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Written by: Joanne Wallenstein

Published: 10 September 2025

Created: 10 September 2025

Last Updated: 10 September 2025

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National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC®) announced the names of more than 16,000 Semifinalists in the 71st annual National Merit Scholarship Program. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 6,930 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million that will be offered next spring. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship® award, Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. About 95 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and approximately half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar® title.

Over 1.3 million juniors in about 20,000 high schools entered the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2024 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. The number of Semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

To become a Finalist, the Semifinalist and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provide information about the Semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. A Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT® or ACT® scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.

From over 16,000 Semifinalists, more than 15,000 are expected to advance to the Finalist level, and in February they will be notified of this designation. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of Finalists. Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference.

Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2026. Every Finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit® $2500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state-representational basis.

Here are the names of the Semifinalists from Scarsdale and Edgemont:

Scarsdale High School

Hana Coulson
Ryan DeDianous
Victor Dyakin
Jacob Friedland
Hayden Fung
Kate Hubell
Derrick Kuo
Peter Lin
Joyce Liu
Anish Mehta
Daniel Pantchev
Leonardo Pettinelli
Mateo Polak
Jalyn Ryu
Alexander Sharp
Katherine Simpson
Neil Sriram
Gavin Tieng
Manuel Trelles
Santiago Trelles
Adrian Wang
Grace Wu
Benjamin Xiao
Isabel Xie
Sonja Xie
Alina Yang
Sergey Yanovsky
ShuYue Zhang
Daniel Zhu

Edgemont High School
Leah Chan
Tamsin Coulthard
Seren Fowler
Maxwell Ho
Ryan Im
Siddanth Karthik
Serena Ke
Sophia Kumar
Lauren Lee
Eleanor Li
Dylan Ma
Hannah Manasse
Vedika Mandava
Madeline Margulis-Ohnuma
Rohan Patel
Megan Qu
Brinda Roy
Kiera Setness
Ananya Shah
Nia Sun
Sophie Xie

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Written by: Joanne Wallenstein

Published: 02 September 2025

Created: 02 September 2025

Last Updated: 02 September 2025

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All are welcome at the Scarsdale Woman’s Club Open House

The Scarsdale Woman's Club is gearing up for a new year full of entertaining and informative programs and social activities. Members hail from all over Westchester and beyond.

Everyone is invited to an open house and membership fair Tuesday, Sept. 16, from 1-4 pm at the historic clubhouse, 37 Drake Road, Scarsdale. Members of club sections on art, literature and film, music, world culture and travel, home and garden, education, personal investing, pottery and food and dining will showcase their activities and answer questions. Attendees can learn about trips to theaters, museums, gardens and other places of interest; special events, and the club’s support of local philanthropies.

But you don’t have to wait for the membership drive to start sampling the club’s diverse offerings. Here’s what’s on tap for fall, open to the public free of charge:

Sept. 3, Art, 2 pm: Award-winning fine artist Shreya Mehta will present “Every Color Has a Message.”

Sept. 10, Food & Dining, 2 pm: “The Future of Laboratory Grown Food,” presented by Julieta Cardenas.

Sept. 17, Home & Garden, 2 pm: Jodi Friedel, Assistant Client Services specialist at Cross Agency, will discuss homeowners and auto insurance needs.

Sept. 18, Thursday, Literature & Film, 2 pm: Andrea DeGeorge Garbarini will present her film, "From Beacon to the Border," about a movement of grandmothers protesting the separation of migrant families.

Sept. 25, Thursday, World Cultures & Travel, 2 pm: Vivian Menna and Gini Silberberg will share tips on the art of packing both carry-ons and full-sized suitcases.

Oct. 7, Tuesday, Music, 2 pm: Concert by Laszlo Gardony, jazz pianist, composer, and recording artist.

Oct. 8, Education, 2 pm: “Our Constitution: Built for Stress?” Judge William Primps will describe legal challenges to Trump administration initiatives.

Oct. 15, Art: “What Is Art Therapy?” Elizabeth Gronke will discuss how this versatile mental healthcare modality is used across the lifespan.

Oct. 18 and 19, Saturday and Sunday, 9-3:30 and 11-3, Tag and Book Sale

Oct. 22, Food & Dining, 2 pm: Jonathan Aubrey, owner of the Scarsdale restaurant “Micheline,” will share his journey through the restaurant world.

Oct. 29, Literature & Film, 2 pm: Susan Kaufman, photographer and author of "Walk With Me: New York," will present a visual tour showcasing the charm of NYC.

