Create a Culture of Ownership at Scarsdale Schools
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These remarks were given by Scarsdale's Art Rublin at the meeting of the Board of Education on December 9 in response to comments made earlier in the evening that can be viewed here: Good evening. Arthur Rublin, Donellan Road: Like Mr. Labick, whose comments on the tax cap tonight I sincerely appreciate, I would like to applaud Friday's Inquirer letter to the editor from one of the signatories of the Scarsdale Declaration of Fiscal Independence presented at the last meeting, Richard Toder, joined by four other former Board Presidents – Jackie Irwin, Barbara Jaffe, Michael Otten, who spoke earlier, and Evelyn Stock. I was very pleased to see that the letter, with the headline, as Mr. Labick noted, "Let the board of education do its job," made the case that the Board should balance educational value and fiscal prudence irrespective of whether the resulting Budget is above or below the tax cap. The former Board Presidents stated, quote, "Please continue the discussion referencing relevant and unbiased data and facts about educational value and fiscal prudence, not the cap."
Speaking of educational value, as Board Trustees likely know, the latest results in the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, which Mr. Lewis just referred to, were released last week. PISA compares how 15 year-olds in 65 cities and countries can apply math, science and reading skills to solve real-world problems. As Tom Friedman noted in yesterday's New York Times, the most recent PISA results were, quote, "not pretty for the home team." The results showed the U.S. losing substantial position to other countries. This past summer, Dr. McGill wrote in the Inquirer that one reason why a progressive approach to Scarsdale education is important at a time when, in Dr. McGill's words, some voices are demanding that public schools do more with less, is because, quote, "....Other nations are re-inventing their schools, emphasizing critical thinking, innovation and entrepreneurial enterprise." I would submit to the Board that the latest PISA results are the latest support for Dr. McGill's case for a forward-leaning approach to supporting Scarsdale schools, through the budget process and otherwise.
I will also note, apropos of the earlier discussion tonight, that Tom Friedman cited the expert who manages PISA, Andreas Schliecher, as saying that, "The highest performing PISA schools all have 'ownership' cultures – a high degree of professional autonomy for teachers in the classrooms, where teachers get to participate in shaping standards and curriculum and have ample time for continuous professional development. So teaching," Friedman observes Schliecher saying, "is not treated as an industry where teachers just spew out and implement the ideas of others, but rather is 'a profession where teachers have ownership of their practice and standards, and hold each other accountable."
The reference to "continuous professional development" resonates following the Report we heard tonight about the elementary schools.
Thank you very much.
Suzanne Nossel to Speak in Scarsdale December 15
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SHS Alumni and Executive Director of PEN Suzanne Nossel will speak at the Scarsdale Forum's second Sunday Speaker Series at the Scarsdale Woman's Club on Sunday, December 15 at 3 p.m. Suzanne Nossel, who just received a Distinguished Alum award, will be speaking on "The New Free Speech." As always, the series is free and the public is encouraged to attend.
Nossel was named Executive Director of the PEN American Center in January, 2013. Her career has spanned government service and leadership roles in the corporate and non-profit sectors. Prior to joining PEN she served as Executive Director of Amnesty International USA where she led a strategic reorientation of the organization to focus on building the next generation of human rights activists, strengthened the organization's financial base, and increased its profile and impact through augmented advocacy, campaigning and media outreach. Her work led to successful passage of the Afghan Women and Girls Security and Promotion Act of 2012, and drew attention to the chilling climate for free expression in Russia through the case of imprisoned punk band Pussy Riot.
Before joining Amnesty Nossel served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations at the U.S. Department of State, where she was responsible for multilateral human rights, humanitarian affairs, women's issues, public diplomacy, press, and congressional relations. At the State Department, Nossel played a leading role in U.S. engagement at the U.N. Human Rights Council, including the initiation of groundbreaking human rights resolutions on Iran, Syria, Libya, Cote d'Ivoire, freedom of association, freedom of expression, and the first U.N. resolution on the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons.
Prior to that, Nossel was Chief Operating Officer for Human Rights Watch, where she was responsible for organizational management and spearheaded a strategic plan for the global expansion of the organization. During the Clinton administration she served as deputy to the ambassador for U.N. Management and Reform at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, where she was the lead U.S. representative to the U.N. General Assembly negotiating a deal to settle the U.S. arrears to the world body. During the early 1990's Nossel worked in Johannesburg, South Africa, on the implementation of South Africa's National Peace Accord, a multiparty agreement aimed at curbing political violence during that country's transition to democracy; she has also done election monitoring and human rights documentation in Bosnia and Kosovo. Nossel is the author of a 2004 article in Foreign Affairs magazine entitled "Smart Power" and coined the term that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a defining feature of U.S. foreign policy.
