Citing space issues, Chester says no to Greenwood Lake students

Chester — Greenwood Lake students will not be attending Chester Academy in 2007, the Chester School Board decided Wednesday night. The unanimous vote from the remaining four members of the board put to rest the idea that Greenwood Lake would send 358 high school students — and the tuition to pay for them — to Chester. Both the Chester and Greenwood Lake school boards held meetings in December to gauge public opinion. Greenwood Lake residents wanted to look further into the proposal, but the approximately 100 residents from Chester who came out to the meetings wanted no part of it. Chester School Board President Mary Luciana said it was only fair to “run the numbers” to see how taking the students would affect the district. There are now 498 students from grades 7 through 12 at the Chester Academy, according to Luciana. Sixth-graders also attend but may have had to return to the elementary school if the district made a deal with Greenwood Lake. Adding Greenwood Lake’s students would have brought the total number of students at the Academy to 856, nearly 250 more than the building could hold, according to figures Luciana received from the Canon Group, the building management company that oversaw the building of the new high school. Based on a state formula, known as the Seneca Falls formula, the district would be able to charge $8,535 in tuition per student, bringing in more than $3 million in tuition to Chester. The cost to the district would be approximately $2.3 million, leaving more than $700,000 in profit to the district. That figure does not include supplies, textbooks and materials. On the plus side, the district would have been able to offer more electives, advanced placement classes and sports programs — but facilities would have been a problem. The high school has 825 lockers — 31 short of the number needed to accommodate the additional students. But the school has enough regular classrooms to handle the extra load. Twenty-three classrooms are available for eight periods each day, for a total of 184 sections. Luciana said 179 sections would be needed to accommodate the additional students, leaving five class periods to spare. The academy has only five science labs, though, falling six sections short of the 46 needed to keep class size the same as it is now. Currently, the academy has four lunch periods. With 178 people allowed in the cafeteria at one time, an additional lunch period would have to be added. Additional staff would be needed as well, including a guidance counselor, a psychologist and a social worker. Adding Greenwood Lake students would also affect the community at large, according to Luciana. “We would have to eliminate use of our sports facilities by community groups,” she said. In September, the Greenwood Lake School Board asked Judy Waligory, Chester’s superintendent of schools, to consider taking its high school students. The board decided to go to the public before delving into costly research. While the Chester residents who came out in December were adamantly opposed to the idea, Greenwood Lake residents, who have sent their high school students to Tuxedo High School for the past 23 years, were more inclined to proceed. This K-8 district pays Tuxedo more than $12,000 for each of its high school students. The Greenwood Lake school board has petitioned the state education department for its own high school but was turned down. Now, in an effort to save taxpayers money, Greenwood Lake is shopping for a new home. Its contract with Tuxedo expires in June 2007. Although Chester residents said they wanted to keep their district small and intimate, Luciana reminded them of development projects that are either on the planning board docket now or rumored to be coming soon. These projects will have a great effect on the size of the district. Board member Mike Monroe said he wanted to look into this because, as a school board member for the past seven years, he has learned at conferences that the optimal size for a grade level in high school is between 125 and 140 students. Last year, Chester graduated about 75 students. “Those numbers give flexibility for scheduling, allow for AP [advanced placement] classes, and more electives,” Monroe said. “Right now, it’s not advantageous for us. But there may be a day this district may want to be a little bit larger.”