Features

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.

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 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

Photo Courtesy of Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

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By Abby Goldstein

Principal’s Advisory Council

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 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 mentioned 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. 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.