1) A Port Chester High School freshman girl was relentlessly bullied by three classmates over many months, enduring name-calling, insults, and cyberbullying. 2) Despite repeatedly reporting the bullying to school administrators, the harassment continued and intensified, leading the girl to attempt suicide by slitting her wrists. 3) The girl's parents are outraged at what they see as an insufficient response by school officials, who suspended the bullies for only one month rather than expelling them as the parents demanded. The parents do not feel the punishment fit the crime considering their daughter's suicide attempt.

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NEWSVol. 49 No. 21 An edition of Westmore News Friday, May 24 - Thursday, May 30, 2013
Here’s what’s inside
People..............................2
Religious Services............4
Calendar........................5-6
Opinion......................10-11
Sports........................14-16
Police Briefs...................17
Arts & Entertainment....18-20
Classifieds.................22-23
Locally Owned and Operated
Bullied student slits her wrists,
distraught parents speak out
By Claire K. Racine
The bullying wouldn’t stop. The school administration
had gotten involved and the girls had even been suspended,
but the taunting and name-calling and insults had only
gotten worse. Now they just had another word to throw at
her: “snitch.”
If the bullying wasn’t going to end, then she would have
to end it herself. She picked up the blade and pressed it to
her wrist.
T
he teasing started in
October, the beginning of
Julie’s freshman year at
Port Chester High School.
“I give my daughter credit,”
her mother, Sally, told Westmore
News. “She got up every morn-
ing and went to school every day
knowing what the girls would do
to her. I give her a lot of credit,
because they were nasty and she
had classes with them.”
ThenamesofJulieandherpar-
ents have been changed to protect
their anonymity.
In addition to comments mut-
tered in class, three of Julie’s
classmates made snide remarks in
the hallway during school.
“Theyusedtocallher‘littlerich
bitch,’” Sally said. “‘When you
turn16,whatkindofcaryougonna
get when you turn 16?’Leave her
alone. Barbie doll, used to call
her Barbie doll. Leave her alone.”
Some of the comments were
made in Spanish, but Julie could
still tell they were about her.
“It’s like, they look at you and
they’re talking. It annoys me. I
can imagine how my daughter
felt in school when they’re look-
ing at her, laughing,” Sally said.
“We welcome [them] and I’m
beginningtohatethem.Iwelcome
them into this country and they’re
taking it over.”
Noticing her daughter coming
home each day from school with
tears in her eyes, Sally urged her
daughter to report the incidents,
which she did starting in January.
Schoolanddistrictadministration
spokewiththethreefreshmen,but
it did not seem to deter them as
the comments continued. Julie’s
parents decided to intervene and
reached out to the school. During
a roundtable discussion with the
administration, they were assured
the girls would be reprimanded
again.
The same day her parents were
being assured the bullying would
stop, their daughter was crying
in an assistant principal’s office.
“Thedaywehadtheroundtable
conversation,mydaughterwentto
one of the assistant principals and
complainedintearsthatoneofthe
girls was making fun of her in the
hallway, laughing and called her a
snitch,” Sally said.
According to district policy,
retaliation is prohibited. “Any act
of retaliation against any person
whoopposesbullyingbehavior,or
who has filed a complaint, is pro-
hibited and illegal, and therefore
subject to disciplinary action…
Any person who retaliates is
subject to immediate disciplin-
ary action, up to and including
suspension or termination,” reads
regulation 0115-R, the district’s
Student Bullying Prevention
and Intervention Regulation. For
students, disciplinary measures
“may range from a reprimand up
to and including suspension from
school.”
Julie’s parents again contacted
the school district and were in-
formed that the three girls would
allbesuspendedforfourdaysright
before Spring Break.
“They were told, ‘Stop.’ The
one girl left her alone and she
went back to school. The other
twocontinued,”Sallysaid.“After
thesetwogirlsgotsuspended,they
were cyber bullying.”
ThetwogirlstooktoFacebook
to continue their tormenting,
whichSallyaccidentallystumbled
upon.
“My daughter said to me.
She said, ‘If you didn’t see it,
you would never have known,
Mommy,’” Sally said.
Her family tries the police
Upsetandangrywiththeschool
district’shandlingofthesituation,
Julie’s family went to the Port
Chester police to try and file a
complaint.
“Shewastoonervousandshak-
ing and everything,” Sally said.
“I told her to come with me. She
didn’twantto.Ineverdreamedshe
would try to hurt herself. I never
dreamed that.”
Luckily, the Port Chester po-
lice, worried about Julie, sent four
police cars and an ambulance to
P.C.schoolbudgetpasses2-1,
Brakewoodwinsby200votes
By Claire K. Racine
Forthesecondyearinarow,residents
inthePortChesterSchoolDistrictvoted
2-1 in support of the school budget.
Carolee Brakewood garnered about
200 more votes compared to newcomer
JamesA.Carrieretosecureherreelection
to the Board of Education.
“Two to one, just like last year and
no cuts this year for the first time in six
years,” said Superintendent Dr. Edward
Kliszus, Jr. Port Chester school budgets
have been close in the past and Kliszus
hopes the trend of two-thirds voter ap-
proval continues.
The final budget vote was 816 in favor of the spending plan to
417 against the $85.2 million 2013-14 budget, which will cover
the period from July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014. The tax levy, which
complies with the New York State Tax Levy Cap, is $58.3 mil-
lion, about $27,000 below the district’s maximum allowable levy
increase of 2.83%.
Additions under the proposed spending plan include five
enrollment-driven teaching positions, security guards at all the
elementary schools and additional computers for mandated state
testing. The school board also budgeted $350,000 to cover federal
sequestration cuts.
About 1,300 residents voted on Tuesday, May 21, including
absentee ballots, less than last year.
“I think what it shows is we didn’t have a lot of controversy with
the budget,” said 44-year-old Brakewood, who was reelected to a
second three-year term.
After the announcement that Brakewood had received 732 votes
to Carriere’s 513, the kindergarten music teacher said she felt “re-
lieved, excited, optimistic and ready to get back to work.”
Reporter’s Notebook
The story behind the story
At the end of April, Westmore News received an anonymous
letter in the mail about the repeated bullying of a Port Chester
High School freshman. Despite the fact that the mom’s story
was heart wrenching, Westmore News policy is to never print
an anonymous letter. In certain circumstances—this being one
which would qualify—we will sign a letter “name withheld upon
request,” but we have to know who the person is.We set the letter
aside until the following week when we got a phone call from
someone asking why the letter had not been printed.
Our publisher, Richard Abel, explained our policy and that
we thought the story warranted an article. Subsequently, I spent
about three hours at Panera Bread one Sunday morning letting
the girl’s mom tell me what she and her family had gone through.
Similar to “name withheld,” we decided to change the names of
the people in the story at their request to protect their daughter.
“I’d love for my name to be in it, love to, but it will crush
my daughter,” her mother told me. “I would, but her father said,
‘No. Absolutely not. It will kill her.’”
No details of the story have been changed and all other names
have been left alone. —Claire K. Racine
Port Chester High School
Please turn to page 24
Carolee Brakewood
Please turn to page 12
Holiday garbage schedule
Following is the garbage, recycling, curbside and green waste pickup schedule
for the Memorial Day holiday week in Port Chester:
There will be no collection of household garbage or recycling on Monday, May
27 in observance of Memorial Day. Monday’s household garbage and recycling will
be collected Tuesday; Tuesday’s household garbage and recycling will be collected
Wednesday. There will be no curbside trash and/or green waste pickup Wed., May
29. Violators will be subject to summons and fines.
Heat can’t defeat
Family U at PCMS
page 13
Hop Hop Hooray!Christian Gemio, 9, hops to try and help his team, Post Road
Iron Works, win the sack race at the Port Chester Youth
Baseball League All Star Extravaganza on Saturday, May 18
at Lyon Park. For more pictures see page 13.

2. 24 WESTMORE NEWS Friday, May 24, 2013
her house and just in time.
“I was getting pissed at the
cop because he was telling me he
couldn’t do anything for me and
he was like, ‘Ok, where’s your
daughter?’ What do you mean,
where’smydaughter?”Sallysaid.
By the time the police and
ambulance arrived, with her fam-
ily shortly behind them, Julie had
already slit her wrists.
“I should have never left her,
but I got there in time, but it could
havebeenworsethanwhatitwas,”
Sally said. “It was a nightmare. It
was a mother’s nightmare, a par-
ent’s nightmare.”
