Frewsburg Central School District Board of Education members, and school Superintendent Dr. Dr. Danielle J. Cook, discuss a possible shared athletics program with Southwestern Central School District. P-J photo by Christopher Blakeslee

FREWSBURG – Interest remains high over a possible merger of athletics programs between the Frewsburg and Southwestern school districts.

The Frewsburg Central School Board of Education met recently, with several members of the public voicing their collective opinions, with the thought “we’re not for a merger or against it,” a recurring theme during the public comment section of the meeting.

Superintendent Dr. Danielle Cook presented an in-depth presentation as to where the district stood regarding a possible merger of its athletics program with Southwestern Central School District.

“We’ve had two meetings regarding a possible merger with Southwestern,” she said. “One which took place here on February 3 , and one which took place at Southwestern on February 4.”

Cook explained that a shrinking student population has not only affected Frewsburg, but also many schools across New York state as well. She said that in 2013-14 Frewsburg had a student population of 1,421 and in 2023-24 that number had dropped to 1,283, or a 7.7% reduction in the total student body.

On Thursday, Cook presented data obtained from the open-public comments time period.

“In addition, some emails support the merging of districts, arguing that the real solution to these challenges is not just merging athletics, but combining the entire Frewsburg and Southwestern districts. The email highlights the resource challenges faced by small schools and points out that merging the districts could result in a manageable average class size of 146 students (grade), still considered small,” Cook said. “I would encourage the board to not entertain this. Academically, our school continues to meet and exceed the educational requirement for our students to attend post-secondary educational institutions.”

The following sports programs are being investigated for possible state shared athletics classification between Southwestern and Frewsburg for the 2025-26 school year:

– Fall: football, cheerleading, soccer (boys), cross country (boys and girls), tennis (girls) and volleyball (girls);

– Winter: wrestling (boys and girls), bowling (girls and boys) and swimming (boys);

– Spring: flag football (girls); tennis (boys) and golf (girls and boys).

After some Frewsburg coaches weighed in on a possible merger, it is apparent that not all the sports teams regard a possible merger with Southwestern as needed or wanted.

The wrestling coaches said that they have a working agreement with Maple Grove’s wrestling program, and that they enjoy working with them, and that wrestling doesn’t require big numbers, said Cook. However, the coaches reported that while they are winning matches in which they are able to field athletes in, they are forfeiting some matches where there is no athlete in the weight class. Additionally, they said they only need two to three kids per grade level to compete competitively.

However, three concerned parents voiced their concerns with a merger. All three said they aren’t for or against a merger, but they do have questions.

“I wanted to publicly thank Dr. Cook for her patience and time,” said Brad Swanson, a resident and parent of two Frewsburg students. “She has been more accommodating than she really needs to be. I’m not for the merger or against it. I only ask that we thoroughly investigate all angles and that we do not rush to a decision until all options have been explored and more data is collected.”

The other two speakers, unilaterally, started their remarks by stating the same catchphrase – “I’m not for a merger or against one.”

To ease the collective minds of those in attendance, Board President Larry Lodestro said, “I want everyone to understand the board directed Dr. Cook to begin to investigate shared athletics. No decision has been made yet. We’re still trying to gather data. No action will be taken until all the data has been collected, reviewed and voted on.”