FOCUS Issue #3

A Blind Brook High School Student Publication

Issue #3 March 2022

Farewell To Rye Brook Mayor Paul Rosenberg

By Josh Rosenblut In this column I will be interviewing different politicians that represent Rye Brook.

I will be asking each politician many of the same questions. I hope that these interviews will help you learn about the people who represent us in government. For this interview, I spoke with Paul Rosenberg, Mayor of Rye Brook.

Prior to being elected Mayor of Rye Brook in April of 2013, Rosenberg was Deputy Mayor from 2008-2013 and Trustee from 2003-2008.

His accomplishments as Mayor include: construction of a brand new public works facility, streamlined village code and land use application process, implemented use of technology throughout the organization, staying within the tax cap 9 out of 10 years and much, much more. Mayor Rosenberg is completing his decade-long tenure as Mayor of Rye Brook, this interview is a review of his legacy, his accomplishments and his thoughts about possible future forays into public service.

What or who inspired you to get involved with public service?

“When you live in New York City you don’t really have much of a say in anything your government does, it’s just too big, unless you want to devote your whole career to being in politics. {Once I left the city and} moved to a much smaller village, I went to a couple of board meetings with some friends just to kind of get an understanding of what it was like and at that point I said to myself I’d like to have a say in how the village is run and really help in decision-making and that’s when I decided.

and then lived in Manhattan, so it was the novelty of having the ability to really have a say in your own community that made me want to be involved.”

What does your day-to-day look like? “In ‘normal times’ I would say, we have our board meetings every other Tuesday night from 7 to 10:30, but I also get lots of emails and messages that I have to respond to, I would say about an hour to an hour-and-a-half every every day; but then, during the height of the pandemic, I was on conference calls for big chunks of the day, I think I was spending easily 4 to 5

hours a day on being Mayor.”

What is your favorite part of the job?

“Having the ability to make a big difference and improving the lives of the village residents. One of the first things that I did when I came in as Mayor, one of the biggest problems that we were seeing, is that people thought it was too hard to do work on their homes in Rye Brook and the zoning code was too complicated. Also, I was hearing from realtors that people Continued on page 6

I just thought it was cool to be able to go to a Board of Trustees meeting, to drive 5 minutes to Village Hall and go to a meeting and these are the five trustees who basically run the village and you get a chance to speak, the public can speak and I thought that was very novel for me given that I was raised in Queens Photo Courtesy of Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

Inside Focus...

Features

Viewpoints

News

The latest in Blind Brook News.

Opinions on community service and advice from CNN’s John King!

Recent Blind Brook vandalism and updates.

Features..........................................1 Viewpoints.....................................3 Health and Science........................5 Politics........................................6 Art & Entertainment......................8 News...............................................8 Sports..............................................9

1

Features

By Abby Goldstein

Principal’s Advisory Council tioned clubs as a greater variety of students begin to voice their opinions and additional ideas, concerns and solutions may arise. This is a way to select and discuss the main issues that occur in Blind Brook, and then decide how to best deal with them.

This may entail talking with other teachers in the school, involving the Student Government, or simply making Dr. Chirles aware of dilemmas that need to be addressed.

This year, Dr. Chirles has created a Principal’s Advisory Council which is made up of several members of each grade. This opportunity was offered to any students in the high school, with the goal of giving as many students as possible the ability to share and discuss their concerns. The main goal of this committee is to include students from all different social groups and grade levels to participate. As no one had to be elected to join, this council allows anyone to have a voice in what happens at the school, resulting in many different perspectives on matters being discussed. Additionally, it gives students an outlet to talk about how they feel and describe problematic situations they may encounter.

During the first two meetings, the committee discussed a variety of ways to improve our school environment and climate. The first thing that was mentioned was the testing calendar, and making it more easily accessible. Live grades were also discussed, meaning that students would be able to see their marking period average at any time during the quarter.

Advanced Placement classes

The Principal’s advisory council will work hard to improve student representation in schoolwide affairs throughout the rest of the year, in addition to being a safe space for pupils to share their concerns relating to Blind Brook.

