Principal Ken Bonamo Tells Seniors To Face Challenges with Courage
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Here are remarks from Scarsdale High School Principal Kenneth Bonamo to the graduates of the Scarsdale High School Class of 2024 on Thursday June 20, 2024 at Butler Field.
Good evening President Schulhof, Superintendent Patrick, fellow members of the faculty, parents and friends, and most especially the members of the Class of 2024.
Today is a special day that marks the culmination of your childhood education and the beginning of college and adulthood for you.
Your families and your teachers are filled with a deep hope that we have given you all that you need to succeed in these next stages, and we are filled with anticipation at what the future holds for you.
The resources that the Scarsdale community devotes to education have allowed us to provide you with an enriching and engaging experience that has developed in you a depth of critical and creative thinking, an appreciation for global interdependence, and a genuine love of learning.
These goals have guided our work as a faculty in designing the courses and learning activities that you’ve enjoyed during the past four years. The vantage point of graduation allows you to appreciate the impact of your work in developing your academic skills and fostering your growth as individuals.
This accomplishment also represents the hard work you have put into getting here.
You have excelled in athletic and extracurricular activities, developing the habits of mind of the different disciplines while nurturing your interests and relationships outside of the classroom.
And so you have completed your coursework and your exams and your Senior Options and have earned a seat at this very ceremony.
This is not by accident but instead through commitment and dedication to your goals.
It is so wonderful to be together on such a beautiful occasion. It is so good to see all of you here to celebrate this moment that is filled with meaning, as it represents both the accomplishment of having graduated and the commencement of your adult lives. Let us pause here for a moment to appreciate the beauty and significance of this moment.
I ask you to pause because we are in this moment filled with energy, but at the same time we ask you to think about quite a daunting question:
What is a meaningful life, and how do I live one?
This is one of the most profound questions you will face, and this is a moment of high emotion to be thinking about it.
We as your elders think about ourselves at your age and what it was like to see the world without all of the experiences we have accumulated over time.
And we ask you, at the age of 17 or 18, to think about such an enormous question when you are filled with anticipation about what comes next.
As young people, you can only guess at how the experiences of the next few years will shape the years that follow.
As older people, we, your parents and teachers, can never really recapture the innocence of the moment of high school graduation that we celebrate today.
We can give you advice, sure, but we cannot really explain to you what is to come, because the world tomorrow will be quite different than the one we encountered when we were your age, and each of you is an individual with unique talents and interests.
Your educational journey will continue to allow you to find work that truly engages you, that motivates you to pursue it on its own merits, where you find yourself in a state of flow—where you lose a sense of time and space in answering a question or satisfying a curiosity.
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That is one of the true pleasures of learning, and I hope you use the privilege of being engaged in study as your primary occupation to search broadly and then deeply to find the subject that brings you the most intellectual satisfaction which ultimately leads you to the power of independent thought.
The philosopher Immauel Kant wrote that “Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.” He defined immaturity as “the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance from another.”
For most of your schooling, you have needed guidance from your teachers, though incrementally less and less as you progressed through the grades.
As you grow more confident in your ability to think independently, you will need courage to use your understanding. Dare to be wise.
As you confront the challenges of our world and of our society, armed with the knowledge and skills you have acquired here at Scarsdale, I hope you will endeavor to make the world a better place.
In order to make real change and bring about progress, you will need to add personal courage to the skills and knowledge you gain in school.
When you take stock of the news of our day, of domestic problems, international relations, income inequality, social justice, educational policy, and environmental challenges, it should be clear that regardless of what side of any one question you take, in order to advance the cause you will need courage.
As the energy of your youth matures into the wisdom of age, you will continue to find your voices and ways in which you can make your marks.
Given the magnitude of these social and global problems, we will need your fresh voices and new ideas and the courage to stand up even when it means you will stand out.
Your success will be measured not by how much you take for yourself but by how much you give of yourself.
Finally, I also urge you to build a legacy of love.
The key to your success in taking advantage of the many opportunities and meeting the many challenges that lie ahead will be to infuse love into your work, your relationships, and your self-regard.
