Onteora Central School District Board President Cindy Bishop said this week she is asking the district’s attorneys to draft a resolution explicitly stating the board’s intent to close Woodstock Elementary School.
The move revives a districtwide debate that intensified on May 20, 2025, when voters rejected “Proposition 2,” a $70 million consolidation plan to expand the Boiceville campus. Enrollment in the 300-square-mile district has dropped by more than half since 2004, and while a 2023 board resolution set a goal of a unified central campus by 2028, many Woodstock residents saw last spring’s vote as a chance to keep their elementary school open.
The resolution is expected to come before the school board for a vote at its Sept. 30 meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m. at Woodstock Elementary.
Bishop and board member Rory Smith raised the idea of a Woodstock-specific resolution at the Sept. 16 school board meeting. “This is the type of clarity that could help us move forward,” Smith said.
The board’s May 2, 2023 resolution did not directly reference Woodstock. Instead, it pledged the district would “work toward a unified central campus by 2028.” Bishop said that language created ambiguity. “We (the 2023 board) should have said Woodstock Elementary will close by 2028,” she said. “Had that have been the language, we would have been working on design by now.”
Some members questioned the value of another resolution. “Personally, I don’t think a resolution will help,” said board member Clark Goodrich, who opposes moving Woodstock students to Boiceville without voter approval of new classrooms. “If they continue to vote it down, we cannot close Woodstock. We are in a catch-22.”
Bishop acknowledged that new construction requires voter approval, but noted, “We can close Woodstock (without voter approval).”
Board Vice President Rick Knutsen said, “Leadership means making the hard call and we have to make it. We have to get this proposition on the ballot in December, and we have to offer clarity to the community.”
Other members expressed unease. “We have an incredibly thriving school in Woodstock so it’s hard for me psychologically to look at Woodstock and think that we have to close it. I am having a hard time reconciling this,” said board member Caroline Jerome, adding she would have abstained had the resolution been voted on Sept. 16.
The discussion came as the board began shaping a new capital spending proposal, following voters’ rejection in May of a $70.5 million plan that included 10 new classrooms at Bennett Elementary in Boiceville. The rejected proposal would have accommodated students from Woodstock.
This week’s meeting made clear the board intends to present a less expensive plan. Priorities outlined by the seven members produced estimates ranging from $16 million to $45 million. Two members, Jerome and Emily Mitchell-Marell, left new Bennett classrooms off their lists, focusing instead on upgrades to the auditorium, gym, cafeteria, play space, and other facilities.
“My choice of six things are what I felt would make the most sweeping changes, and what’s needed most in this moment to feel real improvement at our school,” Mitchell-Marell said.
The other five members included classrooms in their priorities, with spending estimates from $31 million to $45 million.
Superintendent Victoria McLaren said a December referendum would keep the district on its original construction timeline, though she cautioned that “construction can have unforeseen delays.”
Other business from the Sept. 16 meeting included:
- Swearing in Onteora High School student Jenny Albright as the student representative on the board for the 2025–26 school year.
- A report from High School Principal Lance Edelman on a “positive opening” to the school year, noting 10 cellphone violations in the first nine days under the district’s ban.
- Discussion with Shandaken officials about the proposed sale of the former Phoenicia Elementary School, which could be converted to housing pending voter approval.
- An update from Assistant Superintendent Monica LaClair on school taxes across the six towns in the district.
Scott Widmeyer is co-founder of The Overlook. He can be reached at scott@theoverlooknews.com.