Supt's Scoop
Dr. Manno's E-Brief, April, Edition, #10 17-18 School Year
A message from the Superintendent of Schools
Dear BCSD Families and Community Members:
In this edition of the Superintendent's Scoop, I will remind everyone about the status of our annual budget and Board of Education election, and I will share important information about some of our key District programs.
The Annual Budget and Board of Education member election is Tuesday, May 15, 2018. Voters may vote on the budget proposition, and for two Board of Education candidates. Four individuals have submitted nominating petitions. Beginning with this election, candidates now run "at-large" meaning that the two top vote-getters will be elected to the Board of Education. The four candidates are:
- Jennifer Kothari
- Michael Bauscher
- Brian Sheerin
- Colette Dow
Registered voters may vote in the elementary school serving their attendance area and the Polls will be open from 7 am until 9 pm. To register to vote, you may contact either Westchester County Board of Elections at 914-995-5700, or the District Clerk, Mrs. LaColla at 914-241-6011. Please feel free to contact Mrs. LaColla if you would like to confirm you are registered to vote.
If you may be out of the County on May 15th, you are eligible to vote by absentee ballot. One must first complete an application, which is available on the website or in the office of the District Clerk (Superintendent's Office on the Fox Lane Campus). The application must be received by the District Clerk no later than Tuesday, May 8th if the ballot is to be mailed to the voter; or by Monday, May 14 if the ballot is to be handed to the voter. Once the application is received, the ballot may be delivered to the specific voter only. Ballots must be returned to the District Clerk by 5 pm on the day of the vote, May 15, in order to be counted.
On Wednesday, April 11th, our Board of Education unanimously adopted the proposed 2018-19 BCSD budget that will be presented to the voters on May 15, 2018.
This is the budget presentation Mr. Angelo Rubbo, Assistant Superintendent for Business and Operations, and I will be providing throughout the school community in the coming weeks.
The budget development process is a long and arduous one. We are proud to put forth to our community a solid budget that will be beneficial to our students, families, and school community. This is the second year of slow, incremental, and sustainable program growth and improvement with unanimous Board support for the adopted budget.
There are a number of important points regarding this adopted budget of which we are proud to share:
- After many years of budgetary decline and reductions in programs and service in BCSD, this budget represents the second consecutive year of slow, incremental, and sustainable growth in programs and services for children and families.
- The budget is fiscally responsible and is within the allowable property tax levy cap of 2.99%.
This adopted budget:
- Maintains elementary class sizes within policy guidelines.
- Restores and grows programs and services for students.
- Continues the restoration of our elementary library program.
- Provides required ESOL/Bilingual services for identified students, and provides support for native Spanish-speaking and English-speaking children in the Dual Language program.
- Expands exciting new course offerings for high school students.
- Supports the implementation of improved and enhanced technology use for high school students.
- Enhances our extracurricular program.
- Supports social and emotional support and college/career readiness of our students.
- Supports improved safety and security.
- Supports more inclusive special education programs, improves transition services and assistive technology for our Special Education students, and refines our SE leadership and coordination structure to better support students and families.
- Supports professional development for teachers and staff.
- Addresses critical deferred maintenance and repair needs districtwide.
For additional information about any of these items see our budget presentations on our website.
This budget is a significant step in righting BCSD’s fiscal and programmatic ship.
Best Regards, and In Service,
Dr. Christopher Manno, Superintendent of Schools
Recognition of Tenure Recipients
School Teacher Tenure Are
- BVES Jennifer Corcoran School Psychologist
- BVES Owen Hughes, Jr Music
- MKES Leila Paz Elementary
- MKES Rebecca Harding School Psychologist
- PRES Allison Belolan Art
- WPES Sara Price Devaney Special Education
- FLMS Erika Flynn Social Studies
- FLMS Katya Martinez Math
- FLMS Heather Shaughnessy Special Education
- FLHS Neval Unluturk ESOL
- FLHS Andrew Giulano Physical Education
- District Nalda Chery Social Work
April is Alcohol Awareness Month
Did you know:
- More than 4,750 American children who are aged 15 and younger take their first full drink of this drug every day. Teens who start drinking before age 15 are five times more likely to become alcoholics or abuse alcohol than are people who wait until adulthood for their first drink.