Julie was transported to the
hospital and then later to Four
Winds Hospital, which provides
inpatient and outpatient mental
health treatment. At the Katonah
hospital, she had to be constantly
watched to make sure she did not
hurtherselfagainandbodychecks
became a routine occurrence.
After being released from Four
Winds, Julie entered a one-month
educational program, Intensive
Day Treatment, provided by the
Southern Westchester Board of
CooperativeEducationalServices.
Once the school district was
alerted, the two girls involved
were subsequently suspended for
one month.
What Julie’s parents had asked
for, however, was for the girls to
be expelled or suspended for the
rest of the school year and sent to
summer school. Although district
policy does not list those as pos-
sible disciplinary measures, the
regulation states that appropriate
disciplinaryactionisnotlimitedto
the penalties outlined there.
“They’re outside running
around and playing while my
daughter isolates herself and is on
medication,” Sally said. “It’s just
who’s the one getting
punished? My daugh-
ter. I look at it, it’s not
right.”
Julie’s parents were
told it is often difficult
to prove that bullying
occurred, which her
parents argued was not
so in this case.
“In this instance we
proved unequivocally
that there was bullying.
We have logs of my daughter go-
ing in and out of the school filing
complaints,” said her father, Tony.
There are also the Facebook post-
ings and student witnesses who
approached the administration
with details about the bullying.
“You can prove without a shadow
of doubt that there was bullying.
They should not be suspended but
expelled.”
Sally was so angry that she
evenlashedoutatthePortChester
High School principal to the point
that the school district contacted
the Rye Brook police to have it on
recordafterSallytoldDr.Mitchell
Combs,whoshefeltdidnotreally
care about her daughter, that she
wouldshovehisglassesuphisass.
District stands by its response
Superintendent Dr. Edward
Kliszus, Jr. refused to comment
about Julie’s situation and the
punishments associated with it.
“I can’t talk about specific
cases,butIcantellyouwearewell
versed in Dignity forAll Students
legislation and we follow it to
the letter. There are no missteps.
Every case is taken in that way.
Our administrators go to training
and they’re well versed in what
has to be done.”
Each incident of bullying is
taken on a case-by-case basis and
the district’s reaction is based on
the circumstances of the case, the
superintendent said. The district
works to provide a supportive,
nurturing environment where
childrenfeelsafeandcomfortable.
Even though he would not
speak to this specific case, he did
say that in all recent incidents,
“everything was followed by the
book.”
Board of Education President
JimDrevesdidcommentonJulie’s
situation to a greater degree than
the superintendent. Dreves was
aware of the incident, but only
peripherally, and could not re-
member if he had learned about it
intheschoolboard’sweeklyemail
updateoriftheadministrationhad
mentioned it to him at some point.
“Based on what I heard, it was
dealt with in a very professional
manner,”saidDreves.“Fromwhat
I know—and I wasn’t sitting in
on everything that was done—it
was handled in a very
appropriate manner
and the punishments
were appropriate to the
situation.”
Dreves said the stu-
dents involved were
disciplined suitably
but that he understands
family may not agree.
“Iknowthatanything
like this is a very trau-
maticexperienceforpar-
ents and therefore anything that the
schooldistrictdoeswouldbelooked
at differently by the parents than by
somebody impartial,” he said.
“We take bullying very seri-
ously and will continue to take
that very seriously,” Dreves said.
“I promise we will not have, will
not condone, any bullying in our
schools. Ever.”
Tony, who spoke with Dreves,
was disappointed that no further
action would be taken against
the girls.
“We were totally unsatisfied
withtheoutcomeandhowitturned
out as to the punishment of the
those students,” he said.
Furthermore, Sally and Tony
thought the students in school
shouldhavebeenmadeawareofthe
incident.Withoutusingnames,the
students could still have been told
thatafellowstudenttriedtocommit
suicide because of bullying.
“People need to know what
happened here in Port Chester.
That’s what pissed me off.That’s
whatpissedherfatheroff.People
need to know what’s happening
here and nobody knows,” Sally
said. “There has to be other chil-
dren that are being bullied and
they’re probably afraid to tell
their parents. Or maybe there’s
parents afraid to speak up. I
don’t know, but something has
to be done.”
Although there was a special
assembly about bullying, there
was no mention of any incidents
happening in Port Chester and
the students who attended were
only freshmen.
“HerdadandIwerenothappy
about that because it should have
been for 9th
, 10th
, 11th
and 12th
graders,” Sally said. “It should
have been for the whole school.”
Following his conversation
with Dreves, Tony did have one
positivetakeaway,asDrevessaid
hewouldspeaktotheadministra-
tion about making the district’s
bullying program more Port
Chester centered.
“If it’s broadcast to them that
‘Hey, it’s happening here. It’s a
widespread problem here’ and
work from that point of view, I
think that would be more effec-
tive,”Tonysaid.“Whenyouhear
tragic stories about something
that happened, you really can’t
get close to the story, to the point
that it’s heart moving unless you
can say it happened around here
and that’s what they need to
understand.”
Bullied student slits her wrists, distraught parents speak out Continued from page 1
Port Chester High School students sign the “Don’t Stand By, Stand Up” banner, part of
a three-week-long anti-bullying campaign organized by the 21st
Century ASPIRE after
school program’s advisory board in April 2012. From left: Kyle Thomas, 11th
grade, Lukas
Patrizio, 11th
grade, Jeffrey Quinde, 11th
grade, Eduardo Gonzalez, 11th
grade, and Brooke
Pietrafesa, 9th
grade. Photos by Claire K. Racine
The banner remains on display in the Port Chester High School cafeteria
and the students who signed it are one year older.
“It was a nightmare.
It was a mother’s
nightmare, a parent’s
nightmare.”
Make Our Photos
Your PhotosMost of the photographs printed in this newspa-
per are available for purchase. For as little as $15
you can obtain the color photo that appeared in
the pages of the Westmore News. These beauti-
ful pictures are printed on 8 x 10 photo quality
paper and look great. The digital image is also
available for only $25.
Call the today at
914-939-6864
for more information.
Preparing for construction
After the site has sat dormant for years, major work is now taking place at Willett Avenue and
Abendroth Place to prepare it for construction of 83 residential units in a building to be called
“The Castle.” The project was approved long ago but has been modified to allow for construction
of smaller apartments.

3. 10 Westmore NeWs Friday, June 22, 2012
Continued from page 1
Man proposes with an assist
from the PCHS Marching BandBy Claire K. raCine
In order to propose, every
man needs a nice ring, some
guts and, of course, a marching
band—well, at least that’s how
it goes according to Craig Jones,
who hired the Port Chester High
School Marching Band to help
him propose to his girlfriend,
Allison Leclaire, on Saturday,
June 9.
“It was a special moment in
someone’s life and I was proud
to be a part of it,” said PCHS
Band President Artur Szerejko.
The PCHS Band’s involve-
ment came as these things often
do. Jones, a senior associate of
PriceWaterhouseCoopers,knew
aguywhoknewaguywhoknew
about the band and put Jones,
26, in touch with band director
Bob Vitti.
This was not the first time
the band has taken part in an
unorthodox performance: in
2005 the band travelled to Ber-
muda to take part in the island’s
500th
anniversary and they also
performed in “Spider-Man 3.”
“I get a lot of calls,” Vitti
said.“Sometimestheyforgetwe’reaneducational
institution.”
This, however, seemed pretty interesting, so
Vitti told Jones they would help him out.
Jones, originally from Kansas City, made a
donation to the band and after emails and phone
callsbackandforthwithVitti,
everythingwasreadytogofor
the big day.
More than 100 band mem-
bers headed into New York
CityonJune9andmetupwith
Jones, who, although a little
nervous, joked and chatted
with the students while waiting for Leclaire, 29,
to arrive at Bryant Park.
Vitti had suggested that for the highest
“wow factor,” Jones should wear one of the
uniforms and so Jones borrowed a drum major
uniform—Szerejko’s to be exact—but forgot to
wear black shoes.
“He needed black shoes to match the uniform,
so he had to resort to switching with a tuba player
who had the same shoe size,”
Szerejko said, who added that
Jones’ brown shoes would have
prevented him from looking
“spiffy.”
“He forgot the shoes but at
least he remembered the ring,”
said band parent Johnna Roca,
who was there taking pictures
of the event.
Leclaire, who was told she
was meeting Jones and his boss
forlunch,wasbroughttothepark
by a close friend. When she got
there, an unknown person took
her by the hand and led her over
to a table with a white tablecloth
and a red rose in a vase on it.