Nov. 12, Education, 2 pm: “Westchester County, How it Works” with County Legislator Judah Holstein.

Nov. 13, Thursday, 7 pm: Wine Tasting and Silent Auction.

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Written by: Joanne Wallenstein

Published: 07 August 2025

Created: 07 August 2025

Last Updated: 11 August 2025

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Scarsdale received national attention this week due to the detention of a 20 year-old resident by ICE and news about the Village’s contract with Flock Safety that has since be cancelled. See links and excerpts to some of these stories below:

From NBC News:
A Purdue University student and daughter of a prominent New York priest who was detained during a visa hearing last week has been released.

Yeonsoo Go, 20, reunited with her family Monday night in downtown Manhattan. It comes after Go, who was handcuffed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents upon leaving her visa hearing, spent several days in a facility in Louisiana, according to the ICE database.

Go came to the U.S. in 2021 on a religious dependent visa for children or spouses of religious workers temporarily in the country, Marissa Joseph, Go’s attorney, told NBC News. Go, whose visa had been extended until December, was attempting to renew the visa because her mother had changed employers. It isn’t clear why the student was targeted for detention, Joseph said. “I’m just so grateful for the support that I’ve had,” Go told the crowd of supporters after she hugged her family.

ICE did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request to comment on the reasons behind Go’s detention. And the Department of Homeland Security did not provide the family a reason for Go’s release, Joseph said. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin previously described Go in a statement as an “illegal alien” who had overstayed her visa that expired more than two years ago.

Go, who lives in Scarsdale, New York, with her mother, Kyrie Kim, came to the U.S. for Kim’s work. Kim, who became the first woman ordained in the Seoul Diocese of the Anglican Church of Korea, had been invited to develop the Episcopal church’s connection to Asian communities, said Mary Rothwell Davis, an attorney for the Episcopal Diocese of New York, where Go’s mother is a reverend.

Read more here:

Flock Contract:

Dropsite News
Scarsdale Village in the state of New York is the wealthiest suburb in the U.S., but it now finds itself on the frontline of the fight against mass surveillance. Average household income in the New York hamlet is $569,000 and typical home value is $1.4 million. Town meetings typically revolve around discussions of tree placement and after school programs. But, since the village’s board of trustees surreptitiously voted on April 8 to adopt a $2.1 million contract with Flock to “aid public safety,” mass surveillance has been the main subject of public comment.

After residents found out about the contract that had already been inked, they began showing up to speak their mind at the next Village Board on April 22. The issue has become the main topic of contention in subsequent meetings since. One of the more poignant public comment speeches came from a former NSA employee and Scarsdale resident, Charles Seife, at the June 10 village board meeting. “The system that Scarsdale wishes to implement is extremely dangerous.… The records are kept for several weeks. At the very least, they allow retroactive surveillance,” Seife said, adding, “These systems are immensely popular with politicians and law enforcement, even though they do real and palpable damage to the citizenry.”|

Flock is a $7.5 billion surveillance technology company, operating in over 5,000 communities across 49 states. Flock has a proven playbook to expand through securing local government contracts, often behind closed doors.

See more here:

Dan Kennedy Media Nation
In a village without a newspaper, a small digital outlet is keeping tabs and asking questions

Among the more harmful effects of the local news crisis is that it empowers elected officials to engage in dubious behavior without anyone keeping an eye on them. But what happens when important public business is moved out of view of the watchdog?

That’s what happened in the wealthy suburb of Scarsdale Village, New York, where the board of trustees surreptitiously approved a $2.1 million contract in April that places the community under surveillance in the name of public safety.

The story was laid out over the weekend in Drop Site, an investigative newsletter founded by Intercept veterans Ryan Grim, Jeremy Scahill and Nausicaa Renner. According to reporter Ka (Jessica) Burbank, the trustees used vaguely worded language about “public safety equipment” on an advance agenda and then went into executive (closed) session to approve a contract with a company known as Flock Safety.

As resident Josh Frankel told Burbank, “I don’t think that anybody who looked at the agenda in advance would have thought that public safety equipment involved live cameras, license plate readers, drone technology, basically a mass surveillance system.” Frankel added that “maybe you’re thinking public safety equipment is a traffic light, a crosswalk, a yield sign, something along those lines, but not mass surveillance.”

Flock Safety, a $7.5 billion company, has a presence in 5,000 communities in 49 states as well as a reputation for secretive dealings with local officials. “Flock’s technology has been used to assist with everything from ICE investigations in Illinois to abortion investigations in Texas,” Burbank writes. Flock’s website says: “Protect your community, business or school 24/7 with coverage that never sleeps.”

