Representatives from Young and Wright Architecture and Buffalo Construction Consultants attended the Board’s recent meeting via videoconference to discuss the state of the District’s Emergency Pool Repair Project.

Gowanda Superintendent Dr. Robert Anderson said the pool is still on schedule to be operational by next school year. However, getting to that point is much more of a burden than the district had hoped.

Once the existing pool was torn apart, it became clear that the issues were worse than the District had initially thought. Siding on the pool fell off easily, tiling was worse than anticipated, and the gutter needs to be completely reconstructed. In all, the “shell” of the pool will be completely reconstructed.

“You can only see so much until you get into it,” Anderson said. He later added, “I don’t think anybody really anticipated that the whole thing would fall apart.”

With so much additional work required to fix the pool, the budget for the project required up to an additional $500,000 in contingency funds allocated, in case they are needed.

Members of the Board immediately recoiled when Anderson shared the amount of the increase to the budget.

Representatives said that “in a perfect world”, the entire $500,000 of funds added to the budget would not be utilized, but the number was estimated to avoid needing to come back for another round of funding before the project can be completed. Anderson characterized the required updates as a “permanent fix.”

With roughly $1.7 million invested in the project already, if Gowanda did not approve the additional funds required to complete the project, the District would miss out on state aid reimbursement for the money spent. “We’re not happy that this happened, but that doesn’t mean throwing $1.7 million away,” said Board of Education President Max Graham.

After more than 30 minutes of discussion, the Board passed a resolution, amending previous resolutions, to reflect updated costs of the Emergency Pool Repair Capital Project to reflect the estimated cost of $2.2 million, with $1.3 million to be used from the District’s Repair Reserve Fund, and up to an additional $900,000 from the District’s Unappropriated General Funds. The resolution was advised by architects from Young and Wright, as estimated costs of the project exceed what the District had anticipated.

A bond resolution for future financing of the District’s $44.5 million Capital Project, as approved by voters on Dec. 9, was also approved by the Board.

The Board also accepted the retirement resignation of Lou Ann McMullen, School Monitor, effective Feb. 6. The resignation of Timothy Barratt, Cleaner, was accepted as of Jan. 2. David Bolen also resigned from the role of Varsity Boys Track Coach.

Gisselle Acevedo-Santiago was appointed by the Board as a probationary Bus Driver, while Janelle Hotchkiss was appointed by the Board as a probationary Keyboard Specialist I. Holland Browning was appointed as a substitute Teacher, Teaching Assistant and School Monitor, effective Dec. 11, 2025. Georgia North was appointed as a Cleaner, and Charley North was appointed as a substitute Cleaner.

The Board also appointed Jennifer Gernatt as the Adult Community Education Director for the 2025-2026 school year at the rate of $30 per hour, effective Jan. 15, in place of Hayley Wilkins. Various extracurricular appointments were also approved by the Board. The District also accepted a $300 donation from the Trinity United Church of Christ to benefit The Thrifty Panther store.