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Teacher urges passage of athletic upgrades for safety and accessibility; district cites about $220 annual cost per household for that portion
Summary
Fredonia’s Proposition 3 would replace and upgrade athletic surfaces, add lighting and spectator amenities, and improve accessibility. The district estimates 29% state aid and 71% local funding for the athletic portion, translating to roughly $220 per household per year for that portion; all three propositions together would raise taxes about 9.9% if passed.
Jesse Beers, a sixth-grade math and science teacher and varsity softball coach at Fredonia, presented Proposition 3 as a safety and accessibility-focused package for the district’s athletic facilities.
Beers recounted multiple instances where poor field conditions caused injuries or prevented games. "I've had softball umpires come to me before our games have started and say, we can't play on these fields until you fill in this hole, you cover up this piece of concrete," he said, adding that visiting teams recently refused to play at Fredonia because of field conditions. He called safety the district’s primary concern and said one focus of Proposition 3 is ensuring handicap accessibility at athletic fields where none currently exists.
The athletic proposal would install a turf multiuse field for soccer and football and turf fields for baseball and softball on the main campus, resurface tennis courts, add parking, and build a multipurpose field with lights, a grandstand, bleachers, a press box and dugouts. Beers said 29% of the athletic portion would be covered by state aid and the remaining 71% would be local, which he estimated would require "a 6.9% tax increase for this portion of the capital project"—about $220 per household per year. He also said if all three propositions pass, the combined tax increase would be about 9.9%, or roughly $320 per year (about $26.59 per month) on average.
Beers noted that Propositions 1 and 2 must pass in order for Proposition 3 to move forward and urged community investment in the district’s students and athletic programs.
Next steps: voters will decide on Dec. 12; passage of the other propositions is a precondition for Proposition 3.
