Clarence Board of Education·August 24, 2026
Tax Rates Set · Safety Plan Adopted On Schedule · A Student Takes the Oath · Opening Day On Track
In a brisk 17-minute end-of-summer session — held minutes after the board's annual joint sit-down with the Clarence Town Board — four trustees set the district's 2026–27 school tax rates ($10.38 per thousand in Clarence and Amherst; a $9.34 full-value average that came in up slightly but below projections), adopted the district-wide and building-level safety plans exactly on the schedule laid out in July, and swore in senior Julia Jobes[*] as the board's ex-officio student member. Superintendent Dr. Matthew Frahm confirmed the capital project will have buildings open on time — and disclosed a thermal incident from interior welding at the high school, contained with a fire watch and a section of roof deck now slated for replacement. The board also cleared June financials, retained Bond, Schoeneck & King for an impartial due-process hearing, approved a heavy late-summer personnel slate that included ten non-instructional resignations, and re-approved the Code of Conduct unchanged. Trustee Dawn Snyder was absent for the best possible reason: she was receiving a Congressional 250 Community Heroes Award.
The number every household in four towns was waiting for arrived without ceremony. Business Official Dr. Patricia Grupka[*] presented the 2026–27 property tax rates as item F-6 of a ten-item finance block: a full-value average of $9.343 per thousand of assessed value — “up a little from last year, but below what was anticipated,” she told the board. The rate a homeowner actually pays varies by municipality, driven, as Grupka noted, “predominantly based on equalization rates and assessment values”: $10.381285 in Amherst, $10.381248 in Clarence, $9.343201 in Lancaster, and $9.343084 in Newstead.
The rates rode inside a single motion covering all ten finance items, F1 through F10 — June financials and the check warrant, the 2026–27 free and reduced-price meals application (breakfast and lunch remain free for all students, but Grupka stressed the applications still matter and need to reach “each parent's hands”), the safety plans, an annually required student-discipline authority resolution, mileage reimbursement at the new IRS rate, a new nursing contract, and the retention of Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC[*] — one of the district's reorganization-slate law firms — to represent Clarence in an impartial due-process hearing. All ten passed on one unanimous voice vote of the four trustees present.
The district levies one total tax amount, but New York towns assess property at different fractions of market value. The state's equalization rate corrects for that: towns that assess below full value (here, Amherst and Clarence) get a higher per-thousand rate applied to their lower assessments, while towns assessing at or near full value (Lancaster, Newstead) get a rate close to the full-value average. A Clarence homeowner's $10.38 and a Newstead homeowner's $9.34 are designed to produce an equivalent bill on equivalently valued homes — the spread reflects assessment practice, not favoritism.
Dr. Frahm said the question he hears most around town — “are we going to be ready to open on time?” — has a plain answer: “yes, we're actually right on track,” and even “slightly but not much ahead” of the planned timeline, with daily coordination between the district, Kideney Architects[*] and Buffalo Construction. The visible work is the middle school and high school parking-lot renovations and the Harris Hill playground: the middle school lot off Greiner Road[*] was paved last week, the high school's front lot gets the same treatment in halves over the coming weeks, and the playground is expected open for the start of school.
The scare came via Vice President Andrews' facilities-committee report: a thermal incident at the high school, caused by interior welding. Crews brought in negative air machines to remediate; a small section of roof deck will be cut out and replaced; and the fire-watch duration for similar work has been extended. The committee publicly thanked the Buildings and Grounds Department for catching it and the fire department for its immediate response. Separately, the EPC — the district's energy performance contract work — has slipped on state-level project approvals; that work now runs on second shift, when buildings are empty, with completion anticipated by August 2027. Buffalo Construction delivers a full status and financial review to the whole board in October.
The meeting's one piece of ceremony closed a loop opened in July: Julia Jobes[*], the rising senior the board welcomed as its incoming student representative at the July 13 reorganization, formally took the oath as the board's ex-officio student member for a term running July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027. President Boglioli administered it, complete with the constitutional boilerplate and a closing flourish about the board tattoo. The student seat is non-voting — the district's seven elected trustees remain unchanged — but it puts a student's voice at the table for the school year.
