WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER SETS RECORD VISITS FOR YEAR 7,017,658 VISITS! 2,098,003 VISITORS MADE 6 VISITS A DAY EVERY DAY. 63,330 UNIQUE VISITORS MADE 133,730 VISITS IN DECEMBER. WPCNR AVERAGED 17,284 VISITORS A WEEK, VISITING 31,270 TIMES.

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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS REPORT CARD DISPATCH. By John F. Bailey. August 26, 2002: Timothy Connors will be leading the White Plains City School District into a new year beginning next week, when he addresses the educators and administrators of the School District September 3. He expects to make his first statements of school district policy since taking over the post of School Superintendent July 15. The district expects 6,657 Students grades K through 12 to report for the first day of school on Thursday September 5. The District will spend an average of $19,065 to educate each student as it begins to spend its highest school budget ever, $126,919,919.

LANDSCAPING IS being applied to the high school grounds over the weekend as high school construction slowly finishes up.
PHOTO BY WPCNR

The high school on North Street will welcome 1,806 students under new principal, Christine Robbins, the first woman principal in the school’s history. The $28 million high school renovation project is now one year late in completion.

Construction crews worked on Sunday clearing up some materials in the courtyard staging area on the south side of the school adjacent to the softball field. The North House which underwent window replacement over the summer is expected to be ready for classes by opening day. Heating and electrical work still needs to be completed on certain new sections of the South wing through the fall.

Tile replacement in the new main entrance hallway is being reinstalled because of an “unforeseen condition” on the concrete base, which caused the new marble tiles to crack in less than a year. That condition is being corrected for an additional $30,000, by the contractor.

Middle School Under Microscope.

The Middle School will welcome 1,548 students to grades seven, eight, and nine. As of this week, the Eastview athletic fields are being resurfaced by the City of White Plains.

POPULAR TRACK & SOCCER FIELD BEING REFURISHED BY CITY: The scene Monday as work was progressing on the Eastview Middle School Campus athletic track and soccer oval.
Photo by WPCNR

Academic Swat Team

The Middle Schools will be receiving an injection of budget money bringing more special efforts to Highlands and Eastview to prepare eighth graders in writing, comprehension and math skills. This will be closely watched because of the performances on the tests in 2001, where less than 50% of White Plains eighth graders scored in the Level 3, “Satisfactory” level of the English Language Arts and Math tests. The district is determined to raise these scores. Most school districts across the state performed substantially worse.

The State Achievement Tests of last spring have not been issued yet by the state, and will not be until spring, 2003.

Jury Out on Curriculum Enhancements to Meet the Standards.

One of the frustrations the school district has had in coping with the New York State Achievement Tests is the standard year delay the state takes in grading and releasing the tests. Unless the state begins to get results out sooner by the fall, or start of the school year, the district will not know if steps taken to help students in their areas of comprehension and study skills are making the difference they want them to make. For example, last year the school district instituted measures to help middle school and high school students. But, with the results of the 2002 Achievement tests not available yet, there is no indication yet that the efforts are having results.

On the Regents Exam level, that is not the case. High School special task forces to aid students at the high school level on passing Regents exams have been very successful in helping seniors, who have failed to pass Regents, pass them the second time they take them.

The present eighth grade in the Middle School is the last eighth grade that did not receive the benefits of the District’s newly configured elementary school curriculum, instituted four years ago. The District is confident that future classes of elementary students who have benefited from three years of fine-tuning to the new state standards will result in steadily improving state achievement test scores.

Schools Filled to Brim.

In the elementary schools, George Washington School will host the most students with 640, followed by Mamaroneck Avenue School with 639, Church Street School with 632 and Ridgeway School with 613, and Post Road School with 478. Alternative programs carry 221 students and 80 students are educated out of district.

Board of Education to Meet Twice A Month

By now all parents should have received the White Plains Public Schools Calendar for 2002-03. The Calendar though does not note the Board of Education’s endorsement of Timothy Connors’ first new initiative: more Board of Education meetings.

Mr. Connors asked the Board to meet twice a month beginning in September. He also asked for a new public forum to be staged before agenda items are discussed. The Board readily agreed, and in September there will be two meetings on September 9 at 7:30 PM (new time) and and September 23.

Facts About the District

The last page of the Calendar cover notes some interesting positive facts about the quality of education in White Plains:

• The District has received over $30 Million in state, federal, and foundation grants in the last seven years.

• In 2002, the District placed 4 National Merit Scholar Finalists, 13 were Commended, and there were 2 National Achievement Scholarship Finalists, 6 National Hispanic Scholarship Students, and 1 Honorable Mention.

• The Midde and High Schools are recognized as National Schools of Excellence.

• The District has 29 Advanced Placement and Honors Courses, 5 Foreign Language Courses.