Immediately afterwards, the
woman, along with her fellow
NY Steppers, started dancing
to Michael Jackson’s “The Way
You Make Me Feel”—because
whatisaproposalwithoutaflash
mob as well.
As Michael Jackson faded
out, the band started up and
marched into Bryant Park playing a rendition of
“Hey Baby, I Wanna Know If You’ll You Be My
Girl,” arranged by Vitti.
By the time the song drew
to a close, Leclaire was in
tears and then Jones, still
in uniform, broke out of the
formation.
When he took off his hat
and knelt down, he looked
like Prince Charming, said Roca.
“It was like a fairytale,” she said.
As in every good fairytale, the guy always gets
thegirlandthisisnoexception.Leclairesaid“yes”
and the two plan to be married next year.
Craig Jones dips his brand new fiancée Allison Declaire while
friends and family look on and the Port Chester High School
Marching Band plays in the background on Saturday, June 9 in
New York City’s Bryant Park. Photos by Johnna Roca
The Port Chester High School Marching Band plays
“Hey Baby, I Wanna Know If You’ll You Be My Girl” in Bryant Park.
Allison Declaire says “yes” to Craig Jones’ marriage proposal.
To see a video of the flash mob,
the Port Chester High School
MarchingBandandCraigJones’
over-the-top wedding proposal,
visit westmorenews.com.
non-retired candidates for the
position must first be consid-
ered,” according to NYSED’s
website. Furthermore, this is
only a temporary placement
and there must be a “plan for
recruitment” to hire a qualified
non-retired person.
Even if a waiver were ap-
proved for Mele for next year,
the board would still have to
find someone new for the year
after that, Schuster said.
In order to hire Mele part-
time this year following her
retirement, the school district
was able to meet the salary cap
regulationsbyappointingherin
both 2011 and 2012. She was
appointed as a 0.8 FTE French
teacherfromAug.31untilDec.
31, 2011 at a per diem rate of
$399.33 and for Jan. 3 until
June 21, 2012 at a per diem rate
of $270.22. Overall, Mele was
paid more than $30,000, but
since it was less than $30,000
in 2011 and again less than
$30,000 in 2012, the school
district did not have to apply
for the waiver. The district,
however, could not continue
in the same vein next autumn
because it will still be 2012.
“The district has been ex-
tremely fortunate to have had
Joan Mele as long as we have
and it’s with regrets that she
won’t be retuning in the fall,”
Schuster said.
Despite the outcry at the
school board meeting, the board
unanimously voted to appoint
Elizaveta Dukalskaya as a .06
FTE French teacher effective
Sept. 1, 2012 untilJune 30, 2013
at a pro-rated salary of $40,790.
Newpart-timeFrenchteacherhired
despiteoutcrybyB.B.community
Continued from page 1
and committing interstate domestic violence and stalking. In
addition, Novack was found guilty of interstate transportation of
stolen property and two counts of money laundering and Veliz
was found guilty of two counts of tampering with a witness.
They will be sentenced on Nov. 1 at 10 a.m. by United States
District Judge Kenneth M. Karas, who presided over the trial.
“NarcyNovackandherbrother,CristobalVeliz,willnowhave
to answer for the blood of Ben Novack and his elderly mother,”
said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in a press release. “Today, a
federal jury convicted the defendants of two gruesome, sadistic
andultimatelyfatalattacks,alongwithacatalogueofothercrimes.
Motivated by greed, the defendants and their coconspirators
assiduously plotted their fatal crime spree for over two years,
then attempted to cover their tracks by plotting to kill an essential
witness—all while Narcy Novack was attempting to take control
of her murdered husband’s assets. Justice was served today, and
now punishment will be meted out to these defendants.”
Ben and BerniceNovack were members of the wealthyfamily
thatbuilttheFontainebleauHotelinMiamiBeach,Fla.Ben,who
was52atthetimeofhisdeath,ownedNovackEnterprises,Inc.,a
companythatorganizedandoversawconventions.Bernicewas86
at the time of her death and was secretary of Novack Enterprises.
“We’ve been following the case all along,” said ChiefAustin.
“EventhoughitisbeingprosecutedbytheU.S.Attorney’sOffice,
our department played an active role. I sat through several days
of testimony.”
He was pleased with the verdict.
“ThejuryhadalotofevidencetoconsiderandI’mverypleased
with the verdict they came out with,” said Austin. “It was a long
investigation, a long trial and a lot of elements to consider and
I’m glad the jury came up with the verdict that they did.”
Thereisnowasenseofreliefthatthischapterofthecaseisover.
“Now it’s done and that chapter of this case is over, but this
has been a 3-year-long investigation and we’re glad it’s done,”
said Austin. “It’s been a long road.”
Terence Wilson, Rye Brook’s lead investigator, was involved
with the witness preparation with the prosecutors. He was on the
witness list but didn’t end up testifying. Rye Brook Detective
Steve Goralick, who retired a year ago, testified twice about
“things he did with downloading the key code information from
the doors and the securing of the surveillance tape from the
Hilton,” said Austin.
“Terry and the detectives also solved Bernice Novack’s
homicide which was originally determined to be an accident,”
said Austin. “They were an integral part of that.”
Chief Austin said a “multitude” of Rye Brook police man
hours went into the investigation. However, he said, “I never
added it up.”
Lt.MatthewssaidWilsontraveledupanddowntheEastCoast
between Rye Brook and Miami in the course of the investigation.
“He traveled to Ft. Lauderdale, Philadelphia, Rhode Island
and Kentucky with investigators from the Westchester County
DA’s Office,” said Austin.
Matthews said, and Austin concurred, that the detectives
“never let the case rest until an arrest was made.”
BhararapraisedtheRyeBrookPoliceDepartmentaswellasthe
FBI, prosecutors and investigators from the Westchester County
District Attorney’s Office, the Westchester County Department
of Safety and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for
their cooperative work in this investigation and prosecution.
Working on a case like this is not an everyday occurrence,
especially for police officers in a quiet little village like Rye
Brook where their jobs are largely service oriented.
“Itwasexciting,aonce-in-a-lifetimeexperiencetohaveacase
like this happen during your career, especially when you have
such success with the result,” Chief Austin concluded.
Hiltonmurderverdicthandeddown,
RyeBrookpoliceplayedintegralpart

4. Rye Brook
Westmore
NEWSVol. 50 No. 25 • An edition of Westmore News
Friday, June 20 -Thursday, June 26, 2014
Here’s what’s inside
People..............................2
10573 Events...................5
Nearby Events..................6
Opinion..........................8-9
Sports........................12-14
Arts & Entertainment....15-16
Religious Services..........16
Police Briefs...................17
Classifieds.................18-19
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Celebrating Our 50th
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For more photos, page 11
Blind Brook board mum on details
about controversial music teacher
Residents flood
Board of Education
with emails
By Claire K. Racine
The only name Blind Brook Board of
Education President Nancy Barr mentioned
was that of the board’s legal counsel when
she addressed the audience before opening up
public comments at the school board meeting
on Monday, June 16. When freshman Samuel
Landino stepped up to the podium, he, too,
did not name names. In a continuing trend, not
a single name was mentioned by parent and
PTA co-president Debbie Handler or during
6th
grader Evan Dogus’s brief statement that
followed.
No one, on either side, ever said what or
who exactly they were talking about.
The man on nobody’s lips was Gabriel
DeAngelo.
The case against him
In March 2010, the school board at the
time charged DeAngelo, a tenured teacher in
the music department who joined Blind Brook
in the 1990s and served as a choral teacher at
both the high school and middle school, with
conduct unbecoming a teacher, incompetence
and misconduct. After two pre-hearing con-
ferences and a series of evidentiary hearings
that stretched into 2012, a State Education
Department hearing officer
found DeAngelo guilty
of some, but not all of the
chargesleveledagainsthim.
Forfailingtoalertparents
during a progress report that
theirstudentswereindanger
of failing grades and adver-
tising to the faculty he had
an apartment to rent using
the district’s email system,
DeAngelo was found guilty
of conduct unbecoming a
teacher, incompetence and
misconduct. He was found
guilty of conduct unbecom-
ing and misconduct for
telling a student in class he
or she did not have to sing
as the student’s mother had
called the principal. Because he was absent
the day he was supposed to proctor a test and
failed to alert the district he would be late to
class a different day, he was found guilty of
only incompetence.
On all other charges, the hearing officer
found him not guilty.
