Business administrator John Forbes presented the first information about Fredonia’s proposed 2022-23 budget to the school board and public earlier this month, which with the help of Fredonia Superintendent Dr. Bradley Zilliox, is a team effort undertaken each year to maximize the school’s resources.

“We take this process very seriously,” Zilliox said. “We see it as one of our key responsibilities to think deeply about how we’re using and maximizing our resources and making sure our budget matches our mission, vision and core beliefs and supports our students and adults that are part of the district.”

The final budget for 2021-22 was $31,295,000 while the current proposed budget is $33,227,000 with Forbes saying there is still work to do. Forbes acknowledged that his initial budget drafts begin higher on the expense side and lower on the revenue sides, as the flexibility of revenue is much lower. One number Forbes keyed in on was the tax levy limit. For them, the calculation is that a maximum tax levy increase would be $168,000, which would be 1.04 percent.

Forbes said that $593,000 in salary coming out of the budget due to resignations and retirements, and with the replacements coming in, the school will net around $90,000 for the upcoming school year.

“We have one teacher who is a veteran teacher who retired and as long as the new salary is south of that, it’s pure savings,” said Forbes.

“In theory, if you had four retirees who had the incentive, that usually zeroes out, but because they weren’t eligible for the incentive, we got the savings.”

Forbes said as part of the budget, a Capital Outlay Project for Wheelock school is under consideration, including blacktop replacement and a secure office entrance. However, doing any outside requires an additional $10,000 worth of work inside as well.

“We’re looking at upgrading a bathroom, new tiles and fixtures,” said Forbes. “Or I recently had a conversation with the fire system panel people we use and they said the panels are pretty much obsolete so we’re getting a quote on that to see if we should consider doing that.”

Other big-ticket items in the draft include $102,000 of maintenance and custodial equipment, while waiting on better numbers from the maintenance equipment dealer. Occupational education at BOCES is up around 12 slots, as the school is finding less students interested in the college program and more interest in other fields. There are also four additional BOCES special education placements.

As the process continues, Fredonia School Board president Brian Aldrich said Forbes works hard this time of year to make sure everything checks out. “This is the first budget proposal,” he said. “This is a process where administration and Mr. Forbes come to us and tell us what they’d like, in terms of staffing and equipment. It’s getting to that final budget that’s the give and take. How much do we value what they’re asking for as opposed to asking our tax payers to increase taxes?”

The next Fredonia school board meeting is Tuesday, March 22, at 6 p.m. in the high school library.