Having a direct way for matters to be explored with Dr. Chirles will allow for a greater chance of obstacles being removed and issues being addressed, which can therefore improve our school overall.

were touched upon, with the suggestion that underclassmen want to be able to connect with older students and learn more about AP courses that they might be interested in taking. In addition, ways to alert and include students in updates, such as the announcement of a remote learning day, was requested.

Finally, extracurricular activities, specifically clubs, were thoroughly discussed. This included elections, redundancy in clubs, attendance, the extent of the social aspect in some clubs, and lastly, improving the communication between club members and Dr. Chirles.

Though the high school already has clubs dedicated to student and school matters, like Congress, Senate, and Class Officers, this council is a way to bring all of the ideas together and allow them to be discussed with the principal.

The students can give direct feedback to Dr. Chirles, so she can then address these concerns or suggestions. These committee discussions can provide her with an insight on what the students are thinking about in regard to BBHS. Furthermore, certain issues can even be delegated to the previously men2

Viewpoints

By Josh Rosenblut Recently I had the opportunity to speak with John King, CNN’s Chief National Correspondent. I asked Mr. King for some advice, one journalist to another. Mr. King related that, when he began his work in journalism the field was quite different from today. 25 years ago journalism was primarily disseminated on paper, the radio, and morning and evening news programs on the 3 major television networks. He noted that today people get their news from reading the paper (mostly online on one’s computer, tablet or phone),

By Natalia Terentiev Vladimir Putin has been the president for over twenty years. Putin is attempting to hold his name in history forever and expand Russia. He is doing so by unjustifyingly attacking an innocent country by creating a false narrative about Ukraine.

Putin invaded Crimea, a small peninsula on the southern portion of Ukraine in 2014. He began threatening war on Ukraine in late 2021, with the goal of preventing Ukraine from joining NATO. As Ukraine is on the border of Russia, it becoming a part of NATO would interfere with Putin’s future plans of invading and controlling the mainland of Ukraine. During this difficult time, Ukrainians need our support. Many Blind Brook

From Our Editor: watching the news (again, on one’s tv, computer or phone), or listening to the radio/a podcast. People used to generally have one primary source of news, now it is multifaceted. Mr. King shared that he needed to learn to pivot to this new manner of fractured media. Now, to be a successful journalist, one must know how to write for all types of media sources whether it be speaking on television or the radio/a podcast, or writing an article for a newspaper, magazine or blog post.

This makes the occupation of

more challenging. Journalist’s need to be able to have a viewer read their article while simultaneously being able to present it to them over a screen and broken down into soundbites.

Mr. King also told me that he sees his job as a journalist not to mainly convey breaking news, but instead to help his viewers/readers digest the news and understand why it’s important, and how the news affects them. He noted that most days when people turn on his news show they already know what is happening in the world from seeing the headlines on their phones, crawls at the bottom of their television screens, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram posts. People watch his (and others’) show because they want to learn why what is happening in the world is important to them. As Editor-in-Chief I take this to heart, FOCUS is not a newspaper that comes out daily, so we are unable to convey breaking news. Instead, we

take relevant topics every few weeks, bring them back to life and dive deeper into what has occurred, as a way to help the Blind Brook community understand why it is important to have a deeper understanding of these matters.

Speaking with Mr. King was an excellent reminder that as journalists, it is vital to remember we are not doing this work primarily to break news, but to help our readers digest the news and understand why it is important to them.

attack on Russian ground, and continues to defend themselves by military action on their own territory. No one expected Ukrainians to put up such an impressive defense to a much stronger enemy.

The world unified rapidly in their response to support Ukraine by putting stringent economic and financial sanctions on Russia, as well as speaking publicly about the issue.

Sanctions included a freeze on substantial Russian cash reserves, as well as cutting off Russia’s bank from the SWIFT messaging system. This has already resulted in a significant devaluation of Russian currency.

Russia’s president attempts to evade responsibility

by making his actions out to be something other than what it is, an uncalled for invasion.