In the private sector, she has served as vice-president of U.S. Business Development at Bertelsmann Media Worldwide, vice-president of strategy and operations for the Wall Street Journal and a media and entertainment consultant at McKinsey & Company.
Nossel is also an accomplished author who has published hundreds of blog entries, op-ed pieces and numerous scholarly articles. She is the author of Presumed Equal: What America's Top Women Lawyers Really Think About Their Firms (Career Press, 1998), the founder of the blog www.democracyarsenal.org, and has served as a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, the Center for American Progress and the Council on Foreign Relations. Nossel is a regular contributor and commentator on human rights issues for major news outlets including CNN, MSNBC, and NPR.
PT Council Leaders Urge Parents to Fight State Mandates
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Poet William Butler Yeats said, "Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire." But according to the leadership of the Scarsdale PT Council, the NYS Education's Department is doing everything they can do extinguish the fire at the Scarsdale School District.
Swamped with state mandates, a proscribed core curriculum, hours of state tests and a new teacher evaluation system based on the results of those tests, the district is hard pressed to deliver the world-class education the community expects. In fact, the leadership of the PT Council estimates that the testing alone costs the district $2.5 million per year, decrease morale, quash creativity and undermine the carefully-crafted educational program that the district has honed through years of research, testing and development.
These mandates were the subject of a special presentation by the PT Council to the community on Tuesday November 19 dubbed, "Is New York's Race to the Top Dragging Scarsdale Down?"
PT Council leaders Pam Rubin, Diane Greenwald, Nan Berke, Pam Fuehrer, and Mary Beth Evans reviewed the impact of these mandates on Scarsdale and discussed their efforts to advocate for relief.
Diane Greenwald described a recent meeting in Port Chester where local educators and parents met with Chancellor Merryl Tisch and NYS Education Commissioner 
John King. She said the state's top two educators were "cranky and arrogant" and were not listening to the hundreds of local educators and concerned parents who came to address them.
Nan Berke explained that in the past the state would give high performing districts like Scarsdale waivers to allow them to opt out of state mandates that were inappropriate for the district. However, those days are over. Even though Scarsdale taxpayers fund 95% of the school budget and state aid has dropped from $7.1 mm to $5.8 mm in the last five years, Scarsdale is still required to follow and fund state mandates.
The district is additionally challenged by the 2% tax cap. Research done in Massachusetts shows that though the tax cap was implemented to keep down property taxes, it actually works to depress real estate values. Why? Because cities where local services are underfunded, are less appealing to buyers and therefore homes value fall.
Squeezed by expensive state mandates, a tax cap that prevents tax increases and decreasing state aid, the budget process becomes more difficult each year. As Berke said, the challenge reminds her of struggles with weight loss: .... "Striving to lose weight while you are being force fed high calorie foods and your employer has taken away your gym membership."
Pam Fuehrer discussed high stakes testing which has serious consequences for students, educators, schools and districts. Though teachers are evaluated on the results, the district no longer receives test results for individual students and therefore the data cannot be used to evaluate students or to assist them. Furthermore the validity of the states has not been evaluated and testing is taking considerable time away from direct learning.
Here is the amount of classroom time the PT Council estimates is lost to testing:
- 3rd grade lost 7 hours
- 5th grade lost 9 hours
- 8th grade lost 13-16.6 hours
Additional classroom time is spent prepping students for the test and teachers spend extra hours grading these tests as well.
The newly imposed Annual Professional Performance Review APPR is another "time waster" according to Fuehrer. The new system requires administrators to observe and assess every teacher every year. Administrators estimate that they formerly spent 96 hours per year doing teacher observations and now spend 396 hours per year. This prevents principals and teachers in charge from focusing on teachers who need help or improving the curriculum.
Feuhrer also voiced concerns about the newly implemented core curriculum arguing that some of the new curriculum modules were poorly designed and confusing and that "one size instruction does not fit all" students and classrooms.
Mary Beth Evans told parents what the PT Council was already doing to fight state mandates and discussed the Declaration of Intellectual Independence that has 
been signed by the School Board, PT Council and Scarsdale Forum. She said that PT Council representatives have testified in Albany and are working to raise awareness of the issues and encourage parents to take action. She said, "the NYS Education Department is not listening but our legislators are listening," and asked parents to know, think and act, to regain local control of the schools.
State Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, SMS Principal Michael McDermott, STA President Trudy Moses and Superintendent Michael McGill then took part in a panel discussion on the issues.