The rest of Frahm's report was the machinery of a school year starting: buildings and grounds crews deep-cleaning and executing room moves through their July–August window, with principal walk-throughs done at five of six buildings; last-minute hiring wrapped up by HR director Robert Michel[*] and colleague committees (“we are really excited about the new Red Devils,” Frahm said of the incoming hires); a three-day new-teacher orientation, including a bus tour of the community; student orientations for incoming sixth and ninth graders; and a transportation portal now showing preliminary bus runs — with a hard deadline. Families needing run changes must tell the transportation department by week's end, because the system locks: every change to a run, Frahm explained, cascades into the rest of it. Staff open the year September 1; students return the Tuesday after Labor Day. And in the meeting's warmest note, Frahm congratulated the absent Trustee Snyder on receiving a New York 23rd Congressional District 250 Community Heroes Award from Congressman Langworthy — the reason for her absence.
File this under a process working exactly as advertised. At the July 13 reorganization, Dr. Grupka opened a 30-day public comment window on the district-wide safety plan and told the board to expect adoption “around August 24.” On August 24, with the window closed and “no comments” received, the board adopted the district-wide plan — pandemic-influenza and continuity-of-operations components included — along with the confidential building-level plans, right on the promised date. On the policy side, the board re-approved its Code of Conduct for the coming year with no recommended changes — a routine annual readoption, not a revision. Every policy pending from the July meeting was resolved there (all eleven second-read measures, including AI Policy #5840, were adopted July 13); the only item carried forward from this meeting is procedural: tenure appointments noticed as item P7 will come back for approval at the next meeting.
Four of seven trustees were present (Boglioli, Andrews, Magera, Priore), a quorum; Costello-Sulik, Fuchs and Snyder were absent. The board votes by voice (“All those in favor? Aye”), so individual positions are not recorded; all motions carried unanimously among those present. No member of the public spoke.
One motion carried all ten finance items: June financials (F1); bills and check warrant, reviewed by the internal claims auditor (F2); the 2026–27 free and reduced-price meals application (F3); the district-wide safety plan, posted 30 days with no public comments (F4); building-level safety plans (F5); 2026–27 property tax rates — Amherst $10.381285, Clarence $10.381248, Lancaster $9.343201, Newstead $9.343084, full-value average $9.343084 (F6); the annual student-discipline authority resolution designating the assistant principal to act in the principal's absence (F7); mileage reimbursement at new IRS rates (F8); a new nursing contract (F9); and retention of Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC for an impartial due-process hearing (F10).
Julia Jobes[*] was sworn as the board's ex-officio (non-voting) student member for the term July 1, 2026 – June 30, 2027, administered by President Boglioli.
Moved by Priore, seconded by Andrews; carried.
Moved by Magera, seconded by Andrews; carried.
Two resignations; a change of assignment; prior and new appointments including five regular substitutes and four probationary positions; CMS club advisors; August Regents review, proctoring and scoring; coaching recommendations; summer/ESY substitutes and TOSA days; curriculum writing; presentation compensation (in-day and out-of-day rates); the substitute teacher list; building-based substitutes; and substitute administrator/teacher rates. Informational items P2 and P7 were noted, not voted; P7's tenure appointments return for approval next meeting.
Ten resignations (“we're working to refill those positions very quickly,” Michel noted); changes in status; prior appointments including three buildings-and-grounds positions, a bus driver and a clerical position; new appointments including five aides, monitors, a bus driver, fall extracurricular positions and lifeguards; substitute rates; and the substitute list. Moved and seconded by Magera (“there's only four of us,” the chair observed).
The Committee on Special Education met for 10 days and recommended services for 12 students; the Committee on Preschool Special Education met four days and recommended services for seven. Presented by the special-education office[*]; moved by Priore, seconded by Andrews.
Reviewed with no recommended changes and re-approved for the 2026–27 school year. Moved by Magera, seconded by Andrews.
Moved by Priore, seconded by Magera; carried. “Look at that,” the chair said, of the 17-minute meeting.
This brief covers the 6 PM regular meeting; the 5 PM joint meeting with the Clarence Town Board in the high school library — the evening's other headline event — was not broadcast or captured, and is reflected here only through Dr. Frahm's remarks about it. Proper nouns were resolved against the official agenda packet and the verified roster, which govern spellings: the audio's “Keely Jones” and “Ms. Allen” are the agenda's Julia Jobes; “Banshank and King” is Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC; “Dr. Grafka” is Dr. Patricia Grupka; “Dr. Frame” is Dr. Matthew Frahm; “Mr. Peary” is Dennis Priore; “Ms. McGarra” is Cindy Magera; “Cadenty” is Kideney Architects. One street correction was applied per the town street inventory: “Griner Road” → Greiner Road. The special-education presenter's name appears only in audio and is left unattributed pending the official minutes. Board of Education votes are voice votes; no recusals were noted.