Putin also fails to inform the young soldiers drafted to the Russian army the reason for their attack. His effort has grown beyond keeping Ukraine from NATO, his current mission is to reassemble pieces of the former Soviet Union. Ukraine is an independent country which chose democracy, and has been violently attacked for this decision. Supporting Putin is the equivalent of allowing an aggressor to land grab and invade another independent state without incident. If you’d like to help support the people of Ukraine, contribute to the Ukrainian Red Cross at:

Ukraine-Russia Crisis students, including myself, have family in Ukraine, and spreading awareness of what is happening in our homeland is critical in order to show our support to Ukrainians.

February 23rd is Russia’s national celebratory day for their military. Early morning of February 24th, 2022, the first attack with a missile was made at Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.

Out of the twenty four oblasts (provinces), eighteen were attacked by missiles from Russia, in the first week of the conflict.

Missiles have been bombing Ukrainian cities, as well as the personal homes of the citizens. The Russians conducted over two hundred fifty missile strikes on cities, as well as military units inland. At this time, Ukraine has not returned any

Josh Rosenblut Editor-in-Chief

https://redcross.org.ua/en/donate/.

3

Viewpoints

Should Community Service be Required?

By Emma Kron and Katelyn Faustino

ty service as a false application booster for students who aren’t deserving of the credit.

Other seniors have the same opinion. 12th-grade student Lilly Kleinhandler says, “Requiring community service takes away the meaning of doing it, people are only doing it because they have to, and not because they want to.” Making it a requirement also makes students feel less excited to engage with the community.

Jenna Kamin, a 12th-grade student at Blind Brook, illustrates this idea, saying, “It causes a negative connotation to community service; it seems more dreadful than it’s meant to and becomes a required assignment.” Student Amanda Drazka agrees, mentioning that “requiring community service forces kids to be

extrinsically motivated because they only participate because they have to, and not because they want to better the community.”

Other seniors consider additional consequences that come with this requirement.

Keith Konigsberg mentioned that “later in life, people won’t be as likely to participate in community service because of the negative association they have from high school’s requirements.” Jackson Campbell even mentioned that the process of logging the community service hours makes it less rewarding, and reinforces the idea that it is an assignment rather than doing it for the good of the community. The fact that students need to display a certain amount of community service hours in order to graduate makes it feel like a check-off of their to-do list instead of

a personal desire to better the world around them.

Students that feel committed and interested in community service should be able to impress the community and stand out from the rest of college applicants and their graduating class. These students should be able to shine in doing something meaningful for their community instead of blending in with the group of students who did community service only because they had to. Instead of community service requirements inspiring students to give back, it instead has had the opposite effect, as most students stop participating in community service once the necessary 80 hours are complete. It is critical that community service hours are not required so that students can learn the importance of helping others in a natural way.

of other responsibilities on their plates, I believe that service-learning or community service hours should be necessary to graduate high school.

This obligation promotes being a good citizen and helping a group larger than yourself.

Many advantages come from participating in events to benefit your community through volunteering. For one, it shows that you are an active member of your community and that you attempt to be a helpful citizen. Some of the volunteer activities I’ve been involved with range from raising money for good causes to teaching young kids sports.

It feels good knowing that I made a positive change to the world, no matter how small it may be. Senior Giacomo Mejia agrees and feels accomplished having known he contributed to the school play through his volunteer work. “It feels real-

ly nice to help others in need, and in the plays’ case, to see the final product and know I was a part of the creation.”

Volunteer opportunities can also help you form friendships and connections you might have never expected before. They can furthermore lead you towards a passion you might not have anticipated. One student, senior Jennifer McKay, shares her positive experience with me. She says, “I had never really been into nature or wildlife. After I volunteered at an invasive vine removal near Oakland Beach, I realized that I had a newfound love for the outdoors. I brought my friends and carried this on at Crawford Park, the high school, and in Port Chester”.

McKay not only discovered a new fascination with nature, but she also continued her volunteer work on a larger scale.

