‘Separated by a small mountain’
I was born and raised in the Town of Warwick and we have raised our family here as well. My father was introduced to the Town of Warwick through the Village of Greenwood Lake back in the 1930’s when my grandmother brought him up here as a boy to vacation from their home in Oradell, N.J.
They moved here (first apartment in GWL) in 1938 and my Dad (and Mom) graduated from Warwick Valley High School in 1946 (that was the Park Ave. school back then!).
At that time, students from Greenwood Lake were in the Warwick Valley Central School District.
The Villages of Greenwood Lake and Warwick are separated by a small mountain; that is all that should separate us.
Four+ years ago our town and school district had an opportunity to help bring together our villages in a meaningful way, by welcoming the children from our sister village over the mountain into our school district.
I still cannot comprehend why this great vision from our prior school superintendent, Dr. Frank Greenhall, God rest his soul, was not embraced by all of our community on either side of the mountain. The misinformation and short-sightedness that I witnessed first-hand was both amazing and appalling.
So now our hard working Board of Education and School Superintendent Dr. Raymond Bryant have once again extended the obvious invitation for the children of the Town of Warwick, who happen to reside on the “other” side of the mountain, to join our school district and the children on “this” side of the mountain.
It is absolutely what should happen and be embraced by all. I completely understand the loyalty that a student/family might have toward their current school. But if a change in school district is necessary and imminent, isn’t it completely obvious that the Warwick Valley Central School District should include the children from one of our own Villages?
Not only does it make sense from a fiscal perspective, but it goes a long way to connecting both sides of OUR mountain in significant ways.
Garrett Durland
Warwick