OBSERVER Photos by Braden Carmen Fredonia School Business Administrator John Forbes (left) presented a fourth draft of the 2026-27 school budget to the Board, carrying a 2.44% tax increase.Fredonia Superintendent Dr. Brad Zilliox (right) said to the Board of Education regarding the latest budget proposal, “I appreciate all the work around this table over the last five years to keep our programs strong and to keep the quality of what we’re doing in our building at a high level.”

It took four drafts of the 2026-27 budget for the Fredonia Central School District to bring its proposed levy increase down to the tax cap.

In the end, the district did exactly what it was urged to do following an audit of its finances from the previous school year. Fredonia has proposed a school tax increase of 2.44% — the maximum allowable tax levy increase without requiring supermajority approval. The Fredonia Board of Education approved the district’s 2026-27 school budget proposal by a vote of 6-1, with the lone vote opposed to it cast by Jerry Kinney.

The proposed district budget amounts to $39,574,249, roughly $2 million less than its initial proposal. The average proposed increase to a district taxpayer equates to roughly six dollars per month. Now it is in the hands of the voters on May 19.

Fredonia was one of just over 20 districts statewide to have its initial school budget proposal rejected a year ago. On its second attempt, voters narrowly approved the 2025-26 budget with a 1.9% increase, stemming from the district’s previously approved capital improvements.

This year, the proposed budget started off exorbitantly higher than the previous year’s figures, but Business Administrator John Forbes began pulling back more and more over the past several weeks to get down to the tax cap.

The district needed to cut more than $760,000 from the third draft of the budget – which was presented six days prior to the Board’s approval of the fourth draft – to get under the cap.

The latest draft of the proposed budget shows a 3.61% increase in expenditures from the previous year’s budget, which is a substantial reduction from the initial budget proposal that showed a budget increase of 8.75%. The third draft showed an increase of 5.4% in expenditures.

With the proposed increase of 2.44%, the school tax levy for 2026-27 is $17,912,595. Salaries and benefits account for 68.7% of the proposed budget. Another 3.9% of the budget is allocated for debt service payments. Many of the other costs are also locked in at this point, such as BOCES and other contractual costs.

The district is projecting approximately $20 million in State Aid in 2026-27, representing roughly 50% of the overall budget. Last year, State Aid represented just over 50% of the total budget, as well.

MAKING CUTS

To get down to the tax cap, the district needed to make a lot of adjustments. Most notably, the district will not be replacing two outgoing elementary teachers. Electing not to fill those positions moving forward saves the district in terms of salaries, benefits, health insurance, social security and retirement costs moving forward.

The district has seven teachers set to retire at the end of this year – three elementary teachers, two math teachers, a music teacher, and a technology teacher. Superintendent Dr. Brad Zilliox stated that it would be especially difficult for the district to cut the mathematics, music, and technology positions, with Grade 3-8 testing and Regents exams in mind. As a result, two of the elementary teachers will not be replaced. The third elementary opening will be reclassified as an integrated classroom Special Education teaching position at the Wheelock campus, which will result in additional revenue for the district through reimbursement in future years.

Contrary to what many believe, rather than seeing a decline in population, enrollment at Fredonia has slightly increased over the past six years. The projected K-12 enrollment for 2026-2027 is 1,420.

The district’s needs have also increased across the board in the past six years. This year shows 26% more students as English Language Learners than in 2020-21, along with 58% more students with disabilities, and 21% more students classified as economically disadvantaged. There are currently 276 students with disabilities at Fredonia, while 648 students are deemed economically disadvantaged. There are 51 students classified as homeless, compared to five in 2020-21. Additionally, 58 students this year are in Career and Technical Education or P-TECH courses, compared to 45 students in 2020-21.

“That has been part of the challenge in our last several budget conversations,” Zilliox said.

The district added several positions over the past six years to meet the growing needs of students. The district utilized American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to add a social worker, a speech therapist, a school counselor, a Special Education teacher, an Elementary STEM teacher, and a Hispanic outreach coordinator. Zilliox said the positions “became invaluable” to the district once they were established.

Rather than cutting from the positions that were added, the district is reducing its staff mostly through attrition. Last year, the district cut one position in the middle school and did not replace one outgoing teacher in the high school. This year, two elementary school teachers are not being replaced. The other five open positions will be filled.

Zilliox said of the Board’s commitment to supporting the district’s programming needs in his time as Superintendent, “I appreciate all the work around this table over the last five years to keep our programs strong and to keep the quality of what we’re doing in our building at a high level.”

Forbes also noted there were reductions from the equipment and maintenance requests over the past few weeks. In all, Forbes said 38 budget lines were adjusted in some way.

Part of why the district feels the need to raise the tax cap this year is because of its rapidly decreasing fund balance. Most districts maintain an unassigned fund balance of at least 4% of the succeeding year’s budget, and the state suggests 4% as a target for districts. Many financial experts suggest even more than 4%. Fredonia, however, has seen its unassigned fund balance fall to just 2.32%, which led to the Office of the State Comptroller’s characterization of the district being “susceptible to financial stress” in each of the past two years. The latest budget proposal has $750,000 of assigned fund balance included.

The budget also includes a capital project of up to $100,000 of improvements to the district, with the majority of the work being done to replace the tennis courts. Indoor flooring improvements and required architects’ fees are also included in the total cost.

VOTING

The annual budget hearing will be on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the High School Library. The budget vote will be held on May 19, from 2-9 p.m. in the High School Cafeteria.

Absentee ballots are available at the District Clerk’s Office. Applications for an absentee ballot must be received by May 13 if the ballot is to be mailed to the applicant, or by May 19 if the applicant receives the ballot in person at the District Clerk’s Office. All absentee ballots must be received by the District Clerk in the District Office by 5 p.m. on May 19. Any ballots received after that time will not be counted. Completed applications for military ballots must have been received by the District Clerk by April 24.

There will also be two Board of Education seats up for election at the time of the budget vote. Courtney Gullo and Aaron Marshall have chosen not to seek re-election. Instead, three candidates have declared themselves as candidates: Marieanne Fabiano, Keana Sherlock and Randy Draggett. They are seeking five-year terms. A proposition will also be listed on the ballot to reduce term lengths of Board members from five years to three. If approved, the change will take effect for the next election cycle in 2027.