“Theappropriatepenaltyinthiscaseisafine
oftwothousandfivehundred($2,500)dollars,”
the hearing officer wrote in his statement and
signed on July 24, 2012. He also instructed the
districttoreinstateDeAngelotothepositionhe
heldwhenthechargeswere
filed against him.
In total, the district es-
timated that the litigation
cost Blind Brook about
$118,000. In comparison,
DeAngelo’s salary for the
2012-13 school year was
just under that at $116,801.
Reinstated, just not
to a classroom
Despite the fact that
DeAngelodidnotappearin
theclassroomthefollowing
autumn, Superintendent
William Stark said the
district followed what the
hearing officer had to say.
“Thedefinitionofsome-
onebeingreturnedtotheirpositionmeansthey
are put back in their tenure area to do work
according to those lines,” Stark said. Deciding
how teachers are allocated is at the discretion
of the superintendent, and while Stark said he
did not want to go into the details, DeAngelo
is currently working on projects related to
music education.
Gabriel DeAngelo
A PHOTO INCLUDED IN A 2010
BLIND BROOK STAFF DIRECTORY.
Please turn to page 10
BBHS grad to lead Yankees panel
at library in honor of his father
By Claire K. Racine
When Vincent Barbarisi of
Rye Brook died in October, his
family decided they wanted to do
something a little different in his
memory. So was born the Vincent
Barbarisi Memorial Fund for the
Port Chester-Rye Brook Public
Library.
“Hewasalwayssomeonewho
really loved the library,” his son
Daniel said. “He loved books,
reading,history.WhenIwasakid,
healwaystookmetothatlibrary.”
Honoring his dad with a fund
that could help bring knowledge
and excitement to other Rye
Brook and Port Chester residents
through a series of sponsored
events seemed perfect. For their
first event on Thursday, June 26,
the Barbarisis turned to family
connections and somehow the
idea came up for a sports-themed
panel led by Daniel, who covers
the New York Yankees for the
Wall Street Journal, where he
started working in 2011.
Vincent, who was born and
raisedintheBronx,wasadevoted
Yankee fan and passed that on to
his kids.
“He absolutely would take us,
mysisterandI,togames,”Daniel
said, talking about his sister
Rachel. “It was an experience
we were able to share together.”
Danielevencelebratedatleast
onebirthdayataYankeegame,his
mother, Barbara Goodstein, said,
complete with his name spelled
outonthejumbotron.Danielgrew
up playing baseball, going to a
month-long camp for the sport
severalsummersandmadeitasfar
as the varsity team in high school
beforequicklygettingcut.Hedid,
however, enjoy playing on the JV
team. “I wasn’t good enough to
advance really past that,” he said.
Despite being Yankee sup-
porters, the Barbarisi family was
thrilled when he became a sports
reporter, even if he started out
covering the Boston Red Sox.
“It was a great beat,” his
mother said, adding that she is
thrilled to have him back in New
York now.
A graduate of Blind Brook
HighSchoolin1997,Danielwrote
for the school newspaper, Focus,
and also for the Westmore News.
“They were the first people nice
enoughtopaymetowrite,”hesaid.
The pool of journalists Daniel
knows and interacts with on
a regular basis has grown sig-
nificantly from those early days.
Whenhereachedouttohisfellow
Yankee reporters, many of them
were game for the idea.
“Iwasabletotalkwithsomeof
the other writers who work with
me and they were willing to sit
down,” he said.
“I just think it’s wonderful
that Dan’s in the position to put
this kind of panel together for the
library,”saidBarbara,whojoined
the library board of trustees in
September. “It’s consistent with
the thoughts behind putting the
fund together to not only bring
folks to the library but have an
event that relates to reading and
writing.”
Print, web, radio and televi-
sion are all represented in the
panel that will be moderated by
Daniel. Bryan Hoch, theYankees
beat reporter for MLB.com,
Chad Jennings, the Yankees
beat reporter for The Journal
News, Meredith Marakovits,
the Yankees clubhouse reporter
for the YES Network, Wally
Matthews, the Yankees beat
reporter for ESPN, and Sweeny
Murti, the Yankees beat reporter
for Sportsradio WFAN, will all
be participating.
Getting all the reporters to-
gether was tricky given their
intense travel schedules and the
need to have it on a day without
a Yankee game.
“Not only are we able to pull
together the best Yankees’sports
journalists, but to get them in a
place that’s not a baseball sta-
dium, I think, it’s very unusual,”
Barbara said.
The event is expected to last
about an hour and a half. The
first 45 minutes to an hour will
be a discussion by the reporters
aboutlifeonthebeat,theYankees
themselves and issues that sur-
round the team. At least the last
half hour will be a Q & A allow-
ing the audience to chime in and
ask questions for the reporters to
field. Refreshments will follow
the question and answer session.
While the event is free, Daniel
said anyone interested can, of
course, donate to the library.
The Art and Science of Sports Journalism:
Covering the New York Yankees
Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library
Thursday, June 26 at 6:30 p.m.
R.B.native
CharlieScopoletti
toco-headlineat
CapitolTheatre
For the story, page 10
Thrills&spills
galorebefore
Firefighters
winRyeBrook
LittleLeague
softballtitle
For the story, page 12
JUNE
22
TastingPeru
Festival&Expo
Crawford Park,
122 N. Ridge
St., Rye Brook.
12-7 p.m.
The event is
to promote
Peruvian cuisine and Peru
in general.
For the full listing, page 5

5. 10 WESTMORE NEWS | Friday, June 20, 2014
According to the district’s online directory,
DeAngelo is a teacher in the music department but
worksinthedistrictclerk’sofficerinthedistrictoffice.
“As long as you’re not asking someone to do
somethingoutoftheirtenurearea,youcanaskpeople
to do things that take them out of the classroom and
we’ve done that with other teachers,” Stark said.
“Instruction,professionaldevelopment—that’sreally
along the same lines.”
The Blind Brook grapevine
While no one would go into specifics regarding
why DeAngelo’s situation war-
ranted closed-door meetings, the
schoolboarddidmeetinexecutive
discussion to discuss the topic in
recent weeks. Somehow the word
gotouttothepublicandtherumor
mill ran away with it.
Parents circulated emails shar-
ing the information as they had it
and urging each other to contact
the Board of Education.The com-
munity certainly did that, sending
about 100 emails to the school
boardinonlyaboutaweek’stime.
“It was like a game of tele-
phone,” said Board President
NancyBarr.“Eachemailthatcame
in had a slightly different fact pat-
tern. Many people admitted they
didn’t know what was going on but this was what
they heard and others had more personal experience
they could speak to.”
Furtherexacerbatingthesituationwasinformation
also circulating that Daniel Boniello, a well-liked
music teacher, was considering a job in another
district. Boniello, who started at Blind Brook about
two and a half years ago, works part-time.
“They’re really two separate issues,” Barr said.
“I think there was a timing issue that made people
connect the two.”
“It definitely added to the number that wrote in,”
said board member Jeff Diamond. “Some people
were more interested in one or the other and some
were interested in both.”
Holdingapart-timeposition,Bonielloisappointed
at the start of each school year and Diamond said the
job is still slated for next year.
The board could also offer Boniello a full-time
position or he could choose to take a job elsewhere.
“There is nothing official to report at this time,”
Diamond said.
Public discussion about no one
Handler, the PTA co-president, addressed both
topics when she spoke before the school board on
June 16.
“In the past week you have had many emails
from the parents in this district on two separate, yet
unfortunatelyintertwined,issues,”theRockinghorse
Trail resident said. “I know that part of the board’s
responsibility is to maintain a sound fiscal infra-
structure and that is a responsibility that cannot be
takenlightly.However,evenmoreimportantthanthe
fiscal responsibility is the responsibility you have to
each child in this district. The safety and wellbeing
of our children must always be the number one,
primary concern.”
Onlytwootherpeople,bothstudents,spokeatthe
meeting,butHandlersaidthePTAdiscouragedlarge
numbers of people from turning out as there was not
anything officially on the agenda about the topic.
“We as a whole community pride ourselves on
having an outstandingly safe environment in which
learning can take place,” said Landino, who lives on
North Ridge Street.
“Therefore it is imperative that the honorable
board here rules to maintain their stellar record of
havingqualifiedteachersteachatBlindBrookandof
even more importance that the student body’s safety
is upheld,” the freshman added.
The board, uncertain that the community would
be as careful in their remarks as they were, opted to
havelegalcounselpresentatthemeeting,something
that does not usually happen.