The story is long and detailed, but there’s a wrinkle that I want to call your attention to. Because even though the legacy newspaper, the Scarsdale Inquirer, closed in 2024, the community is served by an independent journalist, Joanne Wallenstein, who runs a 26-year-old digital news project called Scarsdale 10583. And she was very much there when the Flock deal was struck behind closed doors. Burbank writes that Wallenstein “has produced countless articles since April 8th, covering her own correspondence with the board, press releases, and board meetings.” Wallenstein is quoted as saying: "Village officials blamed the lack of notice on the demise of the Scarsdale Inquirer. However, Scarsdale 10583 has been covering the news and published weekly since 2009. In this case, the reason no one knew about the Flock contract was because no advance notice was given. The resolution was not included in the agenda and there was no public hearing. It had nothing to do with the loss of the local newspaper."

The story was also covered by local television in June as well as by a website called Scarsdale Insider, although the latter has not published new material of any kind since June 24.

See more here:

Institute for Justice
Public Interest Law Firm Applauds Westchester County Village for Ending License Plate Reader Contract

(August 6, 2025) ARLINGTON, Va.—Today, the Institute for Justice (IJ) applauds the village of Scarsdale, New York for terminating its contract with the automated license plate reader (ALPR) company Flock Safety. The decision comes after more than 400 members of the community signed a petition urging the city to end the contract.
“I am very grateful to the over 450 Scarsdale residents who signed the petition,” said Mayra Kirkendall-Rodriguez, one of the Scarsdale residents who spearheaded the petition. “Matters as important as surveillance technology should always be placed on municipal agendas and publicized so that residents have an opportunity to provide their views.”

“The village made the right call in canceling the Flock contract and I respect that,” said Scarsdale resident Josh Frankel, who was also closely involved with the petition. “Should this issue arise again, I’d hope the board will seek public input beforehand.”

Thousands of communities around the United States have partnered with private companies to install ALPR cameras on their roads. Unlike red-light cameras or speed cameras that are triggered by specific violations, these cameras photograph every vehicle that drives by and can use artificial intelligence to create a profile with identifying information that then gets stored in a massive database. Once that happens, officials can search the database for any vehicle they wish, all without a warrant. And departments around the country are automatically sharing data with each other, making it simple for police anywhere to track drivers’ movements. All of this arbitrary discretion threatens people’s privacy, security, and freedom of movement by creating an atmosphere where everyone knows they are being watched and tracked whenever they hit the road.

The Guardian reported earlier this year that federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers had accessed ALPR data in Westchester County, the county Scarsdale is located in, even though the county has laws limited cooperation with the federal government.

IJ—which has a federal lawsuit against the city of Norfolk, Virginia over its use of more than 170 ALPR cameras—learned about the issue in Scarsdale after Mayra and Josh reached out to express their concerns with the village’s ALPR contract.

“The village’s decision to cancel its contract with Flock shows the importance of grassroots activism,” said IJ Special Projects Coordinator Tom Solomon. “Residents of Scarsdale made it clear they did not want to be subjected to unconstitutional, warrantless, and frankly unnecessary surveillance. We’re thrilled that Mayra, Josh and all other Scarsdale residents will now be free from this warrantless surveillance, and we applaud the village for listening.”

In addition to the ongoing lawsuit in Norfolk, IJ recently convinced officials in an Arkansas city to remove an ALPR camera that was placed directly in front of an innocent family’s home. Every time a vehicle drove by that family’s home, the camera snapped a picture which included the family’s front yard and driveway. The camera also captured every time the family left the house or arrived home.

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Written by: Joanne Wallenstein

Published: 24 July 2025

Created: 24 July 2025

Last Updated: 26 July 2025

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(Updated July 26, 2025) The Village of Scarsdale is seeking a new Treasurer. It appears that the current Treasurer, Ann Scaglione, will be leaving the role. A description of the position was posted on the Village website site on July 11, 2025 and indicates that they will be accepting applications until August 29, 2025. 

Here are comments from Scarsdale Village Manager Alex Marshall:

"We learned on June 26 that Treasurer Scaglione accepted an offer for the Comptroller position at the Town of Cortlandt. Because New York State Public Officers Law only permits up to 30 days notice, we received her official resignation letter this afternoon. Her last day will be August 22 and we appreciate her willingness to stay with us through most of the work pertaining to the annual audit.

