Tuxedo forms committee to keep Greenwood Lake students

TUXEDO PARK - The Tuxedo School District has formed an advisory committee of parents, students, teachers and community leaders to help assist its efforts to keep Greenwood Lake students from leaving its high school in favor of the Warwick Valley School District. Named Save Our Schools or S.O.S., the advisory committee recently held its first meeting to discuss the situation and to generate ideas that will be put into motion in the coming weeks, according to Tuxedo Superintendent of Schools Joseph Zanetti. “We have a very passionate group of individuals that strongly believe that Greenwood Lake students are better served by remaining in Tuxedo, which has provided our students with a quality education in a safe and comfortable small school environment since 1981,” Zanetti said. Since last year, the Greenwood Lake School District has been searching for alternative school districts to accept their high school students. Following the end of discussions with the Chester School District, Greenwood Lake began exploring a tuition agreement with the Warwick Valley School District that could take effect as early as July 2007. There are approximately 320 Greenwood Lake students at George F. Baker High School; that’s about 75 percent of student population. The cost to educate Greenwood Lake students in Tuxedo will approach $14,000 next year, according to Greenwood Lake Superintendent John Guarracino. According to Dr. Frank Greenhall, the Warwick Schools Superintendent, Warwick could charge up to $6,800 per student using the state’s Seneca Falls formula. Zanetti indicated the Tuxedo School Board remains committed to maintaining its relationship with Greenwood Lake in hopes of negotiating a new agreement that will allow its students to continue attending George F. Baker High School, just as they have for the past quarter of a century. He said that the tuition figures that Greenwood Lake has cited as the main catalyst behind its interest in relocating its students don’t tell the whole story. Zanetti cautioned that fiscal analysis can be quite complicated and that all of the costs need to be factored into the equation to get a true comparison between Tuxedo and Warwick. By doing so, he added, the actual savings that might be realized by Greenwood Lake is an amount that he believes could allow Tuxedo and Greenwood Lake to reach an amicable solution and put an end to the relocation efforts, but that the ball is currently in their court. “The S.O.S advisory committee will help us get our message out to the communities of Tuxedo, Greenwood Lake and Warwick so that everyone involved in the decision making process knows all the facts and hopefully uses that information to act in the best interests of the students,” Zanetti said. “After all, it’s their future that’s at stake.” Greenwood Lake officials have petitioned the state Education Department to allow them to build their own high school. Voters overwhelmingly approved building their own high school in a non-binding referendum two years. But that decision is not theirs to make. The state Education Department makes those decisions and has consistently said no to this tiny district.