Making community

service a requirement ensures students will at least spend the minimum time volunteering in their community. Without this mandate, volunteering would not be prioritized and instilled in every single student. Through volunteering, one can develop new skills in integrity, leadership, and empathy. Plus, they can carry these meaningful experiences and skills onto their professional lives where these students will be engaged citizens.

Dr. Dorothy Height, president and CEO of the National Council of Negro Women, says: “Without community service, we would not have a strong quality of life. It’s important to the person who serves as well as the recipient.

It’s the way in which we ourselves grow and develop”. Blind Brook must keep the community service hour requirement to ensure students learn the importance of helping others.

Emma Kron:

Community service has been an add-on to the graduation requirement at many high schools like Blind Brook and also plays a role in college admissions. Making community service a necessity has created students who are not genuine in their want to help the community around them. It would be much more impressive for students to show their involvement and commitment to community service as a choice instead of as a mandate, and I’m not alone in this sentiment. 12th-grade student Kira Tannenbaum says, “I just think that making community service hours required leads to more resume padding and people are doing it for the wrong reasons. It’s another insincere thing to submit to colleges.” She sees communi-

Katelyn Faustino:

Graduation is a day highly valued by students, signifying the end of their high school experience. To attend this treasured event, every student must complete certain requirements, including 4 credits of English and 3 of math.

At Blind Brook High School, along with many other schools nationwide, there is one additional requirement: fulfilling a specific amount of hours of community service work.

Blind Brook began the 80 hours of community service requirement in 2003 and has been consistent since. As long as you complete 80 hours by the end of your four-year period in high school, you’re set. The thought of having to complete 20 hours of community-based learning per year is fairly manageable. While one could argue that the requirement is time-consuming for students who have a myriad

4

Health & Science

By Zoey Possick

New Year, New You?

ing to harm oneself, risk-taking behavior, overwhelming fear that inhibits one’s daily activities, difficulty breathing, significant weight loss, excessive use of alcohol or drugs, drastic changes in mood, behavior, personality, or sleeping habits, and extreme difficulty concentrating. All of these warning signs, along with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline number (1-800-2738255), were provided to each student on a small note card.

When asked what he found to be most helpful, Gaur spoke about DBT, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy.

This form of cognitive therapy tries to identify negative behavioral patterns and encourage positive ones. DBT aims to teach people how to live in the moment, devel op healthy ways to cope with stress, regulate emotions, and

Photo Courtesy of NAMI Boston

As the New Year rolls around, the desire to “reinvent” oneself cycles through almost everyone’s minds. The chance to start over begins as soon as the clock strikes midnight. With Covid-19 at its peak, mounting pressure falls on everyone’s shoulders as new variants seem to be popping up left and right.

However, it is incredibly important to not lose sight of taking care of oneself.

Mental health is often stigmatized, despite those affected being 1 in 5 youths across the United States, 50% of young people ages 8-15 do not receive treatment for the struggles they face. NAMI, the National Alliance for Mental Illness, works with teenagers to destigmatize talking about mental health.

Chris Gaur, a NAMI representative for almost seven years, spoke to the sophomore health classes about his own experiences. Gaur is a

very successful individual, running his own business and raising his three children. He told the students about when his struggles began, around his freshman year in high school.

He began staying home from school and his parents took him to receive a psychological evaluation. Gaur was diagnosed with depression, stating, “I didn’t think I would be able to make it through high school.” With the support of his family and school guidance counselors, Gaur was able to go on to graduate high school and attend college.

Gaur stressed the importance of understanding the warning signs of a person in need of help. Many people are often hesitant to speak up for themselves for a variety of reasons, including fear of what others may think or fear of what their families may think. These warning signs can include feeling withdrawn for more than two weeks, try-

improve relationships. DBT includes group therapy, individual therapy, and phone coaching. Gaur stressed that DBT may not work for everyone, saying this was simply what worked for him.

NAMI will be hosting a mental health awareness walk at Rye Playland this spring in order to raise awareness about mental health.

