Mar 14, 2025
OBSERVER Photo by Braden Carmen Superintendent Dr. Brad Zilliox detailed an emergency capital project proposal from the District at a recent Board of Education meeting.
A major focus of the Fredonia Central School District over the past several years has been the District’s plans for capital improvements. Some of the needs of the District will be met, while many others have been pushed back or shot down entirely by voters.
Recently, Mother Nature had her say by adding another item to the long list of needs at Fredonia.
As the District was preparing upgrades to its phone system earlier this winter, a storm knocked out a transformer that was supplying the District with power. The outage had a major impact on the phone system throughout the building.
“We now recognize that we really need to scrap our old system and implement and install something that is up to date, state of the art, and will really just correct this problem, now and moving forward,” Superintendent Dr. Brad Zilliox said.
Due to an act of nature, the District was advised by architects of Young and Wright to pursue an emergency capital project. That avenue was suggested rather than funding the project outright through funds currently on hand or by including the work in a capital project proposal. The District’s most recent proposal received narrow approval from voters for the basic maintenance needs of the facilities, but music and athletic department upgrades were rejected.
At its most recent meeting, the Board issued a resolution declaring the existence of an emergency situation, as well as a negative declaration under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) for a proposed emergency capital project to address what the District described as “necessary and immediate measures to address the significant and unexpected windstorm-related damage to the telephone system district-wide.”
The preliminary estimate from Young and Wright for the necessary work is approximately $425,000, including anticipated incidental expenses. Zilliox referred to that estimate as a “worst-case scenario.”
By declaring the project as an emergency situation, the District could receive its typical capital project reimbursement from the state within a year of the project’s completion, rather than over 15 years as is the case with the majority of capital projects. A negative declaration under SEQRA means the project has no negative impact added to the environment. It is up to the Department of Education to approve or deny the emergency capital project designation.
Regarding previously approved capital improvements, the District took action on several items on the agenda at the recent meeting for the process to proceed.
“This is all part of the plan and we are excited to be moving forward,” Zilliox said, referring to the work laid out in Proposition 1 of the Dec. 2024 Capital Improvement Project vote, which voters approved.
Standard forms of agreement with Young and Wright as architects and Buffalo Construction Consultants as the construction manager were approved for capital improvements throughout the district.
“Between Young and Wright and Buffalo Construction, we feel like we have a really good team to get this work done in an efficient and timely way,” Zilliox said.
The bid from Stohl Environmental for the pre-renovation survey required for the 2024 Capital Improvement Project was also approved.
The District’s latest Capital Outlay Project pertains to upgrading the main campus playground to provide handicap accessibility and equipment, along with safety improvements. The Wheelock School playground will be upgraded as part of Proposition 1 of the Capital Improvement Project approved by voters in December.
The District also recently accepted a bid for a 31-day emergency transportation contract with Corvus Bus & Charter, Inc., from Feb. 24 to March 26 in the amount of $500 per day.
Additionally, the motions previously made to accept District policies regarding Equal Educational Opportunities Feb. 4 and Title IX and Sex Discrimination Feb. 18 were rescinded upon recent developments in federal courts.
“I think the District is still in a good place, but we are adhering to the information we’re getting from the courts and making those adjustments,” Zilliox said.
The next meeting of the Fredonia Board of Education is Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the High School Library.
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