Paulin said "we need to return to local control." In the old days, Scarsdale and other high performing districts were given waivers on state mandates but today we have a "very rigid systems and no waivers are permitted." Michael McDermott said we "must balance Scarsdale traditions of excellence with the new requirements."
Speaking for the teachers, Trudy Moses said that a poll of Scarsdale teachers revealed that they valued the following in Scarsdale:
- Professionalism of the district
- Collaboration and communication
- Commitment to excellence
- Classroom autonomy
- Valuing the individual teacher
- An environment of support for teachers
.. some of which are threatened by the new mandates. About the state tests she said, "Even though we tell teachers not to teach to the test, when there is a number hanging over your head, it is hard not to teach to the test. 40% of their evaluation is based on those test results."
Superintendent McGill characterized the Scarsdale Schools as "a place that is constantly reinventing itself, a place that marches to its own drummer, and a district
with the self assurance to be independent, to blaze its own trail in ways that really matter." Discussing the state mandates he said, "a handful of people are making a diagnosis and a prescription of what's wrong with education and marginalizing people like me."
He said he spoke with Regent Merril Tisch who said, "It's not until parents stand up and say something has to change that things will change."
Watch the entire presentation on the Scarsdale Schools Cable Channel or on Video on Demand at http://www.scarsdaleschools.org/Page/84.
Greenburgh Police Nab Burglars
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Ardsley residents returned home at 12:30 in the afternoon on Friday November 22 and interrupted two burglars who were in the process of robbing their home. The suspects entered the house by prying open a rear door and once inside they stole some jewelry. The homeowners were not injured in the confrontation.
The female suspect fled on foot while her accomplice drove away in a black Acura. Shortly after the incident, Greenburgh Police caught the woman who was identified as Lauren Hugnou, age 27, of Horatio Street in Yonkers. She was charged with Burglary in the Second Degree (a class C Felony). She was arraigned before Judge Gordon-Oliver and remanded to Westchester County Jail on $20,000 bail.
Though the male suspect originally eluded the police, he was also arrested on Tuesday November 26 following an investigation. He was identified as Barry Bryan, age 35, and he has no permanent address. He was also charged with Burglary in the Second Degree (a class C Felony) and arraigned before Judge Gordon-Oliver. Bryan was remanded to the Westchester County on $15,000 bail.
The house is located on Forest Boulevard in Ardsley, just off Dobbs Ferry Road, Route 100 B.
When Adversity Leads to Advocacy: Families Fighting Flu
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On a mild but gray Wednesday morning in Scarsdale Village, I had the opportunity to meet with Alissa Kanowitz. Alissa is a Scarsdale resident and, among other things, a mother, a wife, a real estate agent at Houlihan Lawrence, a Junior League volunteer, and an activist. Although proud of her achievements, as any activist should be, no one wants to become an activist because of the untimely death of their child. Not quite 10 years ago, her daughter, Amanda, died of influenza.
Amanda Kanowitz was a happy, sweet, and beautiful 4 ½-year-old. On the morning of March 1, 2004, Alissa and her husband Richard awoke to every parent's worst nightmare. They found their daughter lifeless in her bed. She had been healthy up until two days earlier when she contracted the flu. Amanda did not appear to have a severe case - she was coughing and then vomiting, but never with a high fever. Even just hours before they found her, she had been awake, speaking, and drinking. The flu vaccine was not yet indicated for Amanda's age group so she had not been vaccinated. That season, 152 other children died of the same cause: influenza.
To honor Amanda's memory, the Kanowitz family established the Amanda Kanowitz Foundation and co-founded
Families Fighting Flu (FFF), www.familiesfightingflu.org, a non-profit consisting primarily of families who have lost or almost lost a child to the flu virus. The family portraits on the FFF website are numerous: On January 12th, 2011, 17-year-old Austin Booth, a previously healthy, athletic boy began to feel sick while at basketball practice. Five days later, Austin died from the flu. On February 13th, 2010, Chance Chandler went to a party. By evening, he felt ill and started vomiting. Two days later Chance stopped breathing. He was four years old and died of flu. Neither child received the flu vaccine that year, although Chance received the vaccine the year prior. His parents did not know that he needed to be vaccinated annually.
What was your motivation for launching "Families Fighting Flu"? When we learned that Amanda died from influenza, we were shocked. Everyone we told had a similar response, "What do you mean she died of the flu? People don't DIE from the flu." Most people – including us until this happened – refer to most random stomach bugs or fever viruses as 'the flu' so nobody really thinks of it as anything that serious. We learned the hard way, that influenza, the real flu, is a very distinct and potentially devastating virus that takes the lives of up to 40,000 Americans each year and is responsible for 200,000 annual hospitalizations.