Love is an active ingredient of our intelligence.
Knowledge is not acquired information like a computer stores data.
Rather, it involves an intentional engagement with whatever the information might be about.
Intelligence requires a dialogue with the world, and a state of flow is when we are fully immersed in the exchange.
Love is what invites us into that connection.
If you look around this field, you will see your family and friends who demonstrated love in supporting you.
You will see your teachers who loved teaching and guiding you.
And most importantly, you should look at yourselves and love what you see—an intelligent, curious, responsible person, poised to continue learning in order to take on the challenges of life and of our society.
I wish you all a wonderful graduation day and health and happiness in the future. Congratulations to you all!
Free Westchester Band Concerts Begin on Thursday June 27 in Chase Park
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2001. It was more than a Space Odyssey. It was the year that the Westchester Band's Music Director Alan Hollander took the reins and has led the band ever since into its now 54th year of Summer Concerts at Chase Park in downtown Scarsdale.
Established in 1969 the band would have enjoyed its “double nickle” 55 year status this concert year had Covid not forced the first (and hopefully only) break in its performance season in 2020.
Combining the talents of professional, amateur, and outstanding student musicians, and sponsored principally by the Scarsdale Department of Parks and Recreation, local merchants, and by donations from the concert-going public the band begins its Summer season this year on Thursday June 27, and continues every Thursday evening thereafter thru August 8th, at 8:00PM (except the July 4th holiday week when its annual fireworks concert will commence at 7:30 PM on the evening of July 2nd at the Scarsdale Pool Complex). See the full schedule here.
Maestro Hollander will conduct the Symphonic Band's varied repertoire of pieces featuring Classical works, marches, show tunes and soloists, for free, under the stars (rain location Scarsdale Middle School Auditorium.)
So bring a lawn chair or blanket and picnic dinner (and a friend!), “unplug,” and be transported away for a while from the events of the day.
And as with each of its performance seasons, making this huge undertaking not only possible, but free to the public comes with the help of band patrons and supporters of the arts alike. Donations made payable to “Friends of the Westchester Band” are greatly appreciated and tax deductible. You may mail your checks to 41 Van Etten Boulevard, New Rochelle, NY 10804.
See you under the stars!
Should Scarsdale Receive EPA Funding for EV School Buses?
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Should wealthier school districts receive federal subsidies? That was the question raise by a 1961 graduate of Scarsdale High School in a letter to Scarsdale10583. In his letter below, Frank Wilner of Fredericksburg VA question whether or not Scarsdale should receive an $800,000 subsidy from the EPA for new electric powered school buses.
Wilner writes,
“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has earmarked $111 million to communities in New York State to provide, among other objectives, "clean, low- and zero-emission school buses." Earmarked for Scarsdale is $800,000. As EPA's sole funding source is the U.S. general treasury, the earmarks are taxpayer subsidies. As Scarsdale is among the wealthiest communities in America, the inequity is obvious -- the Village is "enjoying" a subsidy paid, in part, by federal income taxes of the working poor from communities struggling even to put conventional school buses on the road.
FRANK N. WILNER
Fredericksburg, VA
Scarsdale High School, 1961
fnw8@verizon.net
We reached out to Scarsdale’s School Board President Ron Schulhof for a response and here is what he said:
“Our district has a strong commitment to the health of our students as well as sustainability initiatives and EV buses will make huge impacts in both of these areas. Like other school districts, we apply for available grants when they make sense for our community. While we receive significantly less state and federal aid than other school districts, certain grants are important to support initiatives that would otherwise be challenging to fund. Upgrading to electric buses is required by recent NYS legislation and it is fiscally prudent for our District to seek grant funding when available. I am looking forward to watching our students get aboard an electric bus in the near future!”
Michelle Sterling, who heads Scarsdale’s Conservation Advisory Council agrees with Schulhof. She wrote, “I think that it’s fantastic that Scarsdale schools are going to be getting electric school buses! It’s better for our environment, better for our children’s health (better for everyone’s health), and represents positive modelling as the transportation sector represents one of the largest sources of pollution and going EV is a great way to address this.
