The Onteora school board unanimously voted to table indefinitely a resolution to close Woodstock Elementary School after two hours of discussion and passionate comments from the public.
Initially, the board voted to table further discussion and the vote until after the public spoke, but opted to table it altogether after listening to comments.
Toward the close of the meeting, trustees decided to keep the resolution on future agendas as an open discussion item but will not vote on it for the foreseeable future.
“I’m sad at the prospect of closing this school. I’m even sadder at the way the very fabric of our communities has been visibly fraying or even tearing around this issue, a phenomenon I think is inseparable from the changes our country has gone through,” board Vice President Rick Knudsen said.
“Friends, I say to you in this room, there are no bad people. There’s no nefarious intent. There’s just a set of constituencies that agree on wanting the best for all the kids,” he said.
“But we do have big differences in this district. We have differences about our understanding of the facts and how to interpret them. We have differences in what we think the number one priority for this district should be, and most importantly, in what the material outcome should be at the end of this process.”
Knudsen said the board is “ethically prohibited from elevating the parochial interests of one town over the whole district. We can’t do it.”
Knudsen noted he believes a large segment of voters treated the $55 million bond proposition in May as a proxy referendum on the future of Woodstock Elementary.
As happened throughout the evening and during initial discussion, the public frequently shouted at and heckled the board.
“I’m explaining my thinking. We have not voted on it. Guys, guys, please. Please listen,” he implored the public.
“This is exactly what I’m talking about. We need to learn to talk to each other civilly and respectfully.”
Facing sharply declining enrollment, the board decided in 2023 to consolidate grades K-12 into a central campus, with Bennett housing K-5 and the middle/high school containing grades 6-12. The 2023 resolution closed Phoenicia Elementary the following year, and the plan necessitated closing Woodstock by 2028, though that was never explicitly stipulated.
The plan was to expand Bennett to house the additional students from Woodstock, but that was put on hold when voters rejected a $70.5 million capital project to be financed by a $50 million bond and $15.5 million in capital funds.
District enrollment for K-12 as of September is 1,007, less than half what it was 20 years ago and close to the 2007-08 student population of just the middle/high school building.
Trustee Clark Goodrich ended the evening where he started. While still favoring consolidation, he thought the resolution backs the district into a corner with no plans to place the students should either a planned do-over bond vote at a lower price tag fail or construction fall behind schedule.
“We haven’t got a clue how we’re going to do this,” he said.
“This whole thing has literally polarized everybody, including this board. And what I’m really sad about is this polarization is filtering down to the students. This was not a good idea,” he said.
“This vote is putting the cart before the horse,” said Rebecca Turmo, one of nearly two dozen who spoke.
“People just want honesty and transparency when it comes to this process. I listened tonight, I heard, well, maybe we should have this size gym or maybe a 5,000-square-foot gym. We don’t really know when we can save this amount of money,” she said, referring to an earlier discussion of a revamped capital improvement plan.
“It sounded almost—I’m not being mean—but like a fire sale, because you know you didn’t get the original money and the original vote. And we’re not prepared to make a resolution to send paperwork to the state to close this school until you have a better understanding of what you’re going to do.”
She said putting fifth graders in the middle/high school is a mistake, a scenario that can happen if Woodstock closes and the bond to expand Bennett fails again.
Urana Kinlen reminisced about attending Woodstock Elementary and said the board should not focus on the single agenda of closing the school.
“I used to stand right there where you are, and I sang in chorus and did recitals here,” she said.
“My issue with you is that you have one agenda. It’s a linear thinking, and you’re imposing it upon this district, this school. And I worked in these schools, I worked in these buildings as well as went to these buildings,” said Kinlen, a former substitute teacher in the district.
Vicki Haberski, daughter of former Woodstock principal Raymond Haberski, spoke of her late father.
“If he was here today, he would have been fighting to keep the school open. I know that. And I know that he would have at least looked at every possible solution to keep the school open,” she said.
“When our father, Mr. Haberski, accepted the position as principal of Woodstock Elementary School in 1979, it was a pivotal moment in his life, for it provided him with a pathway by which he could help create positive and meaningful change alongside the larger community,” Vicki Haberski said, reading a letter written by her sister, Alicia Haberski Sprow.
“It wasn’t the administrative aspects of the position that ignited our father’s passion and community-driven focus. Instead, the thousands of small moments engaging with the community impacted him the most,” she said.
“The real value lies in keeping Woodstock Elementary School open so that many more lives can be positively impacted, allowing students, families and school employees to live, work and spend time within the community they call home.”
Woodstock Fire Department volunteer Philippe Hyman came with fellow firefighters to note there are fewer volunteers because the community is aging, something a shuttered school will make worse.
“Company One, which is Woodstock proper, we have seven responders. One of them is only a driver. That’s six responders. That’s all. If someone is out of town, that’s five responders,” he said.
“And then I look back, and I see that there’s not one person that’s under 40 on our fire team. Not one,” Hyman said.
“Why is that? Because it’s getting less interesting to be in Woodstock. There was a vote about limiting outdoor music to three hours a night for three nights a week. So those people are not interested. I have a 37-year-old daughter. She would love to move to Woodstock, but I have to tell her, ‘No, my granddaughter does not have an elementary school. The same one you played at the playground, that’s going to be closing.'”
Jess Wisnewski, one of a few who spoke in favor of a central campus, said the May bond was defeated because of a misconception.
“I think part of the reason is that there was a large-scale campaign in this town that led everyone to believe that if they voted no on the bond, this elementary school would stay open forever. But that wasn’t actually true,” she said.
Woodstock Town Board candidate and former Onteora school board president Laurie Osmond thanked the trustees who “have the integrity tonight to question the process, the white-knuckling, the rushing, and also to express the things that they don’t understand.”
She sharply criticized Superintendent Victoria McLaren, who was in the administration when she was on the school board in 2008, as being “hell-bent on closing community schools since then.”
She also accused McLaren of sending her child to a private school and criticized her for living out of district.
“Proposition 2 was resoundingly defeated, not just because of the dollar amount, but because we knew that it disingenuously intended to close Woodstock Elementary,” Osmond said.
“I believe that the staff has been misled to think that consolidation is the only possible option. Other options have not been explored fully. Parents are being intimidated into thinking that services may be withheld, or classrooms packed, or fifth graders put into the middle school, which would run counter to New York state, as their curriculum for middle school is 6 through 8.”
McLaren immediately clarified she is not the first superintendent to live outside of the district.
“My child has and continues to attend public school and has never set foot in a private school,” she said.
At the end of the meeting, McLaren said she spoke with Osmond after her comments to refute some accusations.
“She knows my child has never attended a private school—not that there’s anything wrong with that,” McLaren said, addressing concerns from the board that she was being attacked.
“She was on the board who hired the superintendent before me, who was not required to live in the district, and she hired me and did not include that in my contract. It just was not a condition of employment in my contract. I don’t know why that is my fault.”
Goodrich refuted accusations the superintendent is pushing through an agenda to close the school and consolidate the district.
“You are our employee, and you’re not ramming this thing through. It’s our responsibility. You have not said, hey, we’ve got to do this. You’ve been pretty quiet, and we initiate everything. And you did not deserve the negative comments tonight,” he said.
Join the family! 
