Choices

It is time for both sides of the school issue - Tuxedo and Greenwood Lake - to step up.
The Tuxedo number of $13,900 (per student) is too much to allow the GWL school board to consider them in a school choice model.
So the leadership in Tuxedo needs to decide on a number that the GWL community can live with and with $12,500 per student as a max.
Yes, I was there the other night for the not-one-penny-more and other speeches by many who would want Tuxedo out under any scenario.
But there are many who disagree and this is documented.
As a former school board member I have been present at all of the meetings on this and this is why $12,500 for Tuxedo is a number the school board should be able to justify leaving Tuxedo in the mix.
First off, $12,500 was Tuxedo’s number from the beginning when the following events took place.
A series of meetings were held with the speakers were more pro-Tuxedo until the last two meetings.
There were two board resolutions voted on in April. The first ( voted down 3-4 ) was for school choice with Tuxedo at $12,500. The second ( approved 4-3) was for Tuxedo only at $12,500.
The petition to pull the vote was done with the intention of giving the community the option they expressed they wanted, which was school choice with Tuxedo at $12,500.
The board election was clearly one of the Tuxedo option versus the Warwick option.
While I did lose, the margin of 5-4 clearly showed that this is a split community; for every five voters in favor of Warwick, there are four in favor of Tuxedo at $12,500.
The petition delivered to the board in July contained almost 450 names. That petition was signed at a point at which the Tuxedo tuition was $12,500. Clearly, almost 450 members of our community feel Tuxedo should be an option at $12,500.
Our newest board member, Greg Gibel, ran on school choice with Tuxedo at $12,500.
The ball is clearly in Tuxedo’s court and they need to come down in price or the potential demise of their district will be on their hands.
However, if Tuxedo steps up and comes up with a price of $12,500 or lower, I am asking the board who have all publicly indicated Tuxedo alone or school choice when Tuxedo was $12,500 to forget about class action lawsuits and just show some class action.�
Anything less would be hypocritical to the community of Greenwood Lake.

Mary Fagan
Greenwood Lake