District Enrollment Exceeds Projection by 90 Students

Incoming Scarsdale Board of Education President Liz Guggenheimer opened the first meeting of the 2012-2013 school year on Monday night, September 10 and said she looked forward to another exciting year. Immediately prior to the meeting, the Board met with members of Scarsdale’s Parent-Teacher Council to discuss how the Board and Scarsdale’s PTAs work together, and Guggenheimer urged residents, including parents and students, to watch the Board of Education meetings and visit the BOE website to keep informed.

Dr. Michael McGill, Superintendent of Scarsdale Schools, said that the schools had enjoyed a smooth opening and that the year was off to a productive start. Dr. Joan Weber, Assistant Superintendent for Personnel and Administrative Services, presented enrollment data. There are currently 4,753 students enrolled in the Scarsdale schools, exceeding last year’s enrollment by 50 students and exceeding the projection for this year by 90 students. Weber pointed to kindergarten enrollment as driving over half of the increase over projections, with 309 kindergarten pupils enrolled, while only 271 pupils were projected to enter the system this year. She also reported a large number of new international families in the district as also driving increased enrollment, with 15 different countries represented, and the largest cohort being from Japan. Weber reminded the board that enrollment numbers would be subject to further fluctuation, with official enrollment reported to the state on October 5.

Faculty had been budgeted at 452.3 full-time equivalents, but is actually at 455.2 full-time equivalent positions, resulting in a deficit of about $400,000 in salary accounts, according to Linda Purvis, Assistant Superintendent for Business.

According to Purvis, the 11-12 audit completed over the summer was satisfactory, showing a fund balance of 3.8% of budget, just under the legal limit of 4%. She reviewed facilities projects completed over the summer, including the replacement of the gym ventilation system in Edgewood, as well as replacement of stage rigging and electrical work in the gym and the replacement of the stage curtain. Fox Meadow installed a new playground that was funded by student fundraising, PTA donations and principal allocations. New cabinetry was installed in some classrooms at Greenacres, while at Heathcote, asbestos abatement took place in the auditorium, and new stage rigging and lighting was also installed in the auditorium. New sinks and cabinetry were installed in 14 Heathcote classrooms and 9 Quaker Ridge classrooms.

At the Middle School, the oil tank outside of the CHOICE building was replaced. A Stop Work order had to be issued on a project replacing stairs in Butler House, which was deemed as being conducted subpar by the hired contractor. Engineers and architects on the project are currently creating a list of defects that will need to be addressed. At the High School, the electrical system underwent an upgrade, attaching sump pumps and the heating system to the generator. The eyebrow windows in the gym that leaked after rainstorms, resulting in the gym being unusable after storms, were replaced, with positive results so far. Rooms 330 and 333 underwent large-scale renovations; heating controls in the building were upgraded with controls on all air-conditioned areas to automatically go off at 3:30pm unless manually overridden; and the cafeteria serving lines were redesigned and replaced to alleviated long lines.

Purvis is now working on a Facilities Master Plan to redesign underutilized areas in the high school, including athletic areas, fitness areas, the auto body shop, a satellite dining area, and the Center for Innovation.

Lynne Shain, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction, spoke about the work done this summer to develop common assessments in the schools that would “capture evidence of progress being made in documenting how students were deepening and strengthening their critical and creative thinking and problem-solving.” The district is currently in year 2 of implementing updated and revised common assessments that would assure consistency across all classrooms.

Also on the agenda for the meeting was the adoption of the Scarsdale Code of Conduct, initially adopted in the summer of 2001, with modifications. The main modification, intended to bring the code into compliance with Dignity For All Students Act, states that “No student shall be subjected to harassment by employees or students on school property or at a school function, nor should any student be subjected to discrimination based on his or her actual or perceived race, color, weight, national origin, ethnic group, religion, religious practice, disability, sexual orientation, gender or sex by school employees or students on school property or at a school function.” The Code was approved with this modification.

The final item opened for discussion was the Education Foundation program priorities. The Foundation was given 501 c3 status this summer by the IRS, moving forward the actualization of the Foundation. The Mission of the foundation has been identified as supplementing, not supplanting, funds in the school budget to support program priorities identified by Dr. McGill. The steering committee suggested three buckets that support should be aimed towards – curriculum research and development, technology and facilities. Board members weighed in on how they thought funds raised by the foundation might be directed, with an overall consensus that the foundation would help items from these three buckets be implemented with more speed and more fully than if having to depend solely on the school budget calendar.

Following the acceptance of a gift of $10,000 from the QR PTA to replace a 35 year old chamber kiln, and the acknowledgement of a gift from Friends of Music and Art to purchase books, Mrs. Guggenheim announced that the next board meeting would be held on September 24 at 8pm in Room 170-172 at Scarsdale High School, and the meeting was adjourned.

Tracy Jaffe is a graduate of Brown University and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. A past president of Heathcote’s PTA and Scarsdale PT Council, Tracy has 3 children in the Scarsdale school system, and currently sits on the boards of Scarsdale/Edgemont Family Counseling Services and the League of Women Voters.