Pictured is the Fredonia school cafeteria shortly before 6 p.m. as residents lined up to cast their vote regarding the 2025-2026 School Budget.

With its final shot to have a say in the 2025-26 School Budget for this year, the Fredonia school community followed through on its promise from back in December.

The 2025-2026 School Budget passed with a 1.9% tax increase to cover Proposition 1 of the Capital Project, with no additional tax increase to cover the other operating costs of the district.

The total number of votes was a dramatic increase from the initial budget proposal. Of 1,735 total votes, 986 were in favor of the re-vote budget and 749 against it. It was the largest voter turnout at Fredonia since 2006.

The first proposition of the Capital Project vote in December – titled “Warm, Safe, and Dry”, pertaining to critical maintenance improvements – had a total of 1,748 votes, with 980 in favor and 768 against the 1.9% increase that came with it.

The first budget put out to voters included that 1.9% increase, along with an additional 0.69% tax increase for a total tax levy increase of 2.59%. That budget proposal was rejected by a narrow margin of 472-414. In response, Fredonia made more cuts – including two teaching positions and summer school programming for grades K-8.

Superintendent Dr. Brad Zilliox said the district’s goal in its latest budget proposal was “to balance the educational needs, programs, and services for our students with a cost our community can accept.”

The 2025-26 School Budget carries a total amount of $38,193,800. The approved 1.9% tax increase will cover the work outlined in Proposition 1 of the Capital Project that was already approved in December. The increase for the average home in the district amounts to an extra $63 per year – $5.25 per month.

At a Board of Education meeting during Tuesday’s re-vote, Zilliox thanked the community for its support in recent weeks leading up to the re-vote.

“It was disappointing and probably somewhat surprising on May 20 when our budget was not approved. However, since then, there has been a lot of rallying together,” Zilliox said. “… I think sometimes it takes an event like this to bring us back to what is really happening here. It’s a reminder of all that’s good in Fredonia.”

If the budget would have been rejected again, a contingent budget would have been enacted. That action would have eliminated any potential tax increase, instead requiring the district’s previously approved critical maintenance needs to be covered through other means. To do so, the district would have made more cuts to staffing, equipment, and extracurricular activities to the tune of an additional $326,000, in addition to the $166,000 that was already cut to drop the tax levy increase to 1.9% from the initially proposed 2.59%. An additional 3-4 teaching positions would have likely been eliminated had the budget been rejected again.

High School Principal Darrin Paschke, a lifetime resident of Fredonia and a graduate of the school, said that approving what he called a modest increase “is not about generosity, it’s about sustaining the very programs that earned Fredonia a reputation for excellence in the first place.”