Over the last several years we have seen NYC schools and other schools in Westchester getting EV buses as the public funding that has been released so far has only been for schools in economically disadvantaged areas. We have seen schools taking advantage of the funding and getting EV buses - and it is terrific.
Now that the funding has been released for all schools, our school district applied and is receiving funding. This funding is what is going to allow us to have EV buses. Without the funding, even in a wealthy area like ours, it would be nearly impossible to replace our fleet of buses - and definitely not in time to comply with the NYS EV bus mandate.
So in short, Im happy that for several years underserved communities have been able to apply and receive funding for EV buses, and even though I am a taxpayer and for many years was funding a program that my own children and my community did not benefit from, I was happy to do it. I’m also pleased that the funding has now been opened up to everyone as it will allow many other communities to upgrade their school bus fleet to EVs.”
Sounds of Scarsdale: The 4th Annual Scarsdale Music Festival
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Crowd grooves to the music: Photo credit Jacob SacconeOn Saturday, June 1st, thousands of people gathered with friends and family to soak in the sun, listen to riveting musical performances, and engage in fun carnival games at the 4th annual Scarsdale Music Festival (SMF).
Kicking off at noon, the festival transformed the Scarsdale Village into a bustling hub of entertainment. The usually tranquil streets grew alive with a collage of vibrant sights, sounds, and – undoubtedly – smells.
Indeed, a myriad of food trucks flooded the area. Festival-goers were treated to an impressive array of options for grub, catering to every palate and preference. Patrons could enjoy sweet, indulgent cookies sold by “Crumbl” and “Baked in Color” or savory, cheesy pizza served by “Pizza Vitale Truck” or cool off with a scoop of “Longford's Ice Cream” and a cup of Hawaiian shaved ice. “Poké Motion” was particularly popular, with dozens of people lining up for a bowl of “miso ginger salmon” or “peanut saté chicken."
Inside the tasting tent: Photo credit Jacob Saccone
For the adults, the SMF Grand Tasting Village featured a selection of elite wines and tastes from around the world from Scarsdale’s new wine store Amici dei Vini, beer from the Simple Motive Brewing Co. and more from Dobbs and Bishop Fine Cheese, Meritage, Micheline, Miles the Prince, M.S. Walk, and PopoJito allowing guests 21+ to indulge in a uniquely curated tasting event. Yet, while the food and drinks certainly played an important role in the whole experience, it can’t be the Scarsdale Music Festival without a little bit of music.
“That’s why I’m here,” commented Rhys Mulvey, a freshman at Scarsdale High School. “I’m in a band, so I really like music. You can come here and just hang out with friends – it’s a great environment… more events like this make Scarsdale an even greater place to be.”
Kids enjoyed a carnival for their own – including having their hands painted, navigating an inflatable obstacle course, playing arcade games, a giant Connect 4 and mini hoops.
The Del Bocas: Photo credit Jacob Saccone
This year’s musical lineup, after an extensive selection process from over 70 submitted applicants, featured a diverse range of genres from R&B to opera to acoustic music featured on the all-new acoustic stage. The live performances had the crowd dancing, singing along, and simply enjoying the spirited atmosphere.
In the beginning, bands like “Rennie Pincus & Friends” provided a lively start to the festival. As the afternoon progressed, “The Del Bocas” rocked the crowd with perennial favorites including the Monkees I'm a Believer, Carole King’s, I Feel the Earth Move, Say You Love Me from Fleetwood Mac and Tom Petty’s American Girl. The music played throughout the afternoon by an impressive line-up of talent including another Westchester based band, Skyfactor.
Just Call Me By My Name with Marcy Berman Goldstein: Photo credit: Jacob Saccone
However, the stars of the show were the performers from the “Daniel’s Music Foundation” – a non-profit organization dedicated to providing music programs for individuals with developmental and physical disabilities. “It feels amazing to be here,” said George Dennehy, who had been born without arms and played the guitar using his feet – while singing. “Music is such a universal language… people with disabilities deserve a chance to learn and express in that way… the crowd was so warm. So kind and so welcoming. I’m not from here, but I can tell that this is a great neighborhood.”