When you lose a child, you naturally feel guilt and helplessness. There was nothing more that we could do for Amanda, but we felt we owed it to her to make something meaningful come from her death. So Richard and I set out to raise awareness about the risks of influenza and reduce the number of pediatric hospitalizations and deaths. Since vaccination is so effective in preventing this illness, this is FFF's main focus. Families Fighting Flu is also there to provide support for other families and communities that have been impacted by tragedies caused by influenza. There were no other groups like this when we started the organization.
How did your advocacy help to encourage CDC to change the age recommendation for the flu vaccine? At the time of Amanda's death, the flu vaccine was only recommended for the elderly, the very young (between 6-23 months) and immune-compromised people. Yet when I spoke with many of the top U.S. infectious disease experts, they unanimously agreed that the flu vaccine recommendations should include all children. When the CDC changes policy, they need to consider various concerns from local governments, federal agencies, vaccine manufacturers, medical professionals and the general public. Their decisions are based on extensive analysis and epidemiological evidence, but these are numbers on a page. Families Fighting Flu attached real faces, like that of Amanda's, to the numbers and helped create the urgency needed to change the recommendations before more children died.
What do you say to people who are scared to get the flu vaccine for one reason or another? People should speak with their doctors about the benefits of the flu vaccine versus the nominal risks. Overwhelmingly, pediatricians agree that the influenza vaccine is the single most effective way to protect your child against the flu. Even if it is not 100% effective at preventing the flu -- and we all acknowledge that -- a case of the flu will be less severe if your body has been previously exposed to the virus, i.e. has built up antibodies to it, and this makes the vaccine very effective at preventing hospitalizations and death.
Look, none of us like to give our children shots or subject them to unpleasant experiences, but an actual bout of influenza is exponentially more miserable. Keep in mind that approximately 1/3 of all children will get influenza in any given year. One quick shot can spare you from a week or more of the flu and the entire family becoming sick. There is also a nasal mist alternative to the shot, indicated for people between the ages of 2-49.
What are the most common reasons you hear from people about why they don't get vaccinated? Something I commonly hear is, "Our family doesn't get the flu." It's not a family values thing- you don't choose to not get the flu. You only choose for yourself and/or your children to or to not get vaccinated. The flu decides it's victims and it's smarter and sneakier than any of us. It's been around for thousands of years. You have no way to know how your child's body will respond to each individual strain of influenza. If you've never had the flu and you skip the vaccine, you're lucky; but statistically speaking, your family will get the flu in time. And when you do, you will likely infect other people. Although your own family may recover from the flu, you could be responsible for the hospitalization or death of the infant or immune-compromised person who was behind you in the checkout line the day before you realized you had the flu.
I also hear people say, "I felt sick after getting the vaccine one year." Fall is when the current year's flu vaccines are available, and it's also the time of year that lots of non-flu viruses are going around that are often mistaken for a side effect of the vaccine. You cannot catch the flu from the flu vaccine, but as your body builds immunity to the virus in the vaccine, some people may feel a bit under the weather for a day. Given that a true case of influenza can and does cause hospitalization and death, any side effect of the flu vaccine seems mild in comparison.
Are there any warning signs that your child may be at risk of death from the flu? Because of the fact that no one knows what causes some people (like Amanda) to respond so suddenly, severely, and systemically to influenza and other people to respond with a more controlled immune reaction, the best way to protect yourself and your family against the risk of death from the flu is to get vaccinated. It is so important to note that many children who have severe reactions to the flu were playing sports or at birthday parties only hours before crashing. That's what is so scary about the flu. One mom who is a part of FFF was even on her way to getting her child's Tamiflu prescription filled when her son died of the flu. However, signs that your child is not doing well, whether due to the flu or any other virus or infection, include fast or difficult breathing, bluish skin color or lip color, not drinking enough fluids or urinating, changes in mental status, and high (>100.4) or low (<96.8) fever, among other things. You should call your doctor or take your child to the ER if you notice any of these symptoms or a worsening of other flu-related symptoms.
Any parting words? The good news is that due to CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommendations and increased awareness, more people are getting vaccinated. The recommendations are that children 6 months and up get vaccinated annually. There are 60,000 pediatrician members of AAP, so you can feel confident knowing that there are tens of thousands of pediatricians that are part of an organization that knows the data is strong enough in favor of the flu vaccine to support across-the-board immunization in children.
Most people think that things like this don't happen to people they know. But if it could happen to our sweet, happy, healthy little girl, it could happen to your family. Don't let that happen. Protect your family, and help protect other families, too. All it takes is a quick trip to the pediatrician or a pharmacy.
Click here for more information from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Center for Disease Control.
