Bronxville and Scarsdale region

The next regularly scheduled meeting for the Bronxville Board of Education is set for 7 p.m. Feb. 16 in the school.

On the agenda: flood mitigation proposal including a report from village officials and engineering consultants; long-range facilities planning update; the proposed 2012-13 calendar; current and next year’s budget remarks and tenure recommendations.

School board meetings are open to the public.

This came in recently from Eastchester Schools:

The Board of Education will hold its monthly work session at 8 p.m.  Feb. 14 in the EHS library. It will also air live on cable stations 78/24.

The focus will continue on preparation of the district budget for the 2012-13 school year. The initial preliminary presentation can now be seen on YouTube. Go to www.eastchester.k12.ny.us and click on the link. Please note that the budget is a work in progress and additional changes are anticipated

This came in today from Andrus:

ANDRUS held a baby shower on Feb. 5 to celebrate the new Early Learning Center at Tuckahoe’s Village Hall.

Guests were invited to help the agency prepare for its new Infant Care Program, welcoming babies this spring, and they brought highchairs, bouncers, rattles and diapers among other  items from the registry ANDRUS created for the event.

The shower was a terrific opportunity for friends and supporters to learn more about the Center from staff as well as from children currently enrolled in the child care program, Andrus representatives said.

To learn more about the new programs, visit www.andrus1928.org

Above: Children and parents of ANDRUS’ childcare program entertain guests with songs led by Heather Petrie of Concordia Conservatory. The Conservatory has provided music lessons at the childcare center for ten years as part of its service to the local community. Photo courtesy of Andrus.

Operation PROM is a non-profit organization that distributes dresses to local underprivileged girls so that everyone can go to their prom in style with confidence.

The Eastchester High School EGO is sponsoring this Dress It Forward initiative.

Please bring gently worn and laundered prom age/appropriate dresses to Room S210 in the high school anytime between March 8 and March 18.

Check your closets. Now is the time to donate those sweet 16 dresses, bridesmaids dresses, or prom dresses. Help us make a special day come true.

For more information, contact EGO advisor Phyllis Rothschild at prothschild@eastchester.k12.ny.us

Ford Neild of Bronxville and Aidan Connolly of Yonkers were promoted to the rank of junior black belt on Feb. 4, making them the ninth and 10th black belt graduates in the school’s 10-year history.

Ford, 12, is a seventh-grader at Bronxville Middle School; Aidan is a fifth-grader at P.S. 30 in Yonkers.

The boys underwent a three-hour test that included drills in kicking, punching, trapping, grappling, boxing, standup striking and clinching techniques. The test also included a two-mile run around the Eastchester High School track and 100 pushups each.

(Above: black belt graduates, Aidan Connolly, left, and Ford Neild pictured with their instructors, Kara Giangreco and Chuck Giangreco. Photo courtesy of Colette Connolly)

Just got this in from Concordia College:

Viji D. George this morning announced that he will step down from the presidency of Concordia College in Bronxville effective June 30, 2013.

“Periodic changes in leadership breathe new vision and direction into the life of an institution,” George said. “After 14 years in my post, I believe that it is the right time for a transition.”

“Dr. George has contributed enormously to the success that Concordia has enjoyed for more than the past decade, and we will miss his leadership,” said Concordia’s Board Chair Jean Hanson. “We will be extremely sorry to see him go, but we understand and respect his decision.”

George was elected Concordia’s president in April 1999, after serving almost 20 years on the faculty as a professor of psychology. During his presidency, the 130-year-old Lutheran college experienced steady growth. Operating revenues more than doubled, and enrollment grew by 44 percent.

Under his direction, the college received several of the largest gifts and grants in its history, added its first graduate degree program ( in special education) and launched a highly acclaimed nursing program.

The college invested strategically in its facilities, including a recent $5.6 million state-of-the-art energy savings project. Hee also spearheaded initiatives that strengthened the ties of the college with the local community through programs like the Business Breakfast series and Travel and Learn trips to India and elsewhere.

“I believe that Concordia is at a very healthy place, and it is time for a new president who can build on our successes,” George said.

Concordia’s Board of Regents has appointed a search committee of regents, faculty and staff to coordinate the selection of a new president.

“Concordia is a very special institution and finding the right person to be Concordia’s ninth president is the board’s top priority,” said  Hanson. “Concordia has a proud heritage. The board and all those associated with Concordia, including faculty and staff, take immense pride in the role Concordia plays in the lives of the students as well as Concordia’s place in the community. We look forward to continuing the long and successful traditions of Concordia well into the future.”