Face painting!Community spirit was at an all-time high, with local organizations like SPCA Westchester playing their part in the festival’s success. Numerous stalls offered arts and crafts, opportunities for teens, and more. This year’s event has already sparked excitement for the next festival, promising even more fun and entertainment for all ages.
Marcy Berman Goldstein, who produced the event, said, “We are incredibly proud of our exceptional, family-friendly event, which drew over 5,000 attendees. With 16 extraordinary bands performing on three live stages, delicious food options from over a dozen vendors, a VIP Grand Tasting Village, and expanded activities, there was something for everyone.
The success of the 2024 SMF would not have been possible without the generosity and support of our event sponsors, talented musicians, participating vendors, and community partners. We are incredibly grateful for our ongoing partnership and support from the Village of Scarsdale. We would also like to extend a special thanks to the Conservation Advisory Council for all of their efforts to ensure SMF continues to be a zero-waste event.
On behalf of the SBA and the entire SMF team, it is our honor to have chosen Daniel’s Music 
Festival bubbles: Photo credit: David SteinbergFoundation as this year’s charitable recipient, a non-profit empowering individuals with disabilities through music. We were thrilled to feature artists from DMF’s music label, 'Just Call Me By My Name,' whose spectacular and talented performances left a lasting impression on all attendees.
The SBA is thrilled to continue enhancing the vibrancy of our downtown center by bringing cultural arts and diversity and expanding our community’s connection to Westchester County and the greater Tri-State area. We look forward to next year's event!”
Writer Eian Tsou is a current junior at Scarsdale High School who loves the creative process of writing. Outside of writing, Eian loves to volunteer, play with his dogs, kick around a soccer ball, and eat tasty foods.
Kids got game: Photo credit: David Steinberg
Omer Wiczyk to Lead the Scarsdale Forum: Paulin and Mayer Address Key Issues
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Sarah Bell and Omer WiczykHow can the Village keep a 120 year old organization vital and relevant? That was on the minds of the leadership of the Scarsdale Forum when they held their annual meeting on Thursday night May 23, 2024 to pass the leadership gavel from current President Sarah Bell to this year’s President Omer Wiczyk.
The Forum, originally called the TVCC, has seen its mission morph over the years. The TVCC formerly acted as unelected overseers of Scarsdale’s Non-Partisan Process, placing 11 selected members of the Procedure Committee that governed the election of Village Trustees. The Citizens Nominating Committee was chaired by two members of the TVCC rather than elected by the nominators who were elected in a general vote. All that changed and now the leadership of the Citizens Nominating Committee is voted on by the members, and the Procedure Committee is led by those who have completed three years of service on the CNC.
Now the Forum’s mission is to “provide a platform for meaningful community dialogue about municipal, school and related civic affairs. Forum activities and committee work afford members a variety of opportunities to be informed, to express personal views and to become involved in addressing the issues, choices and solutions that directly impact our community.” The group produces in-depth reports on issues such as education, downtown development and sustainability that are submitted to the Board of Education and Village Board for review.
At the May 23 meeting, departing President Sarah Bell described her efforts to “move the Forum into a new generation.” She said, “It wasn’t an easy year. It was hard. It seemed like we didn’t want to move into the future.” However, working to facilitate “inclusive engagement,” they recruited eight new board members and formed the Scarsdale Forum Youth Advisory Panel to engage youth in civic affairs. She recognized six high school students in the audience calling them, “interesting, interested and engaged.”
She also mentioned publication of their “mini focus” newsletter, saying it was the most opened publication in five years.
She welcomed incoming President Omer Wiczyk to the podium and said she was excited for the future.
Forum members and students with Amy Paulin and Shelley Mayer.
Wiczyk thanked Bell for her energy and laughed saying, “We are going to have an Instagram account!”
Taking the stage he said, “I have dedicated my life to public service – I believe that by volunteering you can make your community a better place. We are all on the same page. We may disagree about how – but we all want to move forward. One of my themes will be civility.