“It would be very difficult for us to maintain the
morale throughout the schools if teachers felt they
could be subject to open public attacks,” explained
board member Ryan Goldstein.
“Weneverknowwhatsomeone’sgoingtosayand
we want to ensure the district does not find itself in
a situation where it could be held liable or anyone
else in the room could be held liable for what’s said,”
Stark said. “It turned out it was not really necessary,
but you only know that after the fact.”
“I was impressed with the students who spoke,
who tried to be very diplomatic and general in their
comments,” Barr said.
DeAngelo likely to resign in 2015
Two days after that public meeting, the district
sentoutanemailblastalertingthepublictoahastily-
scheduled meeting on Friday morning at 8 a.m. The
board expects to vote on an agreement between
DeAngelo and the district.
“I think this was the best outcome for the dis-
trict,” Barr said. “The Board of Education is very
committed to doing what’s right by the students and
we would never do anything that we felt was not in
their best interests.”
If adopted and ratified, DeAngelo will officially
resign from Blind Brook on June 30, 2015.
“He will be with the district in some capacity for
another year, but then he’s agreed to leave at that
point to retire,” Diamond said.
“Part of the agreement is that he would have
another year because that was something that was
important to him,” Barr said. “I don’t think he’ll
be in a classroom. I think he’ll be doing more cur-
riculum work.”
While the school board may want to disclose
more details and explain the situation, legally their
hands are tied.
“The only way to explain to
peoplethingsthatmaymakethem
feel differently is by disclosing
info that we’re not allowed to,”
Goldstein said.
“It’s just the way due process
worksinthepublicschoolsystem,
at least in New York,” Diamond
said. “The public has to trust that
the school administrators and the
elected board members are taking
all of the information and coming
up with a reasonable decision on
somethinglikethisbecausewecan’tshareourthink-
ing and it’s unfortunate because there’s a tendency
for people to use a piece of info or a rumor and jump
to conclusions and that’s the most frustrating part
when you can’t set it straight.”
Nobody wins
InDiamond’sopinion,noonewinsinthissituation:
notDeAngelo,notthedistrict,notstudents,nottaxpay-
ers. “All he was found guilty for was a hodgepodge
of smaller charges and that essentially created this
wholesituation,”Diamondsaid.“It’saloseallaround.
The district went to a lot of trouble and expense and
time and just—it created a situation without a good
resolution for anybody. It’s just too bad.”
“It’s an unfortunate end to an unfortunate story,”
Diamond added.
Why exactly the school board and administration
did what they did will likely never be known. They
can’t—and won’t—discuss their rationale, despite
how much they may wish to do just that.
As Diamond said, the only person who possibly
could shed some light on the situation is DeAngelo
himself. He, however, did not respond to an email
from Westmore News.
L.I.asst.principaltobecome
BBMS/HSasst.principal
By Claire K. Racine
A new administrator is
joining the Blind Brook com-
munity. Derek Schuelein will
be taking over as the assistant
principal for the Blind Brook
Middle and High schools, ef-
fectiveJuly7.TheBlindBrook
Board of Education unani-
mously approved his appoint-
ment with a salary of $128,000
at their June 16 meeting.
“Mr.Schueleinwasselected
as part of a screening process
thatincludedstudents,parents,
faculty, staff, administrators,
the Board of Education and
me,” Superintendent William
Stark wrote in an email to the
community. “He brings a wealth of experience to the position.”
InthereshufflethatfollowedGinaHealy’sdecisiontoleaveBlind
Brook High School last year, Stark tapped then BBMS Principal
Pat Lambert to become the chief administrator at the high school
and thenAssistant Principal Todd Richard stepped in as the interim
middleschoolprincipalforthe2013-14schoolyearwhilethedistrict
conducted a search to permanently fill the position at the middle
school. Richard has since been confirmed as the official principal
at the middle school and the search was discontinued.
For the current school year, Laura Neier, who previously served
as a senior educational specialist in the office of teacher effective-
ness in New York City, acted as the interim assistant principal with
duties at both the middle and high school. After almost a year-long
search, Schuelein was the successful candidate to take over the
post next year.
Schuelein is a tenured assistant principal at Lindenhurst High
School on Long Island. Previously he served as an assistant prin-
cipal at a New York City high school, as a master scheduler and as
a social studies teacher.
The day the school board interviewed Schuelein, he traveled
from his home in Yorktown Heights to Lindenhurst, then to Rye
Brook to speak with the Board of Education, back to Long Island
as it happened to be his school’s prom, and finally full circle back
to his home in Yorktown Heights.
“That’s what I call dedication,” Board President Nancy Barr
said on June 16. “We look forward to having you in our schools.”
Schuelein thanked Stark and the school board.
“I’m looking very much forward to jumping in this summer and
even more, looking forward to next fall and meeting the students,”
he said.
Derek Schuelein
R.B.nativeCharlieScopoletti
toco-headlineatCapitolTheatre
Rye Brook native and two-time cancer survivor Charlie
Scopoletti has used his musical talent as a singer-songwriter to
raise more than $100,000 for charities. He takes the stage again,
co-headliningatTheCapitolTheatrewithDuncanSheik,tobenefit
the Make-A-Wish Foundation on Friday, June 27.
OriginallydiagnosedwithHodgkin’sDiseaseatjust10yearsold,
Scopoletti utilized music to aid his recovery. Later, while touring in
2006,hewasdiagnosedwiththyroidcancer.Recently,theBlindBrook
High School graduate spoke at the second annual Port Chester-Rye
Brook Relay for Life. His music draws from his experiences and his
recent single, “This Wish,” is a tribute to the foundation and aimed
at inspiring hope in Wish Kids around the world.
This is Scopoletti’s second appearance at The Capitol Theatre
andhe’steamingupwithSheik,knownforhistop20single“Barely
Breathing” and Broadway sensation “Spring Awakening” that
won him two Tony Awards and a Grammy, for the 8 p.m. show.
A portion of ticket sales will go toward the mission of granting
the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions.
Ticket range from $25 to $75 and can be purchased at the box of-
fice Monday-Thursday from 2-6 p.m., Friday and Saturday from
12-6 p.m. and Sundays on show nights after 12 p.m. or online at
thecapitoltheatre.com.
Charlie Scopoletti
Blind Brook board mum on details
about controversial music teacher
Continued from page 1
“The only way to explain to people
things that may make them feel
differently is by disclosing info that
we’re not allowed to.”
­—Ryan Goldstein, Blind Brook board memeber
“It’s unfortunate because there’s
a tendency for people to use a
piece of info or a rumor and
jump to conclusions and that’s
the most frustrating part when
you can’t set it straight.”
­—Jeff Diamond, Blind Brook board memeber

6. Rye Brook
Westmore
NEWSVol. 50 No. 15 • An edition of Westmore News
Friday, April 11 -Thursday, April 17, 2014
Here’s what’s inside
People..............................2
10573 Events...................5
Nearby Events..................6
Police Briefs.....................7
Opinion..........................8-9
Sports........................12-14
Arts & Entertainment....15-16
Religious Services..........16
Classifieds.................18-19
Your Village,
Your Paper,
Your News
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100
per copy
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4700
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Tel: 914-939-6864
Fax: 914-939-6877
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/WestmoreNews
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www.westmorenews.com
38 Broad Street
Port Chester, NY 10573-4197
Locally owned
and operated
since 1964
Celebrating Our 50th
Year
Veterans win in Blind BrookBy Claire K. Racine
A split school board voted in favor of
providing tax relief for wartime veterans. On
the flip side, all other residents in the Blind
Brook School District will have to make up
the difference of the shift
in assessments.
Towards the beginning
of the meeting on Monday,
Apr. 7, Knute Numme of
Comly Avenue urged the
board to remember the men
who put their lives on the
line and to vote in favor
of the school alternative
veterans’exemption,signed
into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo last
December. “I would give it a lot of consider-
ation,” he said.
A veteran of the Korean War, Numme
qualifies for the exemption as do those who
served in World War II, the Vietnam War and
thePersianGulfConflict.Veteranswhodidnot
serve during a period of war but who earned
expeditionary medals also qualify. Similarly,
Gold Star Parents, those whose children died
in the line of service, will receive some of the
benefits.
