‘Out money is at stake'

To the editor: After months of studies and discussions, the Warwick Board of Education has scheduled a public vote on a non-binding school referendum to be held on Dec. 12, which reads as follows: “Shall the Warwick Valley Central School District enter into an agreement with the Greenwood Lake Union Free School District to have high school students from Greenwood Lake enter the Warwick Valley Central School System as tuition-paying students?” Using the words “tuition-paying students” — I might say at the outset — is clearly less than accurate and grossly misleading to both Greenwood Lake and Warwick voters who must pass judgment on the proposal. Students do not pay tuitions and any attempt to require them, or rather their parents to do so, would be an outright violation of the state law that requires “the legislature to provide for the maintenance and support of a system of free common schools, wherein all the children of the state may be educated.” (N.Y.S. Constitution, Article XI, Section 1) The basic issue here, however, simply relates to the cost to taxpayers of sending students to the Warwick Valley Central School District at a cost of $6,800 per student as against a cost of $14,000 per student at the George F. Baker High School in Tuxedo, which should be enough to merit support for the referendum, especially when there are already enough open seats in the Warwick high school to accommodate the new students. But fortunately, there also is the added support for the referendum from Town Supervisor Michael Sweeton, Warwick Schools Superintendent Dr. Frank Greenhall and Greenwood Lake Superintendent John Guarracino. All that remains is for us as taxpayers to see that it is our money that is at stake, and then for each of us to take the time to come out and vote for the referendum on Wednesday, Dec. 12. Edward P. Scharfenberger Warwick Taxpayers Association