The Tuxedo community will hold an open town meeting Wednesday, November 14 at 7 p.m. at the George F. Baker Auditorium to discuss the ongoing initiative to preserve the high school population.
Shaping The Future Of Our High School initiative began when the Greenwood Lake Union Free School District decided that George F. Baker High School was too expensive. Greenwood Lake has both an elementary school and middle school but contracts out to Tuxedo to provide students a high school education. For more than 30 years, Greenwood Lake students have traveled to Tuxedo and George F. Baker to complete their education. Then over the course of the spring and summer, Greenwood Lake opened the bidding to other school districts, including Chester, Warwick and Monroe. The choice was eventually narrowed down to Warwick and Chester, leaving Tuxedo shut out.
In the end, it appeared to be a numbers issue for GWL. Tuxedo simply couldn’t meet the same numbers as the other two school districts. Tuxedo’s proposed tuition has been scaled down to $12,000 per student, with other inducements, whereas Warwick put the number at $8,000, and Chester $9,500. Greenwood Lake had asked Tuxedo to reduce tuition to $10,500, which would involve big curriculum cuts. Approximately 250 GWL students currently attend George F. Baker High School.
The whole process has been fraught with politics and emotion due to the longstanding relationship between Tuxedo and Greenwood Lake, and the exceptional educational experience students receive at Baker. Tuxedo is a small high school but can’t compete in terms of extracurricular activities with the larger schools in Warwick and Chester.
When Tuxedo and Greenwood Lake parents and students raised their collective voices and descended on the GWL school board in a very public demonstration in October, the board took notice and voted to make Tuxedo one of the three school choices.
“It was right down to the last minute that I think people were making up their minds,” said Greenwood Lake School Superintendent Dr. Richard Brockel in a write up on the meeting by Photo-News reporter Nancy Kriz. “I believe there are people in town who feel that if you spend any more than $9,500, it’s not a good decision. But the board listened to both sides and come up with a deal that would satisfy the taxpayers and satisfy the families.”
Greenwood Lake will operate under a Parental Choice system beginning at the start of the 2013 school year. GWL 8th grade middle school students entering 9th grade will have the choice to attend one of three available high schools next year, including Tuxedo, Warwick and Chester. The three school Parental Choice option involves a 22 month commitment by students — once they choose their high school of choice, they’re locked in for the duration of the GWL contract with the high schools involved.
After the 22 month contract ends, GWL will move to make a more permanent decision on where the community’s students attend high school.
Wednesday’s community meeting will help provide a single large forum for the Tuxedo community and parents to help ensure a consistent, unified message related to Tuxedo’s ongoing negotiations with GWL. Additionally, the Public Consulting Group (PCG) that was hired by the Tuxedo Union Free School District will provide preliminary findings on some of the community feedback the group has gathered to date through surveys, focus groups and interviews.
Thursday, November 15 is the day Tuxedo makes its presentation at Greenwood Lake Middle School. The GWL students are scheduled to visit George F. Baker High School on Tuesday, November 27.
For more information on Wednesday evening’s community meeting, call Nancy SanEmeterio at 845-351-4799.
