Don't blame ‘us Greenwood Lakers'

To the editor: “A mark, a yen, a buck or a pound. It makes the world go round.” Paraphrasing a musical number from the old Broadway play “Cabaret.” Money is the topic. How sad the situation has become that Tuxedo needs a public relations firm to tell them how to say what bad guys we Greenwood Lakers are for causing the current problems. After all, you Lakers should offer to pay whatever it takes to keep your kids in Tuxedo. Why would you go back to a school you left 60 years ago? Never mind it’s in the town you live in. Never mind it would be cheaper. Never mind that their passing percentage scores on regents tests match, often exceeding your results. Let’s see. At a minimum of $3,000 per student differential times 300 students that equals $900,000. Applied to Greenwood Lakes K-8 program, we might even bring all our computers up to date. Tuxedo has. Maybe we could buy all those buses we need. Tuxedo did. Mr. Wirth’s figure, not mine at $3,000. Real number unknown. How does a public relations firm get around the fact that Tuxedo has five times the wealth of Greenwood Lake. How does a public relations firm get around the fact that Tuxedo’s true value tax rate is the next to lowest in the Orange, Ulster, Rockland and Westchester counties data provided by the Mid-Hudson School Study Council? It’s interesting to hear that Joe Zanetti allegedly gave us the idea of an earlier start time to save money and then puts the cost of paying its teachers to start earlier on us. Some Savings. Not one of my sources remember Joe Zanetti as the one who brought this idea forward. The time for name and blame tactics are over. The price set by Tuxedo to negotiate with us is to end our talks with Warwick. Sorry. No sale. Get serious. Tuxedo High School was there before we got there and will be there if we ever leave over a four year period of time. Yes, it won’t happen over night. Tuxedo elementary classes are getting larger and require more and more space. Space we helped pay for, without state aid, in order to get our students off the window sills of overcrowded classrooms. Our students will not be sent back to the window sills. John Finn Greenwood Lake