- The brain keeps developing into a person’s 20s and even early 30s. Alcohol use and abuse negatively impact brain development.
- Moderate and heavy teenage drinkers had faster gray-matter decreases and slower white-matter increases than nondrinkers at 2-year follow-up.
- When it comes to the developing adolescent brain, there is no known safe level of binge drinking.
See this edition of Parenting for Prevention for more information and statistics.
2018 Best Communities for Music Education
The Bedford Central School District has been honored with the 2018 Best Communities for Music Education designation from The NAMM Foundation for its outstanding commitment to music education. This is the fifth year in a row that Bedford has been recognized for this national recognition.
The Best Communities for Music Education designation is awarded to districts that demonstrate outstanding achievement in efforts to provide music access and education to all students.
Pupil Personnel Services Department, Dr. Edward Escobar Director
The Pupil Personnel Services Department, or PPS as it is commonly called, provides support to students and families and collaborates with most other departments and schools in the District. We oversee the delivery of Section 504 accommodation plans, home instruction plans, home tutoring services, health services, the Dignity for All Students Act (known as DASA) and student registrations and enrollment. In addition, we coordinate procedures and regulations for student discipline.
Our Pupil Personnel Services Department is led by:
Dr. Edward Escobar
Director of Pupil Personnel Services
914-241-6022
eescobar3312@bcsdny.org
Our Central Registrar works directly with our families to register children for school. We manage kindergarten enrollment for all of our elementary schools and ensure compliance with our residency requirements. Parents may call our Central Registrar at 914-241-6005 to obtain information on enrolling, withdrawing, or relocating within our District. Please be on the lookout in the next few months as the district is working to streamline the registration process by offering online registration.
Our school nurses provide medical and health support for all of our students in each of the seven schools. The school nurses are instrumental in providing mandated vison, hearing, BMI and scoliosis screenings. From time to time, the nurses will provide important information on immunizations, physicals and when to keep your child home if they are ill. Beginning July 1, 2018, all New York State public school students must submit a New York State Education Department Student Health Examination Form completed by their physician upon entering school as a new entrant, and in grades 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11. Our School Physician, Dr. Corsaro, is working with us to get the word out regarding this new requirement.
The Dignity for All Students Act (DASA) was established to protect all students from harassment, bullying and discrimination. It became effective on July 1, 2012 and was amended to include cyberbullying effective July 1, 2013. The district has developed and provided anti-bullying training and character education initiatives in all of our schools. The PPS department works with all schools to assess, collect data and provide training to staff. Our goal is to provide education, prevention, intervention and training to staff, students and families to prevent intimidation, harassment or bullying in our schools. We continue to seek ways to improve our efforts in these areas. For more information, please click on the link: https://www.bcsdny.org/Page/228.
Section 504 provides for accommodations for students determined to have a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. This determination is different from a child who meets the criteria to receive special education as determined by the Committee on Special Education. At the elementary and secondary school level, determining whether a child is a qualified disabled student under Section 504 begins with the evaluation process. A parent who suspects his or her child of having an impairment under Section 504 should discuss this first with the child’s classroom teacher and then the building principal. For general information, please contact Dr. Edward Escobar, the 504 Compliance Officer for the District.
The PPS office also oversees compliance with reporting requirements for students who are homeschooled. Parents who choose to homeschool their children are required to notify the school district on an annual basis of their intent to homeschool their children and to file annual Individualized home Instruction Plans (IHIP) and quarterly progress reports.
School Safety and Security is another area in which are involved. We partner with District Administrators, our School Resource Officer, and the District’s Safety Consultant, Altaris to coordinate, train and implement safety plans for each school building and the district office. There are many behind the scenes activities that regularly occur to maintain a safe environment. This year, Dr. Manno facilitated several Parent Safety Forums that involved our local law enforcement partners and other key district personnel. These forums were an opportunity to provide information about our safety measures, to reassure our parents and to answer any pertinent questions.
