No decision yet on where to send high school students
By Nancy Kriz GREENWOOD LAKE — It will be another month before the Greenwood lake board of education makes "the choice": the all-Warwick or all-Chester high school option for its students.
At Wednesday night’s meeting, tuition charts were displayed, and a petition supporting Tuxedo’s George F. Baker High School to be part of the choice option was presented to board members.
The all-Tuxedo option was eliminated in the late spring, when the board rescinded its earlier vote to continue to send all of its students to the Tuxedo school.
The meeting also included a discussion that the choice option would be for students in the ninth through 12 grades, not just for the incoming ninth-graders.
Tuxedo School District Superintendent Carol Lomascolo said her district submitted tuition numbers for two scenarios:
incoming ninth-graders only grades 9 through 12
Tuition would vary based on the number of students, she wrote in an email to The Warwick Advertiser Wednesday night.
To see the tuition chart, visit: warwickadvertiser.com.
Warwick’s tuition rate is $8,000 and Chester’s is $9,500. They indicated those numbers will stand no matter what option the board chooses, Greenwood Lake School District Superintendent Dr. Richard Brockel previously said.
Greenwood Lake School District officials were not available for comment on Thursday morning by this paper’s publication deadline.
A five year cycle Greenwood Lake students have attended Baker high for the last 30 years since the district doesn’t have its own high school. Tuxedo wants to keep that established relationship going, citing the benefits of a small school environment, its academic reputation and its belief that the majority of parents want the Tuxedo option.
Every five years, negotiations take place to see what tuition the Greenwood Lake district will pay. But this time, Warwick and Chester said they want those students attend their schools as Greenwood Lake officials said they have to look at other options that are more financially viable.
The options still include an all-Warwick or all-Chester choice, or a choice option where parents could choose any of the three schools, assuming the board finds the Tuxedo tuition reasonable enough to be in the mix.
The Warwick and Chester districts said the possible tuition they could receive for those students is a revenue opportunity which can assist in the maintenance or enhancement of their existing academic, sports or co-curricular programs.
But for Tuxedo, the loss of Greenwood Lake students and the tuition coming with their attendance threatens the viability of that school, as 80 percent of its student body are Greenwood Lake residents. The district relies on school taxes and Greenwood Lake tuition as its revenue sources, as it gets a minimal amount of state aid.
Each district has touted the merits of its high school, citing reasons why students would have outstanding academic, sports and co-curricular experiences there.
The Greenwood Lake School Board meeting date has been changed to Wednesday, Aug. 29 at 6:30 p.m. at the Greenwood Lake Elementary School.