Hello Fredonia Families,

I hope this message finds you well and looking forward to spring break, which begins for us at the close of school today. We wish everyone who might be on the road or in the air over the next two weeks safe travels.

We also wanted to make you aware that our budget process for next school year is currently a work in progress. We need to adopt a budget by April 25th. We will be adding a Board of Education meeting on April 24th at 6:00 PM in the High School Library for our final review and adoption. We recognize that it is somewhat unusual to hold a meeting over a break, but we are hoping that a variety of unknowns that still exist in the process will be cleared up over the next two weeks. These unknowns include the following:

• Final State Aid (Legislative Budget)

• Final Equalization Rates

• Final Assessments

• Final BOCES Services and Costs

• Final Chautauqua County/NYS Reimbursement Rates

• Final Cost for our Emergency Phone Project

• Final Transportation Costs

• Final Staffing

We believe that the additional meeting on April 24th will help us have the most up-to-date information, which will allow us to make thoughtful decisions.

As we plan for our annual budget, we consider several factors that are part of this process each year. These elements include:

• Student Needs and Enrollment

• Student Services

• Requests from our Faculty and Staff

• Academic and District Priorities

• Staffing

• Supplies and Materials

• Utilities

• Transportation

• Facilities Maintenance and Repairs

• Capital Projects

• State and Federal Funding

• Local Taxes

• Other Revenue Streams

• Input from our Community

In the end, we want to ensure that all students have access to a strong academic program and the wide variety of experiences we offer for our students, adults, and families, while being mindful of the cost to our community taxpayers. We make every effort to strike a balance in this process where all students are in a position to be successful and have their needs met while not overburdening our community. Please look for more information in our upcoming budget newsletter by mail.

We will see everyone back at school on April 28th. Enjoy your time with family and friends.

Respectfully,

Brad Zilliox

Superintendent

Fredonia CSD

Congratulations to The Spectator, Fredonia High School's student-run newspaper, which repeats as the Best High School newspaper in New York State, previously taking home those honors in 2023! The staff at The Spectator earned 100 points, including first-place awards for best column and best photography.

The judges said, “Hats off for taking your journalism mission seriously. Your ambitious work

demonstrates how much you care about the community you live in. Columns addressed fascinating topics with clear writing. Photography is consistently very good.”

Best High School Newspaper

Staff
Editors-in-chief are Ray Dai, Ben Feit, and Isaac Williams

First Place

Best Photography - Isaac Williams

Best Column - Owyn Darrell-Sterbak

Second Place

Best Column- Ava Hartung

Best News Story - Ray Dai

Best Photography - Cooper Stenger

Best Overall Newspaper or Online News Platform - Staff

Best Design - Staff

Third Place

Best Column - Sophia Gullo

Best Feature - Brady Crawford

Ryan Kelly was a member of the six-team Section VI composite team. The team prevailed over nine other composite teams from across NYS state. Section VI finished with a six-game total of 6,570, 35 pins better than Section III, which finished with a 6,535 total. Section IV finished third with a 6,503 total.

On a personal level, Ryan finished tied for the second-highest six-game series for Section VI with a six-game total of 1,287 (198-203-164-255-265-202). His second three-game block totaled 722.

FCSD celebrated all things inclusive this week during the second annual Unified Spirit Week. Congratulations to all involved!

Click on the link below to see all the fun on the Unified Facebook page!

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month, and each year, Prevent Child Abuse New York mobilizes Pinwheels for Prevention campaigns around the state to encourage New Yorkers to take simple actions that can make a big difference in the lives of children.

Research has shown that people respond positively to pinwheels, which represent childlike whimsy and lightheartedness, as well as our vision for a world where all children grow up happy, healthy, and prepared to succeed in supportive families and communities.

Many thanks to Mrs. Snyder's UPK class for displaying our Wheelock Early Childhood Center pinwheels to honor our wonderful students and recognize Child Abuse Prevention Month!

As part of their Week of the Young Child celebration, UPK classes worked together to clean up our outdoor classroom space. We got SO much accomplished by working together!

Caroline honors her brother, Evan with a special book she wrote for World Down Syndrome Day. She read her book to her classmates and her brother’s class. Caroline’s class showed their support by wearing mismatched or crazy socks.

The children, after Christmas, seemed to really understand this concept. So, I decided to make them authors! They had to draw up a blueprint, with all the pieces of plot, of their story. They also had to develop their characters using traits and a motivation. Once they had a blueprint and character development, they were given a book and they were on their way! They wrote and wrote. They truly shocked me with what they did, they are authors! They are illustrators too!

