After several drafts of the proposed budget, the Fredonia Board of Education asked for further cuts to lighten the burden on district taxpayers. In the end, the proposed tax increase from the district is 2.59%.

The Board approved a total budget amount of $38,336,005, representing a 5.23% increase from the previous budget. The proposed school tax levy is $17,604,660.

The 2.59% tax increase includes the voter-approved 1.9% tax increase stemming from Proposition 1 of the Capital Project ruled on this past December. After several drafts of the upcoming year’s budget, Forbes brought the district’s ask down to 2.99% including the tax increase — meaning only 1.09% of the increase would have been to cover the other increases to the budget.

Still, that was too much for the Board to get behind.

Brian Aldrich was the lone vote against the proposed budget of the 2025-2026 Fredonia school budget.

The strongest opposition came from Brian Aldrich, the former President who voted against the proposed Capital Project. With that increase already approved, Aldrich did not want to approve another increase, regardless of how much the costs out of the district’s control have risen. Aldrich refused to approve anything above 2%.

“We need to look at this differently than we have in the past,” Aldrich said.

The increase Forbes proposed was in line with what the district had asked for in recent years. From 2018-19 to 2024-25, the average tax levy increase to district residents was 1.12%. Not including the already approved increase of 1.9% from Proposition 1 of the Capital Project, the increase Forbes proposed was 1.09%.

While the Board haggled over an increase of what amounted to just over 1% at a meeting just shy of two hours from start to finish, the bigger problems remained out of the district’s control. The village of Fredonia’s proposed 65% tax increase loomed over the Board’s discussion, emboldening Aldrich’s stance to cut wherever the district could.

“The problem that I’m really having in this increase over 2% is our village taxes are going up 65%, and I’m very concerned that our voters are going to say, ‘We can’t vote on the village budget, but we can vote on the school budget’,” Aldrich said. “They will take it out on someone.”

While the tax levy increase fluctuated anywhere from 1.9% to 2.99% throughout the discussion, the budget increase itself far surpassed whatever the taxpayers could make up for. Even had the district asked for the maximum amount without exceeding the tax cap — in Fredonia’s case this year, that cap was a 4.65% increase — the budget itself increased more than 5% from the previous year.

By asking for much less than the district was allowed to request, Fredonia is not making up any ground for potential capital improvements down the line. Not only were music and athletic department needs voted down in December’s Capital Project vote, but a substantial amount of maintenance needs were pushed down the line for future projects. The district is not only allocating many of its resources on hand to the project that is already approved; it is also applying $750,000 of fund balance to the budget this year to make up for the increases. The added fund balance is approximately 2% of the overall budget. That increase was still deemed necessary to make ends meet with the upcoming budget even after more than $1 million of additional Foundation Aid from the state.

Before Forbes made one final round of cuts, 70% of the budget was strictly dedicated to salaries and benefits. District salaries alone amounted to more than 50% of the budget in the draft presented to the Board on Thursday before the final revision, totaling $19,239,949. Benefits also amounted to nearly 20% of the budget, totaling $7,640,165. BOCES costs total $4,556,120 (11.86%) and contractual expenses total $4,446,209 (11.58%).

Overall, salaries and benefits for the upcoming year have increased by approximately 5.09%. The budget shows a 7.9% increase to the New York State Teachers Retirement System.

After more than 90 minutes of presentation and discussion of the budget had passed, the Board called for a recess from the meeting for Forbes to find more areas to cut. He was directed to reduce the 2.99% increase to 2.59%. Even in doing so, Board member Courtney Gullo acknowledged that the problems would not be solved by making the adjustment.

“Is 0.4% achieving a long-term strategy? Not at all,” Gullo said. “It sounds like we’re kind of going with what budget we think will pass, and we’re trying to fit that into our needs. … This isn’t the answer. We need a long-term answer.”

During the 12-minute recess, Forbes made further cuts to the equipment portion of the budget, amounting to a reduction of $68,641. The proposed budget before the cuts showed an increase of $65,839 in equipment from the previous year. The proposed equipment portion of the budget prior to the final cuts totaled only 0.53% of the overall budget. The highest figures among the equipment requests before final cuts were the maintenance department ($37,779), interscholastic athletics ($30,547), High School instruction ($29,493), and Wheelock instruction ($28,740).

Aldrich thanked Forbes for his work on the budget before asking for further cuts. He said, “I know you’re trying to find nickels and dimes, but I think the real issue here is we’ve got to find a lot more dollars.”

One of Aldrich’s areas of focus was on the elimination of positions, as five teachers and High School Principal Darrin Paschke are set to retire. Replacing all six positions is estimated at a cost of just over $400,000. While there was no discussion of eliminating a Building Principal position, the Board discussed cutting from the five teaching positions, especially focused on the fifth grade opening.

Superintendent Dr. Brad Zilliox cautioned against cutting any of the positions, especially without further evaluation. With the district in a time crunch because of how late the final budget meeting was held — done so deliberately to allow for more clarity on state aid, equalization rates, and BOCES costs — a decision needed to be made that night on the final budget amount and tax increase.

The Board shared a desire moving forward to have earlier discussions in the coming years to evaluate staffing throughout the district. Additionally, the district will continue to evaluate the budgets for each Building Principal, along with any potential staffing cuts moving forward.

“We have to understand we are not the same district that we were 40 years ago, 20 years ago, 10 years ago. We have to be looking forward to where we want to be in 10 years,” Aldrich said.

Aldrich later stated, “If our district wants to continue funding the way that we have for the past 10 years, 20 years, 40 years, I think that we are going down a path of doom.”

Even after further cuts were made to Forbes’ proposal, Aldrich still refused to support the budget. Aaron Marshall was absent, so the official vote total from the Board was 5-1 in favor of the proposed budget.

The Fredonia school budget vote will be held via in-person voting on Tuesday, May 20, from 2-9 p.m. in the High School cafeteria. A public hearing on the proposed 2025-2026 budget will be held on Tuesday, May 6, at 6 p.m. in the High School library.