George has no immediate career plans.

“For now, I am focused on making sure that the presidential transition proceeds smoothly and meets with a successful conclusion in 2013,” he said.

George and his family have spent more than 30 years in the Bronxville community. His wife Janet is a Concordia graduate, and co-founder and co-owner of The Silk Road, an international home and apparel boutique in Bronxville.

Concordia is one of ten institutions nationwide making up the Concordia University System of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.

The Support Connection Inc. a non-profit organization that provides free, confidential support services for people affected by breast and ovarian cancer, offers several support groups and a teleconference option for those unable to attend groups in person.

To see if a group is near your home, visit www.supportconnection.com. Advanced registration is required for all groups, call 914-962-6402 or 1-800-532-4290.

The teleconferences are toll-free; call a few days ahead to learn how to participate. The next Ovarian Cancer Telephone Group will be held at 8 p.m. March 14; the telephone group for women recently diagnosed or in treatment for breast cancer is slated for 8 p.m. March 20.

The American Stroke Association has named Dr. Jeffrey L. Saver, professor of neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and director of the UCLA Stroke Center, the winner of its William Feinberg Award for Excellence in Clinical Stroke.

The award recognizes a Stroke Council Fellow actively involved in patient-based research who has made significant contributions to clinical stroke research.

He is a former Scarsdale resident and a 1977 graduate of Scarsdale High School.

Saver has been a stroke physician and scientist for nearly 20 years and has been a prinica; investigator or co-investigator on national and international trials covering a spectrum of stroke care. He was the principal investigator of the National Institute of Health FAST-MAG trial in which paramedics give magnesium to patients within the first minutes of stroke onset to protect the brain.

He also has trained more than 20 neurology fellows and created the UCLA Visiting Scholars Program for international vascular neuroscientists to perform clinical research within the UCLA Stroke Center.

The award was given to Saver on Feb. 2 during the American Stroke Association’s 2012 International Stroke Conference.

Concordia College’s George M. Yeager Collection of autographs, documents and letters by America’s financiers and wealth creators is being made available to schools, groups and organizations for educational tours; the room also can be rented for events.

The collection, discussed recently by financial advisory and historian Mike Fix during a talk at the Bronxville Rotary Club, includes written samples from entrepreneurs and their like from as far back as the early 18th Century.

For business people, the collection is similar to that of autograph and memorabilia collected by sporting, military or celebrity fans.

It is on permanent display at Concordia College’s Krenz Academic Center.

For information on the collection or to arrange a tour or room rental, contact Shanley Hanlon at 914-337-9300, Ext. 2157, or email Shanley.Hanlon@concordia-ny.edu

Not so fast, Mr. Astorino.

Responding to County Executive Rob Astorino’s announcement that his administration is well ahead of schedule on the affordablehousing settlement, Westchester County Board of Legislators Chairman Ken Jenkins says the self congratulations are premature.

The board, the Yonkers Democrat noted, hasn’t seen any report that shows that the county is in the clear on the decree reached with the federal government in 2009 that has had its share of challenges.

“The Westchester County Board of Legislators has yet to see any of the documentation to support the information in the Administration’s Quarterly Housing Report regarding the number of new fair and affordable housing units that are ‘in the pipeline,’ and so it’s difficult to respond accurately to such a simple declaration,” Jenkins said in an email. “The Administration’s self-congratulatory tone in its statement (Monday) needs to be balanced against the fact that the County has been asked by a federal court to answer a set of questions concerning the Administration’s position on source of income legislation passed by the Board, which, according to the terms of the stipulations of the housing settlement, may end up nullifying the settlement and exposing the County to a judgment  of upwards of $500 million.”

In its quarterly report to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the federal monitor, the Astorino administration maintains that 540, or 72 percent, of the required units are at some point in the planning pipeline.

“The county has made extraordinary progress and it is the result of our approach to work closely and cooperatively with municipalities, developers and non-profits around common goals,” Astorino said in a statement released Monday. “This will continue to be the county’s approach until we have fully met our obligations under the settlement. The numbers tell the story.”

The federal housing settlement mandates that Westchester spend $52 million to help build 750 units in mostly wealthy and white communities over seven years. It also sets benchmarks along the way, notably that 200 units have financing and 125 have building permits by the end of 2012. The county expects to meet those goals by spring.