Dick Hubert, an out-
spoken proponent for
the exemption and army
veteran, again advocated
in favor of the tax relief,
saying that in addition to
puttinglifeandlimbonthe
line, veterans also sacri-
ficedfinanciallybyputting
careers on hold while they
served their country. In
addition to supporting veterans, the district
will also benefit from the exemption, the
Doral Greens resident explained, because
it will encourage veterans to move to or
stay in Blind Brook. “I think it would be
wonderful if Blind Brook put a ‘welcome
Korean War veteran Knute Numme of
Comly Avenue speaks in support of the
alternative veterans’ exemption at the
Blind Brook Board of Education meeting
on Monday, Apr. 7.
CLAIRE K. RACINE|WESTMORE NEWS
Nancy Barr
‘Nay’
“It shifts the tax burden
to other taxpayers in the
community.”
Jeff Diamond
‘Yea’
“It’s an opportunity for
non-vets to give back.”
Ryan Goldstein
‘Yea’
“I think it’s a privilege to
be up here and have the
opportunity to thank vet-
erans that have obviously
provided the freedom that
we all benefit from.”
Dan Savitt
‘Nay’
“I think this should be
handled at the a state
level. I think this should
be handled at the federal
level.”
Glen Schuster
‘Yea’
“It is definitely, I feel, the
right thing to extend the
benefit.”
School taxes
to increase for
non-wartime
veterans
Please turn to page 11
Library gets a 3D printer and you can use it
By Claire K. Racine
ThePortChester-RyeBrookPublicLibrary
just got a new printer, which is not normally
something that warrants a newspaper article.
In this circumstance, however, rather that
printing out a picture of an iPhone case that a
patron may be considering, this machine will
print out the actual case.
In3Dprinting,virtualdesignsgetconverted
into reality. Starting with a digital blueprint, a
3Dprintermeltsspecialplasticandthenbuilds
upthechosenitemlayerbyextremelythinlayer.
Thenotionofgettinga3Dprinterfirstcameup
atatechnologyseminarofferedbytheWestchester
LibrarySystemthatPC-RBlibrarystaffersChris
Hernandez and Adrian Pina attended.
“We were fascinated by the whole idea,”
Pina said. “Our eyes were just opened to all
the possible ideas.”
After the workshop, they immediately
started strategizing about how to get one for
the Port Chester/Rye Brook community.
Unlike a normal printer which anyone can
pop over to Staples and pick up for $24.99,
3D printers are a bit more exclusive. Just like
mosttechnology,thepriceshavedroppedsince
they were first introduced, but a MakerBot
Replicator5th
GenerationDesktop3DPrinter—
the one the library ended up going with—still
costs about $3,000 with all its necessary ac-
coutrements and insurance. Waiting until they
collected enough fines from late books did not
seemaviableoption.Instead,thelibrarylooked
to “The Port Chester-Rye Brook Friends of the
Library” for help and the Friends delivered.
Library Director Robin Lettieri thinks the
whole community will benefit from the new
technology.Thosefromallwalksoflifecanfind
usesfortheprinter,butthosewithcareerssuch
asarchitects,whocouldmakebuildingmodels,
inventors, who could develop prototypes, or
artists, who could craft small-scale versions
of larger artwork, are more readily apparent.
“We do have a big artist community,”
Lettieri added.
Don’t worry, you can download it
The sky’s the limit when it comes to 3D
printing.
“As long as you can design it, you can print
it,” said Hernandez on Tuesday, Apr. 8 during
a demonstration of the MakerBot.
Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library staffer Chris Hernandez demonstrates the new
3D printer to 10-year-old Noah Rotfeld of Betsy Brown Road. Besides the large ring
being printed in plastic on Tuesday, Apr. 8, library staffers have created bracelets, animal
bones, pen holders and toys on the MakerBot. CLAIRE K. RACINE|WESTMORE NEWS
Please turn to page 10
Learningto
livehealthy
For the story, page 10
Airport
operatorto
droplawsuit
For the story, page 10
BlindBrook
girls’lacrosse
startsthe
season0-3
For the story, page 12
B.B.baseball
picksupfirstwin
For the story, page 13
Dining
Out About
You don’t have to
go far to find
great food.
Just look inside!
A Supplement
to the
Six new
restaurants
under
construction
Pages 5-7
Your guide to eating out
in Port Chester, rYe Brook
and surrounding areas
Dining
Out About
A special pullout section about dining
in Rye Brook, Port Chester
and surrounding areas

7. Friday, April 11, 2014 | WESTMORE NEWS 11
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QAabouttheVets’Exemption
Do veterans need to sign up?
Yes and no.Veterans who already receive the exemption on town
and village taxes are already signed up and do not need to do
anything. Those who do not receive them or who currently get
the Change in Level Veterans Exemption (formerly known as
“Eligible Funds Veterans Exemption”) need to fill out forms for
the Town of Rye Office of the Assessor and provide discharge
papers as evidence of service.
What about Gold Star Parents?
They are eligible for part of the exemptions and need to fill out
the appropriate application.
How do veterans
and Gold Star Parents sign up?
The application is available online at tax.ny.gov and the forms
are available by contacting the Rye Town assessment office at
(914) 939-3566.
When do all the forms
need to be submitted?
May 1, 2014 is the deadline in order for the exemption to apply
to the 2015-16 school taxes.
mat’ out for Afghanistan and Iraq veterans,” he said.
Currently in Blind Brook, there are a total of 164 veterans who
are eligible. Forty-six of them served in combat zones and six are
disabled veterans—both of those qualifications result in a greater
tax exemption. These numbers could go up if other veterans decide
to register.
As board member Dan Savitt put it, one in seven households
qualify and the other six have to make up the difference. The other
residents taking on more of the burden was the number one reason
that Savitt and Board President Nancy Barr disagreed with the
exemption.
Barr said, “It shifts the tax burden to other taxpayers in the com-
munity”—thesamesentimentsheexpressedatthelastboardmeeting.
Similarly, all five board members stuck to their previous opinions,
with no changed minds despite the past two weeks. Between Board
Vice President Glen Schuster and the other two board members, Jeff
Diamond and Ryan Goldstein, in support, they had the necessary
votes to pass the resolution allowing the exemption.
Setting the limit
Before adopting the exemption, the board had to determine how
much it should be, with limits set as to the maximum allowed to be
deducted from a home’s assessed value.
Both Barr and Savitt, who did not think the exemption fair to all
residents, argued that a low maximum should be set so the burden
would not shift excessively. The school board could always raise
the exemption in the future, Barr said, and the low amount is “the
fairest thing we can do under the circumstances.”
Given that Blind Brook has high property values, Diamond said,
in order for veterans to really see a benefit, the district needed to
adopt the greatest exemption, the same as Westchester County and
Rye Town. “To have any meaning whatsoever, we should adopt at
the highest number,” he said.
Both Schuster and Goldstein agreed with Diamond’s reasoning.
Savitt, however, saw that as the exact reason not to adopt the highest
amount. That makes it “more expensive for everyone else to live,”
he said. “I question the logic a little bit.”
With the three pro-exemption board members in support of the
high exemption, that is what ultimately was passed in a 3-2 vote.
A gray issue
Despite voting in favor of it, Schuster and Diamond said it is
not a clear cut issue.
“It’s not black and white,” Diamond said.
“There’s no obvious answer,” Schuster added.
With the exemption in play, the districtwide homestead assessed
valuation should be reduced by about $10,800,000. Decreasing as-
sessments cause a corresponding increase in the homestead tax rate.
Blind BrookAssistant Superintendent Jonathan Ross estimated that
theexemptionswouldincreasethehomesteadtaxrateby11.49cents
for all homeowners. On a home valued at $735,000—the district
average—andownedbyanon-eligibletaxpayer,thiswouldincrease
their annual tax bill by an estimated $85.
This will be reflected on the 2014 tax roll which means veterans
will see the benefit with their 2015-2016 tax bills.
The school board could decide to change the limits or repeal the
exemption entirely. Although some school districts, including Port
Chester, have opted not to enact the exemption because it does not
contain explicit language about repealing like the similar munici-
palities’ partial property tax exemption, this does not mean that it
cannot be revoked. According to State Assemblyman Steve Otis’s
office, the lack of that language was not an omission or oversight
but something not needed in the school law.
The municipality exemption is an opt-out law while the schools’
is an opt-in policy, Savitt further clarified.
This is backed up by the school district counsel’s interpretation
of the law.
“Our attorneys believe that anything we do as a resolution we
can, in the future, revoke if we find it necessary,” Barr said.
Veterans win in Blind Brook
Continued from page 1
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8. P.C. student residency checks
going faster than anticipated
By Claire K. Racine
ThePortChesterSchoolDistrict’sefforts
to track down out-of-district students are
going faster than initially expected with
10% of the student
population already
verified.
