Tuxedo school board to vote on future of high school on Nov. 15

BY ERIKA NORTON
TUXEDO — For the last several years, the Tuxedo community has felt a “looming cloud of uncertainty” about the future of George F. Baker High School.
On Nov. 15, the cloud may dissipate, with the Tuxedo School Board planning to vote on whether to keep the high school open or to close its doors and send high schoolers to a nearby district.
The vote comes after a study done by consulting firm FourPoint Education Partners, which lays out the options the school board and the community have when it comes to the high school’s future.
When Greenwood Lake cancelled its longstanding contract and stopped sending students to George F. Baker High School in 2015, district enrollment dropped by two-thirds. Since then, the district has sought non-resident students to pay tuition to attend the high school, but recruiting these students has continued to be a challenge.
This year there are 75 students enrolled in the high school and according to the study, high school enrollment is likely to continue to decline slightly or, at best, to remain stable. Per-pupil spending is $47,900, much higher than the state average of $19,700.
‘Greatest strength and its greatest challenge’And while a small school comes with challenges, there are advantages to a small school environment.
“The small size of the high school is both its greatest strength and its greatest challenge,” FourPoint says in the study.
Through interviews, community meetings and surveys, FourPoint found that Tuxedo students feel safe and well connected to other students and staff, and that they receive a lot of individualized attention.
Academically, Baker High is a very high achieving and according to the study, very comparable to other high schools in the area when it comes to graduation rates and course offerings. The school has a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) focus, a longer school day and a 10-period schedule which allows for more block scheduling and project-based learning.
But due to the size, the school offers fewer extra-curricular activities than comparison schools, although students do not need to compete for a spot or a part.
“While we may not have all the sports programs that the other schools can offer students, more of our students are participating in so many activities where they wouldn’t have the opportunity in a large school,” Tuxedo Superintendent Nancy Teed said. “We may have a student who wants to go out for soccer at Monroe-Woodbury, for example, where there is 100 to 150 kids going out for the soccer team. Here, they’re going to play. There, they may not stand a chance of even setting foot on the field.
“So when you look at our kids and how many activities they’re in — they’re in the musicals, they’re in clubs after school, they’re on teams — our kids don’t have time to get bored, honestly.”
If it closesIf the board decides to close the high school, there are cost increases associated with sending the high schoolers to a nearby district, but there would be an overall net savings of about $2.7 million, the bulk of which is faculty salaries and benefits. The option would save the district 6 percent to 12 percent of its $13 million budget.
Students would be sent to one of the four nearby high schools, most of which are much larger: Monroe-Woodbury; Suffern; Ramsey, N.J. or Northern Highlands Regional, N.J.
Potential tuition costs range from $12,000 at Ramsey to $20,240 at Suffern, but will ultimately be negotiated between the two districts.
FourPoint also pointed out that one of the clear downsides to sending students to another district is that the community loses control over the management and financing of the school. Non-residents do not get to vote in local school board elections.
Should the school population in Tuxedo increase significantly, FourPoint said the district could reopen the school. The planned Tuxedo Farms housing development, which has been in the works for over a decade, has the potential to add many students to the district rolls, but the progress has been slow going.
If the school remains open, FourPoint suggested ways to attract more students to Tuxedo, including creating a programs for foreign students, creating a special education program as an alternative to BOCES, and by focusing marketing around the school’s unique qualities as a small public school.
Teed said that there was a lot of community support for the school at the board meeting, something FourPoint said will be necessary if the school is to remain open.
“They voiced that we need a high school in our town,” she said. “One woman said that she never would have moved to Tuxedo if she thought the high school wouldn’t be here.”
“It’s a small school right now and there’s a lot of advantages to a small school,” Teed said. “I think that’s what people need to keep in mind.”
The Tuxedo school board will meet again Oct. 10 at 7 p.m. at the high school to further discuss the study and receive more community input.