announcement
The Board, Dr. Patrick noted, acts as the body that responds to FOIL, or Freedom of Information Law, requests. (This law allows members of the public to request records from either local government agencies or New York State.) “We got FOIL appeal from community member, and we provided the board with the information related to it,” Dr. Patrick said, “and what appears in the [Board] agenda is a resolution that would describe the board's determination of denying the appeal, and then a letter that would, if this item is approved, get sent to the sender of the appeal.” The motion carried, with no disclosure of the subject of the FOIL request.
Thanks for the gifts!
Brown expressed thanks gifts of $30,000 for an HUDL pole on Butler Field, $1,335 for the purchase of school planners, and $610 for umbrellas and stands for Fox Meadow School gardens.
Till next time…
The next Board meeting will be on Monday, September 23rd, 2024. To view this week’s entire meeting, click here.
Thank you to our Board of Education for their hard work and dedication.
WHO’S NEW?
Here’s a list of the just-hired faculty members:
Erica Bell has been recommended for appointment in the tenure area of Elementary Education, with a probationary period commencing on August 28, 2024, and ending on August 27, 2028. She holds a M.A. in Special Education and a B.A. in Elementary Education. Ms. Bell also holds New York State Certification in Childhood Education Grades 1-6. She currently teaches at John Lawrence Elementary School, Archdale, NC.
Alana Fajardo has been recommended for appointment in the tenure area of Elementary Education, with a probationary period commencing on August 28, 2024, and ending on August 27, 2027. She holds a Doctorate from St. John Fisher College, a M.S. in Literacy Education, and a B.A. in Childhood Education Grades 1-6 and English Language Arts from Hunter College. Ms. Fajardo also holds a New York State Certification in Executive Leadership, Literacy Education Birth-Grade 6, and Childhood Education Grades 1-6. She is currently teaching in the New Rochelle School District.
Jamie Hillegass has been recommended for appointment in the tenure area of Elementary Education, with a probationary period* commencing on August 28, 2024, and ending on August 27, 2027. She holds a M.A. in Educational Leadership from New York University, a M.A. in Reading Specialist from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a B.S. in Childhood Education and Special Education from New York University. Additionally, Ms. Hillegass holds New York State Certification in Early Childhood Education, Childhood Education Grades 1-6. Special Education Grades 1-6 and Literacy Grades Birth-6. She currently teaches at PS 41, Greenwich Village School, New York.
Jillian Kaplan has been recommended for appointment in the tenure area of Music, with a probationary period* commencing on August 28, 2024, and ending on August 27, 2028. She holds a M.Ed. in Music Education from Teachers College, Columbia University and a B.M in Music Education from Arizona State College. Ms. Kaplan currently teaches in the Ardsley School District.
Julia Queck has been recommended for appointment in the tenure area of General Special Education, with a probationary period commencing on August 28, 2024, and ending on August 27, 2027. Julia holds a M.A. in Elementary and Special Education from New York University, and a B.A in Political Science from the University of Michigan. Ms. Queck also holds New York State Certification in Early Childhood Education, Childhood Education Grades 1-6, Special Education Grades 1-, and Literacy Grades Birth-2. She currently teaches at Immaculate Heart of Mary School, Scarsdale, NY.
Steve Bleifuss is recommended for appointment as a Leave Replacement Music Teacher commencing on August 28, 2024, and continuing as services are satisfactory and needed, but ending not later than June 27, 2025. He will be assigned to Edgewood, Fox Meadow, and Quaker Ridge Elementary Schools.
Katherine Constan is recommended for appointment as a Leave Replacement Special Education Teacher commencing on August 28, 2024, and continuing as services are satisfactory and needed, but ending not later than November 26, 2024. Ms. Constan will be assigned to Scarsdale High School.
Nani Fueting is recommended for appointment as a Leave Replacement School Psychologist commencing on August 28, 2024, and continuing as services are satisfactory and needed, but ending not later than June 27, 2025. She will be assigned to Scarsdale Middle School and is replacing Merav Hasler, who is on leave.
Lauren McClintock is recommended for appointment as a Leave Replacement Elementary teacher commencing on August 28, 2024, and continuing as services are satisfactory and needed, but ending no later than October 19, 2024. Ms. McClintock will be assigned to Greenacres Elementary School and is replacing Erin Cheplick, who is on leave.
Priscilla Moscatelli is recommended to be paid at the daily rate of $336/day (BA Step 1=$67,153) commencing on August 28, 2024, and continuing as services are satisfactory and needed, but ending no later than October 10, 2024. She is a teaching assistant who will be replacing Taylor Kreamer who is on leave. \