“As of right now,
we’re just about done
with our first random
sample,” Assistant
Superintendent Frank
Fanelli said.
With 440 students
verified, the district
plans to randomly
selectanotherbatchof
440studentsacrossallgradesandschoolsto
check, hopefully by March. When Alberto
Acevedo was hired in September as the
attendance officer to work with longtime
attendance officer Jack Guinta, who works
part-time, the plan was to randomly check
10% of students each year.
“Because we’re doing physical checks,
we didn’t know how much time it would
take,” Fanelli said. “We’ve gone much
faster than we thought we were going to.”
Ratherthantaking10yearstogetthrough
the entire school district, at this rate the
entire student body could be verified in
under four years.
In-depth investigations
Inadditiontotherandomlyselectedstu-
dents,Acevedo and Guinta also investigate
students suspected of not living in the
school district.
Already10studentstheywereuncertain
abouthavebeeninvestigatedandfoundtobe
legitimate residents.
There are another 25
investigations ongo-
ing and, out of those,
Fanelli said there is a
good possibility that
six of them will turn
out to be students
attending the Port
Chester schools ille-
gally. There are also
about 20 other leads
thedistrictispursuing.
Theassistantsuperintendentwarnedthat
foreverystudentaskedtoleave,thesavings
will not amount to what the district spends
per pupil, about $18,000, because it goes
towards the total program and educational
resources.
“Toactuallysaythat[$18,000]cancome
out of the budget—it’s not that simple a
mathematical formula,” he cautioned.
Out of all the investigations the district
has completed this year or has ongoing,
only one of them came from the random
selection.Twocamefromthenewlystarted
emailtipline.Alltherest,however,cameas
aresultofthedistrict’susualinvestigations,
often by following up on returned mail or
suggestions from school personnel.
For example, Fanelli was alerted by a
Here’s what’s inside
People..............................2
10573 Events...................5
Nearby Events...............5-8
Police Briefs.....................9
Opinion......................10-11
Sports........................14-18
Arts Entertainment....19-21
Religious Services..........20
Classifieds.................22-23
PORT CHESTER
Westmore
NEWSVol. 49 No. 51 • An edition of Westmore News
Friday, December 20 -Thursday, December 26, 2013
Your Village,
Your Paper,
Your News
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100
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Editor@westmorenews.com
/WestmoreNews
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www.westmorenews.com
38 Broad Street
Port Chester, NY 10573-4197
Locally owned
and operated
since 1964
Your guide to
eating out in
Port Chester,
Rye Brook and
surrounding areas.
Dining
Out About
You don’t have to go far to find great food.
Just look inside!
A Supplement to the
Dining
Out About
A special pullout section about dining
in Port Chester, Rye Brook
and surrounding areas
Holiday
sanitation
schedule
In celebration of Christmas
on Wed., Dec. 25, Monday,
Tuesday Thursday Friday
pickups will be unchanged.
There will be no curbside trash
and/or green waste pickup on
Wed., Dec. 25. Violators will
be subject to summons and
fines.
Is reregistration worth the effort?
Two nearby school districts say ‘no’
By Claire K. Racine
Several residents have called for the Port
Chester School District to reregister every
studentasawaytoweedoutnon-residentsand
thus decrease taxes. Although proponents of
reregistrationhavepointedatrecentinitiatives
inboththeOssiningandGreenwichschooldis-
tricts, neither district said the process resulted
in the removal of any out-of-district students.
“It didn’t yield us anything,” Ossining
Superintendent Raymond Sanchez told
Westmore News.
Based on research and conversations with
otherdistricts,suchasOssiningandGreenwich,
Port Chester Assistant Superintendent Frank
Fanelli has repeatedly stated that reregistra-
tion would not be a good use of the district’s
resources, be that time or money. What the
district is currently doing is actually more in-
depth and consequently more effective than
attempting to reregister every student enrolled
in Port Chester, Fanelli said.
Reregistering their entire student popula-
tion is exactly what Ossining chose to do and
startedthearduousprocessduringthe2009-10
school year.
“We did it over the course of two years,”
Sanchez said. “Eventually we did get every
student.Itwasjustmoremanageablethatway.”
Families were required to show three
original proofs of residency in the Ossining
School District and complete a re-registration
form. Although certified mail was sent out to
those who did not reregister, there were no
visits to check the actual homes of students.
Reregistration is a purely paper-based process
that does not involve the site visits that Port
Chesterschoolofficialsarecurrentlyinvolved
in to check student residency.
During the reregistration time period, nu-
merous families and students moved into the
Ossiningdistrictandothersmovedout,leaving
forotherdistricts,states,orcountries.Ofthose
wholeft,itisimpossibletotellifitwasbecause
they had heard about the reregistration or not.
The number of students who left the district
was well within normal standards.
In the superintendent’s opinion, there
were no benefits to holding the massive
reregistration.
“I’ll share why,” Sanchez said. “I think we
have a process that works right now, a system
in district to help ID students that don’t live
in the district. We address that aggressively.”
Whennewstudentsenterthedistrict,bethat
in kindergarten or another grade, they verify
the students’ residency through the document
checks.Usingthatasastartingpoint,thedistrict
also follows up on any information suggest-
ing that a student should not be attending and
conducts its own investigations.
For Sanchez, it was not worth the time
35 in-depth
student residency
investigations
since Sept. 2013
Cleared as valid residents............10
Likely to be removed........................6
Status still uncertain ....................19
Please turn to page 13
Please turn to page 13
200 strong gather to protest
at county board meeting
Resolution tabled; airport operator’s tax-exempt status still up in the air
By Claire K. Racine
More than 200 people showed up at the
Westchester Board of Legislators meeting on
Monday, Dec. 16 to protest a resolution to
grant Signature Flight Support Corporation
theassignmentofleasesatWestchesterCounty
Airport. The Blind Brook parents, teach-
ers, administers, school board members and
other district staff, as well as other Rye Brook
residents and officials from the village, town
and state governments turned out en masse
to express their frustration with Signature’s
lawsuit to become tax-exempt and with the
countylegislature’sdecisiontotakeaprovision
out of their resolution that could have put the
matter to bed for good.
“I thought the turnout was fantastic,”
said Rye Brook Mayor Paul Rosenberg, who
spoke at the meeting. “Rye Brook may be a
quiet village, but when people understand that
there are things that are really going to harm
the village and specifically our tax base, then
they certainly knew what the right thing to do
was and turned out in force.”
“I was so amazed and impressed by the
number of people who came out—not only
parents but teachers and students and other
staff from the school. We had administrators;
Blind Brook students Sam and Julia
Zarkower and Joshua Rosenblut pose
with Westchester County Legislator
David Gelfarb and Blind Brook
Superintendent William Stark at
the Board of Legislators meeting on
Monday, Dec. 16. Rosenblut’s Boy
Scout troop moved their own meeting
scheduled for Monday to the County
Board of Legislators meeting as they felt
it was their civic duty to attend.
COURTESY OF MICHAEL ROSENBLUT
Please turn to page 24
JazAcosta
winsfirst
KickOfftitle
For the story, page 14
Santacame
totownearly
togiveoutgifts
atLyonPark
For photos, page 12

9. Friday, December 20, 2013 WESTMORE NEWS 13
Local Chiropractor Confesses!
H
ello, my name is Dr. Susan C.
Friedman. I am a chiroprac-
tor and wellness consultant
practicing in Rye Brook, and I have
a confession. Before I get to that, I’d
like to tell you a story.
A number of years ago as a college
student I had a job as a cashier in a
large store that sold liquor and wine.
It was a pretty busy store but I must
admit, it was kind of a boring job,
standing around all day ringing up
customers, not my idea of exciting.
Personally, I like to be way more
physically active.
So I started to assist the “guys”
unpacking the cases of wine and oth-
er bottled spirits. I would lift cases
and bend down, reaching up on high
shelves, not really concerning myself
with proper lifting or carrying tech-
nique.QuitefranklyIdidn’tknowany
better nor did I care, after all I was
just a teenager!!
So, lo and behold, I injured my
back. This really surprised me. I had
always been active. I was an athlete,
bothaskierandgymnastsinceayoung
age. I was invincible, or so I thought!!
What a harsh reality to be bent
over in pain, barely able to hobble in to
my doctor’s office. So like many of the
patients I currently see, I went to my
medicaldoctorwhopromptlyprescribed
formeNaprosyn,ananti-inflammatory.