ESOL Department, Adrienne Viscardi, Director
The FLHS ESOL Department proudly hosted the 11th Annual ESOL Career Day on April 11 in the Mary Lou Meese Theater. This year’s symposium featured speakers from the fields of hospitality, healthcare, business management, journalism, and law enforcement:
Alejandra Almonacid, Catering Manager at Eli Zabar
Marina Andrade, BSN/Registered Nurse at Northern Westchester Hospital
Kirk Santos, Director of Talent for North America at PepsiCo
Nadia Galindo, Reporter at New12 Westchester
Chief Melvin Padilla, Jr. at the Bedford Police Department
Speakers shared inspiring stories from their personal and professional experiences underscoring the value of perseverance, education, bilingualism, and cultural proficiency. Additionally they described the range of opportunities available in their fields, giving students a deeper understanding of the skills necessary for success in the workplace. After the presentations, guests joined students and faculty for lunch, where they could speak informally with students and answer additional questions. Students appreciated the speakers’ warmth, candor, and sense of humor.
Every year we are fortunate to our graduates, parents, and community members who respond to our request for speakers. The students and faculty of the ESOL Department are grateful for our guests’ generosity in sharing their time and talent with the Fox Lane community.
At MKES, bilingual elementary teachers shared effective instructional practices during an after-school meeting with colleagues: “Instructional Strategy Sharing Session in Spanish.” Teachers submitted proposals for presentation, in which they demonstrated classroom strategies to enhance increase oral language development and literacy achievement:
Madelyn Ortiz, Grade 3 DLBE Spanish Zone
Iniginia Del Rosario, Grade 2 DLBE Spanish Zone
Bianca De La Cruz, Grade 3 DLBE Spanish Zone
Jennifer Vallejos, Grade 1 DLBE Spanish Zone
Diana Barrios, Grade 2 DLBE Spanish Zone
Conducted entirely in Spanish, the session took place on April 17 in the MKES Library and was well attended by MKES faculty and leadership as well as faculty from the Fox Lane World Languages Department. Participants left with new resources and ideas for implementation. This work emerged from discussion of the DLBE Action Planning Team. Teachers look forward to ongoing opportunities for professional development and collaboration across grade levels.
Our ESOL Department is led by:
Adrienne Viscardi, Director of ESOL Programs, K-12
914-241-6080
What's Happening in BCSD?
The 8th Annual BCSD Elementary BikeRun is Sunday, May 20, 2018 - Registration opened Monday, March 12, 2018!!
We're pleased to announce the 8th Annual BCSD Elementary BikeRun will be held on Sunday, May 20, and registration opens Monday, March 12. The BikeRun will be held on the Fox Lane Campus and begins at 8 AM on May 20. Please mark you calendars - registration will close when we reach capacity of 400 BCSD elementary students. BikeRun as always will be a fun filled day for the whole family - with food, activities, music and festivities!
All Kindergarten through 5th grade students attending BCSD elementary schools (Bedford Hills, Bedford Village, Mount Kisco, Pound Ridge and West Patent) are welcome and encouraged to participate. Registrations are on a first-come basis and limited to just 400, so if you intend to register your children, please do so on March 12 - we reach capacity quickly! All registrations are accepted online. For more details, visit the BCSD BikeRun website at http://bcsdny.org/k5bikerun.
Over the past seven years, BikeRun has donated more than $10,000 -- $2000+ per elementary school -- to BCSD physical education programs. Due to both successful registrations and generous sponsors, we are very pleased to be able to give back to the PE programs who help our students stay moving! The BikeRun is the only health and wellness event that unifies all five BCSD elementary students and their families, with 1000 people expected on campus the day of the event.
Parents, please note:
- Participants provide their own bike, and helmets are required (no exceptions)
- Kindergarten students are welcome to use any sort of wheels – tricycles welcome!
- Modified heats are available for students with special needs. BCSD is an inclusive community and there will be accommodations for students requiring support at the event. Please email bcsdsepto@gmail.com by March 23rd, 2018 with your contact information and we will follow up on the accommodation plan for your student.
Please help us communicate better and to reach as many families as possible:
o If you no longer have a child in a BCSD elementary school, help spread the word to others in our community about what a great event BikeRun is!
o If you know of a new family in a BCSD elementary school, please respond with "add them" in the subject line and send us their email address.
Please register your children online beginning Monday March 12 and at the link here: http://bcsdny.org/k5bikerun