The walk is open to everyone, and students can receive community service for participating. Everyone can play a part in reducing the stigma around mental health, doing things as simple as talking about it with friends and family. Organizations like NAMI are working to help make strides in the right direction.

If interested in attending the walk, contact NAMI at 1-800-950-NAMI (62642) or info@nami.org.

Photo Courtesy of NAMI Montgomery County PA

5

Politics

Farewell To Rye Brook Mayor Paul Rosenberg Continued from page 1 didn’t want to move to Rye Brook because it was too difficult to renovate, so I wanted to change that and make it easier for the residents. So we immediately put together a task force to simplify the zoning code.

There are things that go on in government behind the scenes that most people will never know about unless they go wrong or unless things break.

One of those things was the construction of our new Public Works/Highway garage facility. It’s something that 99.9% of all the residents will never see, but if we didn’t have it roads would not get plowed, the parks wouldn’t be mowed, all the parks and the ball fields would not be groomed, all the things that make Rye Brook a nice place to live would never happen. The roof in the old facility was leaking all over our people and we rebuilt the building and that was a 17 million dollar project.”

What do you want your legacy as Rye Brook Trustee/Mayor to be?

“In addition to streamlining the zoning code, I would say the excellent relationships with our unions. We have three unions: fire, police and the teamsters that cover the highways, the public works guys. We have had tremendous, wonderful relationships with our unions. I want that to be a model for other boards in the future because when you’re honest with your staff, even when there’s news they may not like, but if you are just straight with them and treat them fairly, they will respect you and you may have to sometimes agree to disagree, but hopefully not very frequently.”

What surprised you the most about the job?

“As a trustee we receive what we call our board packages from the village administrator every Friday and you read through any information that’s important, but when you are Mayor the volume of information that you have to retain is much larger than being a trustee. You have to know everything about everything, you have to be very familiar with all of the village staff, you have to be the one to disseminate information to the rest of the board and you have to be the one to share the good news as well as the bad news with the community, because you are the face of the community, and as a trustee yes you’re a leader in the community, but being the face of the community is a little bit different.”

What is the Village’s relationship with the Blind Brook School District?

“As you know, the school district has its own budget, they collect their own taxes, and there’s an unwritten kind of agreement that we stay out of their business and they stay out of ours. I think it works pretty well because we on the village board are not educators and I wouldn’t ever pretend to know how to educate people.

Likewise school board members, they don’t really get involved in village board issues, when they have questions or comments they reach out, and when we have questions we will pick up the phone and ask them. Or village administrator has had a great working relationship with all of the superintendent’s over the last several years, and whether it’s doing some emergency plow-

Photo Courtesy of Paul Rosenberg

ing or something for them that they need, or giving them access to one of our fields that hadn’t been planned for, we always try to work closely with them, as their students are our residents.”

Do you have future plans for public service?

“I don’t think so, Rye Brook’s special in the sense that we are nonpartisan in terms of our village government, the members of the board can be Republicans, they can be Democrats, it does not come into play at the village government level, and it’s nice for the community. In other communities if the Republican council person or a village board member comes up with an idea, but if they don’t have the majority, then the Democrats will squash it, it’ll go nowhere just because it’s seen as a Republican vs. Democrat issue/idea. Working with my fellow trustees is a pleasure.

When I look at any other type of elected office that I might want to seek, it’s all partisan politics and I just really don’t want to be involved in that type of party politics, it’s a hindrance to getting things done.

For example, once when I was campaigning and I was

going door-to-door when I rang someone’s doorbell, I said ‘Hi, I’m Paul Rosenberg,’ and the person said ‘Very nice to meet you, what’s your stance on abortion?’ and I said ‘We’re nonpartisan’.

My stance on abortion or any other matter of national interest really doesn’t apply to Rye Brook. We don’t have to worry about the other board members stance on anything unless it’s directly related to the Village of Rye Brook, and those national conversations and disagreements that people have don’t make their way into the way we run the village, and it keeps us focused on doing what’s best for the village, not doing what our party would like us to do.”

Advice for future public servants?