I was also instructed not to lift, bend or
twist for a period of 10 days.
WOW!!Whatadifference!!Within
about 3 days I was pain free and able
to move as desired. It was a miracle,
or so I thought.
After10daystheprescriptionbot-
tlewasemptyandIresumedmyusual
routine of activities. In less than 48
hours I was back to feeling crippled!!!
I learned very quickly that drugs
are not a solution, they are at best a
mask covering up the problem. But, I
was lucky, I had a friend named Sal,
hewasenrolledinschoolandlearning
artofspinaladjusting.Hedirectedme
to a chiropractor in my neighborhood
and within minutes after my first
chiropractic adjustment, my life was
changed forever.
Just like my patient Sabrina
S. from Mamaroneck - “Prior to my
treatmentIcouldn’twalkinanupright
position, and was mostly tipped to one
side. I could not get in or out of bed, a
chair or my car without excruciating
pain. From the very first visit, I felt
my pain lessen”
And then there is Norine T. from
Mt. Vernon. She suffered from back
pain and sciatica from herniated
discs – “pain began to spread to my
legs, groin and feet without warning”
She told me “my biggest fear is that I
wouldbecomecrippled”.Latershesaid
“Iamnowabletostandupstraightand
walkwithoutanypain.Goingtofamily
gatherings and enjoying myself is now
possible! Thank you Dr. Friedman
Staff, I am forever grateful”.
Then from around the globe there
is Ben a friend who after flying in to
NY from Israel said “I had tremen-
dous difficulty getting off the plane, I
required assistance. After 3 sessions
withDr.FriedmanIamrunningstairs
like a young boy.”
Withaccoladeslikethatofcourse
it’s easy to get a swelled head! Some
of my patients mistakenly think that
I’ve healed them.
So now it’s time to confess; What
my patients don’t understand and
what I didn’t understand as a teen-
ager is that as a chiropractor I work
to help correct the pinched nerves or
sprains and strains in the body, and
it’s the body that takes it upon itself
to begin healing. You see, any time
there is a pinched nerve in the body
the body cannot work efficiently. My
job is simply to track down where
things have gone wrong and then
help the body do what it does best.
Heal itself. And given the right cir-
cumstances it’ll do just that!
I know the work I do on a daily
basis provides great results, BUT
if anything deserves praise, it’s the
body’s ability to heal. It is my belief
that by helping people get their
bodies “in tune” I can help them take
control in a way they didn’t know
they could.
I am committed to helping as
many people as possible achieve the
best possible level of health.
TofindoutifIcanhelpyouplease
call my office today at 914-934-2000.
IamofferingaspecialCommunity
ServiceScreeningforpeoplewholive
and work in the area. We will use
non-invasive screening methods to
check for pinched nerves. If you have
apreviouslydiagnosedconditionthat
is not resolving, bring in your test
results for review.
The fee for this community
screeningis$27.00(usually$179.00).
Offer expires on January 3, 2014.
111 South Ridge Street
Rye Brook, NY
914-934-2000
Dr. Susan C. Friedman
Local Chiropractor Confesses!
and money because reregistration
did not supply the district’s staff
with helpful or new information.
Parents had to bring in their pa-
perwork at evening sessions that
staff had to stay late for and it
took about two years to get every
student.Attheendofit,thedistrict
was out approximately $20,000
with nothing really to show for it
and has no plans to do it again in
the near future.
“The times can always be dif-
ferent and dictate action, but right
now I don’t see it and I don’t see
recommending it,” Sanchez said.
Greenwich reregisters
all elementary students
Greenwichalsochosetorereg-
ister students as a way to combat
non-residentswithsimilarresults.
Starting last May and finishing
in October, Greenwich reregis-
teredstudentsinfirstthroughfifth
grade,inadditiontotheirstandard
practice requiring kindergarten-
ers, high school freshmen and
new students to provide proof of
residency.
“When kids come into our
system, we register them, and
when they transfer to the high
school, they come in and do the
process again,” Sage Woodward
told Westmore News.
After teaching for 12 years in
the Greenwich Public Schools,
Woodward became the residency
officerfortheTownofGreenwich
two years ago. In Greenwich, the
school budget is part of the town’s
operatingplanandtownstaffwere
repositionedforthereregistration.
Normally Woodward is the only
one in the residency office, but
four other full-time town staffers
were seconded to his office and
another person was temporarily
hired to assist with the effort.
LikeinOssining,parentshadto
provide evidence that they reside
in Greenwich, such as a current
lease,taxbill,mortgagestatement
or deed. They also had to bring in
notarizedpaperworkshowingthat
theywerethelegalguardianofthe
students.Furthermore,theyhadto
bring in a valid form of identifica-
tion such as a driver’s license or
passport and also two utility bills
for their address within a three-
month window.
“Nobody that came in and did
the verification was proven to be
fromoutoftown,”Woodwardsaid,
addingthatthenumberofstudents
in the district is always in flux and
it was impossible to tell if people
who left during that timeframe
did so because they were worried
about the reregistration.
Even though no non-resident
studentswerelocated,Woodward,
unlikeSanchez,didthinktherewas
a benefit to the process.
“It helps the townspeople. It
puts their minds at ease knowing
there aren’t people coming in and
using the schools,” Woodward
said.
The contrary, however, was
also true, he added. Some people
were upset because the end result
was not what they had expected.
To make sure the process
was efficient and effective, there
are plans to audit the program,
Woodward went on to say.
NY plates at Ct. schools
Greenwich’s reasons for orga-
nizing the K-5 registration, which
involved about 4,000 students,
were similar to those local resi-
dents have spoken about at Port
Chester school board meetings.
“One reason was we had
overcrowding at two of our el-
ementary schools,” Woodward
explained.“Wealsohadmanypar-
entscallinandsaytherewereNew
Yorkregisteredvehiclesdropping
off students at the schools.”
As to the second reason, the
exactoppositeallegationhasbeen
leveled in Port Chester: that cars
withConnecticutplateshavebeen
dropping off students.
Woodward looked into the is-
sue in Greenwich and uncovered
a slew of reasons for the license
plates that were completely
legitimate.
Sometimes it was a divorced
parent dropping off the students.
Other times it was the nanny. In a
few cases it was former NewYork
residentswhoeitherdidnotwantto
fully part with the state they loved
somuchornotwantingtopartwith
a license and registration that had
cost so much money.
“It’s tough for us. New York
and Connecticut—we constantly
rub elbows,” said Woodward.
Movingforward,Greenwichis
actually considering more domi-
cilechecks,likePortChesterdoes,
rather than relying as heavily on
paper documents.
Is reregistration worth the effort?
Continued from page 1
teacher on Tuesday that he had just moved to
Greenwich and spotted two high school students
nearhiscomplex.Immediately,thosetwostudents
were added to the caseload
for Acevedo and Guinta to
check into.
“Sometimesonecasewill
leadtoanothercase,”Fanelli
added.
Sincethebeginningofthe
school year there have been
eight residency hearings,
with two more on the books,
where those thought to not
live in the district can bring
in documentation to prove otherwise. Last year,
that was about the same number of hearings that
were held all school year.
“We’re above the number we did last year at
this time because of the extra person we have,”
Fanelli said, referring to Acevedo.
Ct. plates at NY schools
InregardstotherumorsofConnecticutlicense-
platedcarsdroppingoffstudents,Fanelli,Acevedo
and Guinta are planning to take turns going to
different schools.
“We’re going to actually try to actually
physicallyfollowthem.Nottailthemoranything,
but when the kids are dropped off, we’re going to
try to talk to the parents or whoever is dropping
them off,” Fanelli said. “How productive that’s
goingtobeisanothermatter.
We’ll have to wait and see.”
The school district is also
looking into another avenue
for verification.
“We got some idea that
there’s a database pos-
sibly that we can tap into
through the State Education
Department in order to look
at license plates,” the as-
sistant superintendent said.
They are not positive what benefit they will gain
from the NewYork State data portal but are look-
ing into the matter.
Additionally, when visitors stop into any of
the school buildings, either to meet with teach-
ers or pick up students, they have to sign in and
provide identification. Fanelli hopes to gather
information or gain tips through that method
that will assist Acevedo and Guinta with their
residency probes.
Residents with information about possible
out-of-district students can email Acevedo at
residencytips@portchesterschools.org.
Source of
in-depth probes
Random selection of
10% of students............................1
Email tip line.....................................2
Research by attendance officers....33
P.C. student residency checks
going faster than anticipated
Continued from page 1