This is a great next step in her career and we wish her continued success in her new role! We are thankful for Treasurer Scaglione's dedicated service to the Village as she has made many improvements to the Treasurer's office by introducing new technologies to streamline our processes for payment collections as well as the annual budget process.

Filling the Treasurer's position is a priority for the Village, and we have circulated the job posting to local, regional, and national organizations for local government finance professionals. I am working closely with our Human Resources and Treasurer's Office staff to ensure continuity of service as we transition."

See the job description below:

The Village of Scarsdale, NY, a premier New York City suburb located in southern Westchester County, is seeking a highly skilled, motivated and experienced Village Treasurer. The Civil Service description for this position is available upon request. The Village of Scarsdale is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

The Village of Scarsdale is a coterminous municipality, functioning as both as an incorporated Village and a Town under New York State law. This unique governance structure allows for streamlined operations and centralized fiscal oversight.

As part of this arrangement, the Village Treasurer also serves as the Town Receiver of Taxes, assuming responsibility for the billing, collection, and accounting of all property taxes levied by the Village/Town, County, and local school district. This requires a comprehensive understanding of municipal finance and tax administration and offers a unique opportunity to engage in both day-to-day financial management and long-term fiscal planning within a single, unified government structure.

Description of Work (Illustrative Only):

Appointed by and reporting to the Mayor and under the day-to-day supervision of the Village Manager, the Village Treasurer is directly responsible for managing the Village Treasury. The Village Treasurer as the Chief Fiscal Officer, has substantial oversight in preparation, execution, and balancing of the Village budget, managing short- and long-term financial investments and maintains accounting of all Village receipts and disbursements. The Village of Scarsdale has a General Fund of $72,734,560 as well as funds for sewer, water, central garage, and the municipal pool complex, as shown in the FY2025-2026 Adopted Budget. The Treasurer is responsible for overseeing the full scope of the Village’s financial operations, including financial reporting, tax billing and collection, water and alarm billing, payroll administration, and accounts payable. Supervision is exercised over a department of six (6) accounting, payroll and clerical employees.

The Village’s budget development process is a comprehensive and collaborative effort that begins each fiscal year with operational overview discussions in the fall. It then progresses through a series of detailed work sessions with the Village Board held throughout the winter and early spring, providing the opportunity for in-depth review of departmental operations, capital planning, and fiscal priorities. This iterative approach ensures that the final budget reflects both administrative analysis and policy direction, while incorporating feedback from staff, elected officials, and the community. The Treasurer plays a central role in coordinating this process by collaborating with department leaders, developing financial forecasts, preparing supporting documentation, and ensuring compliance with New York State budget and public hearing requirements.

The Treasurer also works closely with Scarsdale’s financial advisors, bond counsel, and independent auditors. These partnerships are essential for planning for long-term capital needs and managing debt in order to maintain strong fiscal stability and credible financial reporting. Scarsdale consistently earns top-tier bond ratings, Aaa from Moody’s, which reflects the Village’s sound fiscal management and disciplined financial planning.

Examples of Work (Illustrative Only):

Receives all monies paid to the Village and disburses monies billed to the Village as approved by the Board of Trustees; Maintains all Village accounts with a detailed, classified budget control as prescribed by the State Comptroller, using a double entry system; Executes reports on all financial affairs for the Mayor and Board of Trustees; Plans short- and long-term financing of capital projects and consults with all relevant stake holders; Prepares and issues annual report to the State Comptroller; Confers and consults with Village officials on formulation of fiscal policies; Issues and collects all County, Village, School, and Special District taxes levied or assessed upon any taxable property within the Village; Advises Village officials and department heads on proper accounting procedures; Prepares all financial reports and necessary documents relative to the borrowing of money and issuance of bonds; Prepares payrolls; Maintains records and filing systems.

Desired Training and Experience:

A current and valid Certified Public Accountant (CPA) license, a bachelor’s degree in accounting, business administration, finance or closely related field of study and a minimum of six (6) years of experience where the primary function of the position was professional accounting or auditing in the public sector with demonstrated knowledge and familiarity with GASB standards; three of which must have included supervision and working collaboratively in a leadership capacity in a public sector or commercial environment. SUBSTITUTION: A master’s degree in accounting, business administration, finance or closely related field, may be substituted for one (1) year of work experience described above.

Compensation:

$156,000 - $203,000; commensurate with education and experience.

To Apply:

Interested candidates should send a resume and cover letter to Personnel Administrator Stephen Sage, via email at personnel@scarsdale.gov. The Village anticipates a first review of resumes to be completed by July 31, 2025.