“Raise your hand and get involved in as much as you can when you live in a small village like this. I’ve seen over the last 18 years that I’ve been on the board that it’s become much harder to get people to donate their time doing public service, remember that it’s volunteer work, we’re not paid for this, we all have other jobs, but, it gives you a sense of fulfillment that you’ll never get anywhere else.”

6

Politics

By Abby Zahl With a census every ten years comes potential new Congressional districts in each state; 2020 was the year of counting the U.S. population, as required by the U.S. Constitution. Redistricting a state carves out Congressional districts that need to have, roughly, an equal population. In theory, states would be divided into a grid-like formation for borders to be continuous, but the manipulation of boundaries of a district to favor a particular group--a practice known as gerrymandering--frequently occurs as political parties seek to consolidate electoral power and create solidly red or blue districts. “Cracking,” which is the breaking up of districts to make them weaker by separating voters, and “packing,” which is putting as many voters into a district to make them lose elsewhere, are two main tactics of gerrymandering. Gerrymandering is illegal if districts are divided up based on the race of the people who live in said state.

Before the 2020 census, New York had 27 districts, but the census revealed that New York State’s population fell 89 people short of maintaining this number, thus districts had to be redrawn. New York’s Governor Kathy Hochul signed New York’s new Congressional map into law on February 3rd, it will go into effect with the November elections for the 118th Congress, to be seated in 2023. This map was designed to give Democrats a large advantage in Congress by getting rid of three Republican congressional seats.

Yes, this is legal as it does not favor one race over another, but that does not mean it is logical--or that it is fair or good for the people who live in the district. The change from 27 to 26 districts will

Splitting the State affect all towns in New York, as district boundaries shift, but it will affect Westchester County significantly. There are many towns in Westchester that have complained about this new drawing. “[Citizens] felt that the proposed dividing line…broke up communities of shared interests with neighboring sections…” said author of The Hudson Independent, Barrett Seaman. As towns are being separated and placed into new districts, they are losing the connection of other towns who have the same or similar needs. For example, of­fi­cials rep­re­sent­ing com­mu­ ni­ties in the far north­east­ern part of the County, in­clud­ing Bed­ford, South Salem, Lewis­ boro and Ka­ tonah, com­ plained that the com­mis­sion’s ren­der­ing of dis­trict lines in their cor­ner of the County ig­ nored not only the “shared in­ ter­ests” of peo­ple in a largely rural area, but also many of the shared ser­vices among mu­nic­i­pal­i­ties that would be dis­ rupted (Barrett Seaman).

Separating towns that have similar needs among different Congressional representatives will ultimately make the job of these representatives harder. As Congresspeople do all they can to make their districts happy, it would be easier for a representative to act on behalf of constituents with shared interests, rather than have multiple representatives asked to do the same thing. Rye Brook was previously part of New York’s 17th Congressional District with Mondaire Jones as the Congressional representative. This district included Norwood, Riverdale, Wakefield, Williambridge, Woodlawn, all in the Bronx, Mount Vernon, parts of Yonkers, Port Chester and Rye Brook in Westchester, and Monsey, Nanuet, Pearl River, Orangetown, Sparkill, Spring

Valley, Haverstraw, and Suffern in Rockland County. As a result of redistricting, however, Rye Brook is now in New York’s 3rd Congressional District, currently represented by Tom Suozzi. This newly created district expands from Suffolk County, around the Long Island Sound waterfront in Brooklyn and Queens, then all the way into southern Westchester County to where New York and Connecticut meet. A new Congressperson for the 3rd District will be elected in November. The proposed redistricting can be seen in the map below.

Does it make sense that Rye Brook will now be placed in the same district as municipalities in Long Island, given that Rye Brook and other Westchester towns may have different needs specific to their location? In an interview, Paul Rosenberg, the Mayor of Rye Brook, was asked about his point of view on the new redistricting map. He responded: “…How could [it] be expected to equally represent us in a way that we expect to be represented while representing people who have different needs, whether it’s socioeconomic, or healthcare, or medical or infrastructure? I mean, there’s so many different needs, and

I’m not saying that our needs are diametrically opposed… but it’s physically impossible…to be able to represent us fairly and have to represent people in a completely different County that is much more rural that we are [in] the South Shore community.”

