Warwick voters reject proposal to accept GWL high school students

Warwick — The Warwick Valley School District will not accept Greenwood Lake’s high school students on a tuition basis. There was little doubt which way the results would go after the first numbers were phoned in from the Pine Island polling site: Yes 58, no 404. Kings followed with a total of 146 yes and 743 no. The Middle School polling site had similar results: 264 yes, 1,569 no. The total: 2,716 no and 468 yes. By the time Warwick Superintendent Dr. Frank Greenhall got the results from the Greenwood Lake vote, it didn’t matter that residents there voted to come to Warwick Valley High School by a measure of 1,045 yes to 338 no. Although it could have decided the issue without a public vote, the Warwick Valley School Board will abide by the community’s wishes. “It is unfortunate that people didn’t understand the bigger picture,” said board member Coleen Johnson. “We could have taken one community and brought it together. Greenwood Lake is part of Warwick.” The bigger picture, Johnson said, is that the district is not growing as it was a decade ago. In order to maintain the programs currently in place, the student population has to be there. Less students mean less aid, fewer teachers, less opportunity, she said. “There was no hidden agenda,” Johnson said. “I just wanted to make sure all kids get the opportunities we’ve worked to build here in Warwick.” More than 75 percent of high school students who attend George F. Baker High School in Tuxedo come from Greenwood Lake, an arrangement that has been in place for 25 years. Without those students, some questioned whether the high school would last. Currently, Greenwood Lake pays Tuxedo approximately $13,000 for each of its students to attend Baker; because of the state aid formula, those same students could attend Warwick for about half of that figure. Greenwood Lake looked at this as an opportunity to save money and to invest in its kindergarten through eighth-grade program. The Tuxedo district campaigned hard in Warwick against the measure, with mailings and full page ads in local papers. “This was fear-mongering,” said Warwick school board president Robert Howe, referring to Tuxedo’s tactics. “It was like a political campaign.” Howe said the board and Greenhall had done what it promised to do - look for ways to maintain the current level of programs while trying to bring in additional sources of income. “He did that,” Howe said. “We could have voted as a board, but we let the people decide.” Warwick estimated that bringing Greenwood Lake students to the high school would bring more than $600,000 to the district the first year, more than $1 million the second, and more in subsequent years. Detractors said overcrowding in the high school was a factor. And, they said, if things didn’t work out after the first three years and Warwick wanted to get out of the agreement, what chance did they have to do that if Baker no longer existed or Tuxedo didn’t want the students? The district said that demographics are falling, with fewer houses being built and fewer school children moving into the Warwick district. With that pattern being projected for the next decade, it won’t be long before cuts will have to be made throughout the district, including teachers and programs, according to Greenhall. “There will be some hard choices for this district in the near future,” said Greenhall after the vote. “This decision is done.” At the Tuxedo School District offices late Wednesday night, Superintendent Joseph Zanetti said he was pleased with the results. “I believe it’s a good night for our high schoolers and a chance to reset the counter with Greenwood Lake,” Zanetti said. The most important first step now, Zanetti said, is to take stock at what happened over the past months and take an honest look at how things can be done better. He welcomed contract discussions with the Greenwood Lake School District and pledged his and the Tuxedo School Board’s commitment to that process in order to reach an agreement. The current contract expires in six months. “There really has to be a healing process,” he said. “There have been some big wounds created. I hope we can put this behind us. We have to move forward. There have always been problems, but we have to work together better. A door has been opened again.” Equally and critically important, said Zanetti, is that the State Education Department must fix the inequities that affect Greenwood Lake and Tuxedo taxpayers. “Albany must pay attention to this,” he added. “This is a problem and they have to fix it.”