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OBSERVER Photo
by Braden Carmen
Fredonia Superintendent Dr. Brad Zilliox spoke to the district’s potential facilities upgrades at a recent Board of Education meeting.
Members of the Fredonia school community will soon have an open setting to voice their opinions on a potentially substantial capital project.
The first public forum for community input regarding capital improvements to the district’s facilities will be held in the coming weeks. A workshop will be held soon after to allow the Board to further discuss the district’s facilities with the feedback from the public and from its architecture partners, Young and Wright.
Potential dates listed by Fredonia Superintendent Dr. Brad Zilliox at a recent meeting were Tuesday, Jan. 30 for the public forum, with a Board of Education workshop targeted for the following Tuesday, Feb. 6. Neither date has yet been finalized.
Each discussion, like the regular Board of Education meetings, will be in the High School Library. The forum will open with a presentation of the district’s position at the time and what steps will need to be taken moving forward in the process.
After receiving a Building Condition Survey report from the architectural firm Young and Wright in late November, the district wanted more information to make an informed decision on what to prioritize with its next major capital project.
At the most recent Fredonia Board of Education meeting, the Board approved additional services totaling $32,700 to further evaluate the conditions of major items of note in the district. Of the $32,700 of additional services approved by the Board, $1,700 will be spent to audit the playgrounds of the main campus in Fredonia, as well as the Wheelock campus; $1,500 will be devoted to a structural review of items of concern discovered during the Building Condition Survey; and the bulk of the cost will go toward a full scan and analysis of the roofs at both campuses, in the amount of $29,500. The additional service purchases are all state-aided at a reimbursement rate of 82.7%, meaning the cost to the district after reimbursement from the state will be $5,657.10.
“We want to explore and really understand exactly what is the state of these items, in particular with the roofs,” Zilliox said. He called the roofing improvements a “linchpin” in a potential capital project because of the major costs associated with roofing upgrades.
“This is about better understanding our facilities and then being able to understand the cost of those things,” Zilliox said.
As explained by Young and Wright during the Building Condition Survey presentation, many items are flagged as needs for a district because of estimates due to the timeline of when items were installed, such as windows or roofs.
The report highlighted roofing needs of $6 million at the main campus and $2 million at the Wheelock campus, but because those figures are estimates, the district allocated $29,500 of additional funding to conduct a more detailed analysis.
“The roof scans in the winter are a little more expensive than they would be in the summer or the spring, but we felt like we needed this information sooner rather than later,” Zilliox said.
The district currently has enough capital reserve funding available to cover a $5 million project without any additional impact to district taxpayers. However, for an additional $5 million to apply to the project — for a $10 million project in total — the taxpayers would be asked to pay an increase of $11 per $100,000 in assessed value, equalized. Roofing improvements were listed atop the list of “should do’s” for both the main Fredonia campus and the Wheelock campus during the presentation from Young and Wright.
Once the district has a firm grasp on what is needed to address the roofs and other items of concern, the district can then consider its “want to do’s” list, which included renovated spaces, athletic facilities improvements, and playground improvements.
Kristi Leone, the mother of Elliana Leone, a first grader at Fredonia Elementary School, spoke about the district’s playground accessibility issues prior to the report from Young and Wright. Elliana Leone uses a wheelchair and has not been adequately accommodated at the district’s current playgrounds. The district’s approval of $1,700 to audit the playgrounds at both campuses will allow for the district to further evaluate the cost attached to making the necessary accommodations to allow for a level playing field for all students.
Other items of note that garnered attention from the community in recent months include upgrades to the music facilities and auditorium, as well as athletic facilities for various teams. The district will evaluate those items of concern in the coming months once more feedback is provided.
The district is also in the process of surveying the school community members, students, faculty and staff to seek opinions and ideas regarding the district’s needs. In a second round of surveys, the district plans to ask for feedback on which items to prioritize.
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