Sharing has become a way for area schools to continue to offer athletics, especially for the smaller districts with lesser student numbers. You see it with the Clymer-Sherman-Panama football team as well as the Fredonia-Dunkirk-Pine Valley-Forestville-Cassadaga Valley girls swim team.

It is a solution that’s often applauded and brings winning results.

That concept of sharing is what voters must consider when deciding Thursday on a $51.7 million capital project that includes three parts for the Fredonia Central Schools. The first involves maintenance and repairs to the current structures. The second involves an expansion for the music program that includes a tax increase for residents.

A third proposal is for a new sports facility that would include a $17.7 million multi-purpose, synthetic turf athletic complex on the land behind the main campus. The multi-purpose complex will be usable for baseball, softball, football and soccer games, with baseball and softball fields separated enough to allow for games to be held simultaneously. Approval of this would include a larger tax increase.

We understand the want for all of this. Fredonia has been behind the curve for years, especially with its athletic fields. But is this truly a community need?

If schools and students can come together to share teams, why not share underused facilities regionally? Let’s face it, even if there were small gains in enrollment in the last year, why are we trying to build more facilities and expand our 18 schools when the region’s population continues to shrink?

This month, the Regents called for regional plans for schools. Use of facilities or buildings between districts could be part of this discussion and it could be led by the Board of Cooperative Educational Service.

For instance, if Fredonia needs more room for music, talk to Forestville — 10 minutes away — about partnering to use its first-class high school auditorium, which is one of the best in the north county. Or, as is already the case, if Fredonia needs to use a field for football, check with Dunkirk to use its facility. Fredonia soccer teams already use the stadium at the State University of New York at Fredonia. That’s not out of the way or inconvenient for anyone.

Most residents would agree taxes are out of control. Albany is often blamed for that.

It is not totally true. New York state taxes your income. Schools and municipalities are the biggest tax drivers on your property.

If all three Fredonia proposals are approved, this will add to an already high tax burden in this region — about a 10% hike. For clarity, according to the U.S. Census, that is not an easy number to accept if you consider that 25% of the residents in the village are living in poverty.

Public money always comes with a cost — and if this is approved it will have nothing to do with what happens in Albany.

As a final note, shame on the district and its administration for scheduling a concert and allowing a boys basketball game on the same evening as the vote. That is blatant campaigning and appears to be dirty pool no matter how you look at it. Get the parents to the school — and tell them why they need to vote “yes” — that evening.

It has happened before in this district — and many others in this county. Do not think it will not happen again this time.