Leading Ladies Opt Out

Two celebrity speakers, scheduled to appear in Scarsdale have both opted out. Chancellor Merryl Tisch of the NYS Regents was scheduled to appear on a panel about the Common Core with Scarsdale Schools Superintendent Thomas Hagerman and State Assemblywoman Amy Paulin on Thursday April 30th at Scarsdale Library. After the furor about the recent state tests, Governor Cuomo's mandate to evaluate teachers based on student test results and calls for Tisch to step down, she has decided not to appear in Scarsdale this week. Instead, she will send newly appointed Regent Judith Johnson. However Tisch says she will be in the audience and will presumable be available to answer questions.

Johnson is a former superintendent of the Peekskill and Mt. Vernon schools and also worked in the federal department of elementary and secondary education as acting assistant secretary. In 2008 she was named Superintendent of the Year by the State Council of School Superintendents. She has a reputation for being outspoken and asking tough questions.

When the Scarsdale Forum, who organized the panel, learned that representatives from other districts planned to attend – and perhaps protest - the panel discussion was moved to a larger venue with a bigger parking lot. The discussion will now take place in the Scarsdale High School auditorium at 7:30 pm and the community is invited to attend what promises to be a very lively conversation.

Kerry Kennedy, who was billed as the speaker for the annual luncheon for the League of Women Voters of Scarsdale has also changed her plans. Siting a family commitment, she cancelled her appearance on Friday May 8th. Instead, the League has invited Elisabeth Bumiller, the Washington Editor of The New York Times. A leading journalist and author and frequent commentator on politics and government policy, Ms. Bumiller will speak about Women in Politics.

Previously, Ms. Bumiller was the deputy Washington Bureau Chief for the Times, where she oversaw White House and domestic policy reporting. She was a Pentagon correspondent from 2008 to early 2013, a position through which she traveled frequently with the Secretary of Defense and embedded with the American military in Afghanistan. In 2008, she covered the presidential campaign of Senator John McCain. She was a White House correspondent from September 2001 to 2006 and also wrote a weekly column, White House Letter, about the people and behind-the-scenes events of the presidency.

Ms. Bumiller has also served as the Times City Hall Bureau chief responsible for covering Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and his Senate race against Hillary Rodham Clinton, and was a general assignment reporter on the Times' Metropolitan staff.

Ms. Bumiller is the author of three books: Condoleezza Rice: An American Life; May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons: A Journey Among the Women of India; and The Secrets of Mariko: A Year in the Life of a Japanese Woman and Her Family.

Ms. Bumiller graduated from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. She was a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center and a Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

The public is invited to the Scarsdale League's annual spring luncheon at the Scarsdale Golf Club on May 8, 2015, at 11:45AM. Admission is $40 ($45 at the door), High School and college students discounted to $20. Please RSVP by May 5 to: Anne Lyons, 82 Greenacres Avenue, Scarsdale, NY 10583 or online here. Questions: please contact Anne Lyons, aulyons@gmail.com.