Greenwood Lake-Chester high school decision delayed until February

Chester — The issue of having Greenwood Lake high school students pay tuition to attend the Chester Academy will not be decided until February. “The board had hoped to have received all the pertinent and factual information that they would need to help make their decision by the Jan. 25 meeting,” Chester School Board President Mary Luciana said. “Due to the death of Superintendent Waligory’s father this week, all meetings with parties involved need to be postponed. We hope to have the information in February and will announce in the papers and on our Web site when this topic will be on the agenda.” The Greenwood Lake School Board approached the Chester School District to consider taking its approximately 350 high school students on a tuition basis. Greenwood Lake currently contracts with Tuxedo but that agreement runs out in June 2007. Greenwood Lake Superintendent John Guarracino said his community is happy with the education it receives from Tuxedo but the price tag is getting out of reach, as the district pays about $13,000 for each student. According to Guarracino, the cost would be about $9,800, because of school aid, if the students went to Chester. Last month about 100 residents of the Chester district came to the school board meeting to say they did not want to take the students. Some cited the impact of nearly doubling enrollment at Chester Academy; others said the two groups just wouldn’t mix. The message, though, was that the people who came out were against even considering the matter any further. Luciana said the two boards met again two weeks ago to report what unfolded at their respective public hearings. Greenwood Lake residents did want to pursue the issue. And although the Chester residents were against the move, Luciana said the district will at least get the information it needs to make an informed decision. “There is some homework we have to do,” said Luciana. “We went into this with no information at all. We went to the public first. We told Greenwood Lake that our community was not interested. Our concern now is that the response was based on emotion because there are no facts and figures out there. My big concern is if we stop this dead in its track, we’re closing a door for seven to 10 years.” Luciana wants to see numbers. She is looking into the capacity of the building and the effect on class size if they move forward. She also wants to get firm tuition numbers and see the impact for the Chester District. Before the Dec.14 public meeting, Luciana looked at the possibility of expanding the district as a positive. She said Chester has had problems in the past offering electives, extra curricular activities, and advanced placement courses because of numbers. “If we have more students, we could offer more classes, have more options,” Luciana had said cautiously prior to the meeting. Now, the board knows exactly how many of its neighbors feel about the possibility of adding the Greenwood Lake high school students. “Our goal is to come to a conclusion quickly but with the pertinent information and figures,” said Luciana. “We want to get as much information as cheaply as possible.”