Mayor Rosenberg, like many other town officials, has been worried about the new congressional districts. Dividing up towns to make a state lean towards one party over another to have political dominance in Congress, can hurt the people more than help.

Photo Courtesy of Allison Bailey Murpho

When redistricting occurs, it is very likely that towns that were previously together are separated. Luckily, Rye Brook was not separated from Port Chester or the Town of Rye. The majority of citizens want to feel that their concerns are being addressed by political leaders. It is challenging to make sure that all voices are being heard because of gerrymandering, when new district lines are changed greatly. The most desirable outcome of the new congressional map is for the citizens of New York to be content and to feel that their best interests are being represented. With the new redistricting, this feeling of satisfaction is in jeopardy.

7

Art & Entertainment

How has COVID-19 affected Hollywood?

By Jacob Moore

As with every other aspect of our lives, the film and television industry was struck hard when COVID came onto the scene. Movies were delayed indefinitely, productions were shut down, and no one knew when things would be back up and running. Some TV shows that were released around that time, such as Netflix’s Tiger King, became huge successes. Nobody had much to do with their time during the height of COVID, so streaming services became more valuable than ever before. Eventually, as time passed, productions began to make a comeback. Movie theaters reopened, and delayed movies, like Tenet, were released to the public. However, these movie releases’ box office revenue were extremely underwhelming as audiences were not yet ready to go back to the theater. Streaming services and viewing from home was the preferred method of watching a movie.

The environment for film production has also changed. Now, there are masks as well as vaccine requirements for film and television sets. These new health precautions have created issues for many. Film and television productions have been paused numerous times due to COVID outbreaks over issues of mask and vaccine cooperation. Some actors, directors and other members of productions have been removed from their positions due to their refusal to comply with mask and vaccine mandates.

In 2021, Warner Brothers, one of the largest cinema distribution companies, made the radical decision to release their upcoming movies in theaters and on streaming services on the same day of release. Now, if you did not want to go see the next big Warner Brothers movie in theaters, with HBO Max, you were able to watch it from your home. Streaming really seems to be the future

Photo Courtesy of Valerie Macon/AFP/Getty Images

of outgoing media, the cineplex, slowly dying. That is the true dynamic that’s grown out of the pandemic. Instead of film production companies risking putting their movie in theaters, which often costs more than it pays off in the end, studios now distribute their product primarily through one of the infinite streaming sites. The whole

way it perceives its audience.

Even the Academy Awards will now give equal consideration to films primarily shown via streaming services. For the moment, it’s not about selling movie tickets, rather it is more about the click of the remote to stream the new release from home. Is this temporary?

Will this kill the movie theater business? Only time will tell.

News

By Jordana Esterow Between the dates January 21th and January 25th, several acts of vandalism were committed at Blind Brook Middle/High School, causing damage to multiple school buses. Amongst other acts, fire extinguishers were taken from inside one of the school buses and sprayed on throughout vehicles. On the bus there was a seat that was slashed with a knife.

According to Rye Brook police, the buses were unlocked, which is why it was easy for the vandals to access the buses. To ensure safety after the repeated acts

Vandalism at Blind Brook of vandalism, the police department conducted increased patrols in the area of the bus garage, and the district was encouraged to insure the buses were locked overnight.

There were theories on social media that these events could possibly be related to the Port Chester High School buses being vandalized, but these theories appear to be conjecture, as there was not any vandalism noted recently at Port Chester High School.

When speaking with Rye Brook Chief of Police, Gregory Austin, I asked him how Rye Brook citizens reacted

to these acts of vandalism.

Chief Austin stated that besides the initial crimes being reported there was no information provided from the public. No one gave any tips or contacted them.

According to Chief Austin, the Rye Brook Police Department and the Blind Brook school district have a very good relationship, with excellent, open communication, which was particularly helpful and important during this time.

