OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford Wheelock Primary School is seen Tuesday. The Fredonia Board of Education endorsed a plan Tuesday to move kindergarten classes back to the building.

The Fredonia Central School District intends to move its kindergarten classes back to Wheelock Primary School on Chestnut Street, as soon as September.

Fredonia’s Board of Education unanimously endorsed the plan at its Tuesday meeting, although the costs of such a move are unclear. The state Education Department will have to approve the switch.

“It’s to utilize the space in the best fashion that we can,” Superintendent Jeff Sortisio said near the beginning of his presentation on the proposal.

He said that a previous board “made the incredibly difficult decision to shutter Wheelock for the most part … I know it was tough, but it was the right decision.” However, Sortisio continued, the district’s finances are in much better shape these days — so he and elementary school personnel wanted to look at beginning to reverse the decision, moving kindergartners off the main campus on Main Street.

Elementary School Principal Amy Piper noted that the district’s Universal Pre-K program is already back at Wheelock.

“The classrooms are beautiful. They really are intended for the youngest students,” she said. “The toilets are teeny tiny.” Another feature Piper likes in this safety and security-conscious age: students’ cubby holes for storing coats and bookbags are in the classrooms, not out in the hallways.

Sortisio acknowledged there will be some logistical issues to overcome.

“We have to have a building-level principal,” he said. “That will be an added cost.” However, the superintendent sounded confident that with adjustments to other items, that could be inserted into the 2019-20 budget.

Sortisio added that some of the building’s technology, such as the public address system, needs to be updated. A lot of the smaller technology, such as computers, could be added from the district’s current holdings, he said.

The board needed to vote its support of the move quickly because the Education Department’s Board of Regents must approve the move in May — and Sortisio wants the move to happen over the summer, in time to welcome kindergartners to Wheelock in September.

“It’s an aggressive timeline but there’s a lot of backwork that’s been done,” the superintendent said, adding that he believes most of the parents he has talked to support the move.

Board member Tom Hawk asked what the role of School Resource Officer Tim Kachelmeyer would be in the new arrangement. “I will expect him to be spending time at the Wheelock campus as well,” Sortisio responded. Hawk wondered if he would be adequate for both campuses, and Sortisio said it was common practice for school districts with multiple campuses to have just one resource officer, even districts larger than Fredonia.

Several kindergarten teachers spoke in support of the move, which board members Brian Aldrich and Hawk said was a key factor in their decision to also back it.

“Children need space,” said one of the teachers. “They need to be able to move, be able to play … that’s not available in this space. There’s too many distractions.”

Board member Heath Forster said, “I’m definitely all for it, my only concern is some of the costs we don’t know yet.”

Sortisio responded that Tuesday’s resolution was a necessary step in the process, not a final decision. He then added that “cost could be mitigated by the adjustment of roles within the district,” seemingly referring to unspecified changes for employees. However, “I’m not prepared in public session to talk about personnel,” he said.

Longtime Fredonia school district educator and board member Dave Giambrone had the last word.

“It’s encouraging we will be utilizing this building the way it was designed,” he said.