Fredonia Board of Education Member Sheila Hahn, left, looks on as Dr. Margie Wright, Chief Officer for Curriculum and Human Resources, shares the new mathematics curriculum program with the board. Photo by Braden Carmen

As costs of many other goods and services nationwide have risen in the recent years, the Fredonia Board of Education has noticed vendors have charged more for services provided to the district.

Even with the increase in many areas, specifically citing fuel costs, Fredonia Superintendent Brad Zilliox said the district did not want to add additional funds to the budget.

“When we started planning back in January-February, we were not at the cost that we are now. We talked about the possibility of adding, and we decided not to do that.

The 1% tax increase that has been already approved by voters will aid in the anticipated additional cost of goods and services.

“This is what the voters approved. We felt that until we saw that there is a need, if there is a need later in the year, we thought it would be best to leave it as the voters approved,” added Fredonia Board of Education President Brian Aldrich.

Also related to rising costs of goods and services, a contract between the school district and Management Advisory Group, Inc. to serve as a consultant to confer with district personnel regarding STAC and Medicaid forms was renewed for one year. A contract between the district and Johnson Controls Fire Protection LP for fire alarm service for the Main Street and Wheelock campuses was renewed, as well. Both contracts featured increases from the previous contract compared to the renewal.

Additionally, the board approved the contracts between the Fredonia school district and Children’s Educational Services, as well as with Erie 2 BOCES, regarding the lease of classrooms for use at the Wheelock campus. CES will be leasing seven classrooms and BOCES will be leasing four rooms. The rate being charged by the district to lease the rooms stayed flat.

“When we did our walk-through at Wheelock, we started to think about what our long-term goals are,” said Zilliox. “We really thought about what are we trying to do here? We want to move in the direction of a true, sole early childhood center. This transition is the beginning of that.”

Also at Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting, Dr. Margie Wright, Chief Officer for Curriculum and Human Resources, presented the new elementary mathematics curriculum program with the board. The new provider for the service, titled enVision 2.0 Integrated-Infusion, was selected for the purpose of keeping students in different elementary classrooms aligned in a shared experience on top of solely adherence to the same overall state standards. The district will begin implementing the system with mathematics this year and further assess in the future.