• In 2002, there were 122 National Honor Society Members, about 7% of the high school student body, and 81 National Junior Honor Society Members, 5% of the Middle School student body.

• White Plains was ranked 7th in the Nation in Music Education.

• There were 85 students in Authentic Science Research Program, one of the largest in the state.

• The Sports Program features 230 New York State Scholar-Athletes participating in its 60 interscholastic sports teams, and 50 High School Clubs.

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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From George Latimer. August 24, 2002:George Latimer of Rye City has announced his intent to seek the post of Chairman of the Westchester County Democratic Committee at the upcoming County Convention, scheduled for September 30th at Woodlands H.S. in Greenburgh.
Latimer, a member of the Westchester County Legislature – serving in his 11th year – has previously served two terms as the first Democrat to Chair the Westchester County Board of Legislators. He has also served as a member of the Rye City Council.

The unpaid post has been most recently held by David Alpert of Mt.
Vernon, who announced he would not seek a prior term. Past Party Chairs include current County Executive Andy Spano, and Dennis Mehiel, who is running for NY State Lieutenant Governor with H. Carl McCall.

Latimer, 48, was considered the proponent of a bi-partisan cooperation
in the Legislature during his Chairmanship. He has indicated his focus
as Party Chairman would be to strengthen the party’s internal infrastructure and organization over the coming two years, if successful in his bid.

Other Democrats competing for the post are Mt. Vernon Democratic City Chair and Board of Elections Commissioner Reginald LaFayette, and Clinton Smith, a local lawyer who has served as Town Supervisor in New Castle.

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WPCNR HIGH NOON HERALD MAIL. By John F. Bailey. August 22, 2002:Two White Plains citizens disturbed about the overgrown medians on county roads around town took Guy D’Antona’s lawnmower and an historic scythe in hands and made the North Street median safer for drivers making turns Thursday evening, mowing down grass that approached a foot high.

RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE TAKE ON THE NORTH STREET MEDIAN JUNGLE: Councilman William King, left, and Jack Harrington, right, trim the grass on the overgrown median-divider strip on Westchester County-maintained North Street Wednesday evening below White Plains High School. The two were caught taking median maintenance into their own hands last night at sunset.
Photo by WPCNR

White Plains Common Councilman William King, long a critic of Westchester County maintenance of its public lands, and 83 year-old Jack Harrington, President of the White Plains Historical Society, in sultry evening heat, took their personal time to do what county public works do only once a month, according to a county spokesman: trim and maintain grass on the medians on county roads in the city.

CHAIN GANG: Harrington, right, said Thursday morning he was okay after about an hour and forty-five minutes of mowing down the high chaparral of North Street. “We had to stop at dusk,” he said, because it was getting dangerous because cars couldn’t see the pair. He said he is used to yard work, since he and his Historical Society volunteers maintain the shrubs and plantings at the Purdy House, Washington’s Headquarters on Chatterton Hill.
Photo by WPCNR

He said they had a clean-up there recently, “taking an awful lot of stuff out,” noting that the city cuts the grass for the property only.

Mr. King said he and Harrington, also of the White Plains Beautification Foundation which plants and maintains the gardens on the medians around the city, were tired of how the North Street gateway to the city was is not being maintained by the Westchester County Department of Public Works.

“Mamaroneck Avenue doesn’t look like this,” King said showing the mini-prairie he and Harrington were harvesting.

Thursday, Harrington reported that he and King were going to come back in a few weeks to take care of the median again.

White Plains: Not Our Job. County: We Mow Once A Month.

A spokeswoman for the White Plains Department of Public Works said that Westchester County is responsible for maintaining the grass on North Street and other county roads in the city.

The Westchester County Department of Communications reported that the County Department of Public Works cuts the North Street median once a month.

It is not the first time Councilman King has dramatized lack of a commitment to maintenance on the part of Westchester County towards its own property located in the city. King sponsored a clean up of the highly littered Silver Lake waterfront property last spring.

HOW DID THEY DO? The North Street Median between Havilands Lane and Robin Hood Road, trimmed by Councilman King and Mr. Harrington as it looked Thursday morning. The pair plan to come back to cut the median between Havilands Lane and Ridgeway on North Street in a few weeks.
Photo by WPCNR

WPCNR observed Thursday morning that the median extending from Robin Hood Road up North Street between the YWCA and the high school was freshly cut, with grass droppings left on top of the freshly mowed median.

The Westchester County Department of Communications said the County had scheduled a crew to cut North Street Thursday. However, the crew did not proceed down North Street to cut the rest of the median from Havilands Lane to Ridgeway.

STILL TO COME: The condition of the North Street median between Ridgeway and Havilands Lane Thursday morning. On the median are unruly stalks of weed, litter, and high grass getting higher.
Photo by WPCNR

WPCNR was expecting a call from John Hsu of the County Department of Public Works for more insight on what medians the county maintains and how often.