Chief Austin explained “After this happened (speaking of the vandalism), Dr. Byrne called me, and we talked about it

and I told him we’d be giving the bus area extra patrols and he was appreciative of that; we have always had good communication with the school district”.

The acts of vandalism remain under investigation.

There have been no further incidents since these two were reported in January. The police, in conjunction with the school district, are doing everything they can to ensure events like this do not happen again. If anyone has any information regarding these incidents, please contact the Rye Brook Police at: 914-937-1020.

8

Sports

By Colin Funtleyder

Conversation with Mr. Hanson

FOCUS interviewed Stewart Hanson, the current interim Athletic Director, who comes to Blind Brook with decades of experience. Mr. Hanson presently has a contract through the end of the school year, June 2022. At that point the district will either offer Mr. Hanson a longer contract, or decide to hire a new athletic director, which would be the fourth in two years. In this interview Mr. Hanson discusses how he became an athletic director, what changes he is proposing for Blind Brook’s athletics, and his future at Blind Brook.

Where did you grow up and what was your childhood like?

How did that impact you becoming an Athletic Director?

“I grew up in the Bronx playing baseball, in the nineteen sixties, everyone played baseball and it had an impact on me. I love athletics, I love the thrill of competing, and I always wanted to follow that dream. I wanted to play baseball. My father taught me, I must have an alternative plan.

He supported me through my desire to play baseball, in both high school and college. He also said, ‘What do you want to do otherwise?’ I thought of that and I took up a degree in physical education. I wanted to teach and coach, and once my kids were grown, I had more time to devote to my career, and I then received my first opportunity to become an athletic director in Middletown, New York.”

Up to this point, what has been your favorite thing at Blind Brook so far?

“My favorite thing has been how welcoming the students have been. The community has reached out, shaking my hand, I get the sense that the

community is happy for me to be here. I love going to the games. I enjoy watching the students win and then seeing how they handle the adversity of losing. Because in life that’s part of athletics that is such a great reflection of life because, you know, you don’t always win. I have gone on interviews and you don’t get the job and you know, it’s part of the game in the sense that you don’t always win the game.

And it’s ok to lose, and it’s how you deal with that adversity. I enjoy going to the games and it’s just the best time in the day for me watching you. And I like going to the practices as well, just being out of the office and out of this chair.”

Where do you think the school/ athletic department needs to improve?

“I would say that the structure of the department needs to be examined. It seems the coaches are terrific. They really work hard for the students.

I’ve come to respect them already in the two months I’ve watched them at practices and games. We have some veteran coaches here and they really go above and beyond for the students. So I would say the structure of the department outside of the coaching, administratively. I’d like to tighten up some of the structures, some of the processes, the procedures.”

the coaches, the coaches do a fine job. Some of the structures have to be reexamined.”

Will you continue to be Blind Brook’s AD next year?

“That has yet to be decided, and I’m ok with this. When I was brought in by the school board, the superintendent had a six month opportunity and they were planning to go out for a full search after the six months. And if that’s the decision that has been made, I’m comfortable with that because that was the agreement.

So if I get my six months and I’m able to make some improvements, I’m ok with that. If they asked me to stay,

Photo Courtesy of Stewart Hanson

I certainly would consider that. They don’t have any final thoughts. It is a nice place to work and I enjoy the faculty and the students. The community has been terrific working on some committees with them. I’d like to see the committees continue even beyond my tenure here. We’re putting together a spring pep rally for the spring teams. When I saw that we had two pep rallies this year, I suggested we have a third one so that we could recognize the spring athletes as well and not leave them out. So I’m looking forward to doing that. That date is April 29 and April 30th, the pep rally on Friday, and then the activities will be on Saturday.”

How would you solve the previously mentioned concerns?

“There are some procedures and processes that are either in place and need to be fine-tuned, or need to be reexamined and completely reworked. I’m in the process of doing some of those right now. It really is more of an administrative thing. With the

Photo Courtesy of Ragette Real Estate

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