He invited Forum members to participate, saying “I want to hear ideas on what we should change – and should not change. Inclusivity is vital when change is afoot.”
He welcomed the evenings speakers, State Assemblywoman Amy Paulin and State Senator Shelley Mayer who offered comments on what’s going on in NYS government and on their priorities this year.
Amy Paulin referred to the struggle to reach compromise in Albany saying, “We battle and we move forward.” She said that the COVID crisis had decreased contact between members and results in antagonism. Now she said, “civility has returned because we see one another.”
Paulin addressed the group on a wide range of state and local issues.
She noted that our districts two representatives are responsible for 87% of the state budget, with Paulin chairing the Assembly’s health committee and Mayer, chairing the Senate’s education committee. She discussed the drawn out fight over redistricting, restoring funding for cuts in the health care budget and challenges to the CDPAP program which allows residents to receive benefits for caring for relatives at home.
Paulin brought up two bills she is sponsoring that she is working hard to get passed this session. One she calls the Harvey Weinstein bill as it was prompted when Weinstein’s rape conviction was overturned in New York. This bill would allow the court to admit evidence that a defendant has committed any prior sexual assaults in a criminal proceeding in which a defendant is accused of sexual assault.
Second, Paulin is championing a bill called “Aid in Dying,” to allow terminally ill patients to request pharmaceuticals for the purpose of speeding up their deaths and providing legal protections to the physicians who prescribe them.
Turning to local issues, Paulin is working with Mayer to pass legislation to allow the Village of Scarsdale to refund tax fees and penalties that were incurred due to a post office failure. She is also working on legislation to assist Scarsdale Village Ambulance Corps and on another bill to help non-profits collect funds.
She is working on getting funding to alleviate flooding on the Hutchinson River Parkway and to prevent Lake Isle in New Rochelle from overflowing and damaging property.
On a personal note, she choked back tears as she announced plans to move to New Rochelle after 44 years in Scarsdale. She said, “it is an understatement to say that I am devastated. I will never feel as connected to another community as I am now.” She said, “I will always say that this is my home.”
County Executive George LatimerState Senator Shelley Mayer explained that she represents a “big, complicated district.” In the Senate she said there are 42 Democrats where “everyone has their own opinion but they pull it all together.” She said, “with strong leaders we move in the right direction.”
Turning to the issues she is working on she discussed the following:
-We are re-visiting the state funding formula. School districts like Scarsdale receive very little funding. The formula is out of date. Districts in Long Island receive more. We need a fairer way for the state to pay out based on need.
She gave credit to Scarsdale for passing the school budget saying, “It is a sign of support for education when a district passes a budget above the state tax cap.”
She is in favor of a bill to have one ex-officio student on each school board.
Security : She said that some school districts have hired off duty police for school security and she is working with the Governor to get money for security for those schools.
About the state university system she vowed, “We will invest in SUNY and CUNY schools and increase the TAP awards.”
About dissent on college campuses, she said, “We have to do more at colleges to make sure students don’t feel afraid. We need to come up with effective solutions and better policies.
She discussed new legislation to increase the list of crimes that can be termed hate crimes.
She expressed concern about brazen retail theft and a feeling of lawlessness. They have proposed to make it a crime to assault a retail worker and to make it legal to aggregate the amount of items stolen to add up to $1,000 to go from petty to grand larceny. Last there is a proposal to offer a tax break for small businesses that have increases in costs due to security.
She expressed support for the passage of the ERA amendment and also proposed the creation of a senior cabinet officer for flood management, or a “flood czar,” to go to on the state level to address flooding.
County Executive George Latimer surprised the group by stopping in as well. He’s been working hard as an advocate for Westchester County while also campaigning to represent Congressional District 16 in Congress. The primary is on June 25, 2024.
The meeting offered a bird’s eye view on what’s going on in Scarsdale, the county and the state from some hardworking representatives.
Also elected to lead the Scarsdale Forum are the following:
1st VP/President-Elect: Jill Spielberg
2nd VP: Alexandra Vargo
Treasurer: Elaine Weir
Secretary: Jeanne-Marie Castiello