Other literary elements that we studied through this process were point of view and theme. I think these foundational elements of literature, learning them and knowing them, ad nauseum, helped them to produce the quality pieces of literature that they did produce!

*Story courtesy of Susan Wells*

The Middle School is finishing up an exciting campaign to encourage PRIDE (Preparedness, Respect, Integrity, Dedication, and Excellence) behaviors that began on March 10th and continued until Spring Break....PRIDE MADNESS!!!

Each staff member received a small pad of PRIDE tickets and were asked that to circle which characteristic they chose to give the ticket for (P-R-I-D-E). Students wrote their name and grade-level on the ticket and delivered it to the office. Tickets were turned in to the corresponding basketball basket for the chance to win a prize.

Random prize drawings occurred through the duration of Pride Madness. Students also had the option to enter their ticket into a special basket for the chance to watch March Madness Basketball during lunch.

Students at the Middle School have recently been empowered to greet students and staff each morning as they enter the building. A few students per grade level wear lanyards with badges and stand at their assigned post to welcome everyone and start their day off on a positive note.

As many communities and local producers have been celebrating Maple Weekends and hosting events, our own High School Garden Club joined in this local and long-time tradition of making maple syrup for the first time!

15 of our high school students gathered in a nearby sugarbush after school with advisors Mimi Joint and Daniel Darrell Sterbak and tapped 6 large maple trees. For three weeks, students took turns visiting the site daily to collect sap and record data for analysis in Mrs. Joint's AP Statistics course. After harvesting over 75 gallons, they decided it was time to begin the next phase of the process, boiling the sap into syrup. They boiled in our main high school courtyard, and students visited during lunch or study halls to witness the process and smell the amazing sweet steam. Mrs. Tomaszewski's class was also highly involved and helped us finish one gallon of pure maple syrup and 2 pounds of maple syrup candy.

The hard work and success of the project were celebrated this Tuesday in Mrs. Tomaszewski's class, with students involved in the project invited during lunch periods to get pancakes, waffles, and other breakfast foods all featuring our school-made syrup. A great time was had by all! A small amount of syrup and candy will be available for staff, students, and parents to purchase next week. All funds raised will support the club's next project, a collaborative effort with Mr. Haase's Engineering class in designing, building, and maintaining a hydroponic grow system that will live in the high school library to feed our students.

High School students gathered in the auditorium this week to learn from speaker Wendy Weisbrot, a second-generation Holocaust survivor. Wendy explained that her father's life was saved twice. Once by a Nazi prison guard, who told Joe to hide in a waste ditch to avoid being killed. Later his humanity was saved when he was able to resettle as a refugee in Ireland, and later emigrate to the US. Here, he was able to marry, start a family which Wendy said was the proudest thing he had done in his life.

She told a great story about her father trying to get through customs in Ireland. The customs official was not going to let Joe come through with his accordion unless he could play a song and prove he knew how to play it. Joe played an old Irish folk song, and all of the Irish people at his gate began dancing and singing the song with him. They let him through. Wendy said that was a moment for Joe that really brought back hope for him and optimism for the future.

Wendy's and Joe's message was that our students are the future, and that building tolerance, respect, and dignity towards others prevents future atrocities like this again. Wendy uses clips from Joe's old presentations to help bring his personal stories into it in order to emphasize this message. Telling these stories keeps their memories alive and their stories alive for future generations.

The 4th grade Hillbilly Harmonics worked with Dr. Emily Schaad and Mr. Trevor Napoli in preparation for their upcoming performance of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana with the Fredonia School of Music’s Masterworks Chorus, Fredonia College Symphony Orchestra and SUNY Fredonia Alumni Saturday, May 3 at 8pm in King Concert Hall.

The students are THRILLED to be able to work alongside our local professional musicians while supporting the future of Music Education and Performance at SUNY Fredonia!

Visit the Fredonia State Events Page for more information

During the Month of March all of our MS and HS Band students took part in the "The President's Own" United States Marine Band's March Mania.

Students filled out brackets and voted on different Sousa marches to see which the nation would think was the most popular. They could vote on a head to head march matchup every day to see who would have the most accurate bracket.

All of our bands competed and pictured you will see the March Kings and Queens from each of our four bands. These are the students with the most accurate bracket in each group.

In addition, some of our HS staff hosted a "Traveling Sousa," and students had to work together to find as many of them as they could. We had a three-way tie for students who found the most!

Congratulations to all of our band student musicians and teachers for making this happen AND many thanks to "The President's Own" United States Marine Band for making this possible every year.