Liverpool School Board Approves $98,959,922 Building Bond and Five-Year Union Deal, All by Unanimous Vote
The Liverpool Board of Education, meeting under an interim superintendent while it works with search consultants on a permanent hire, authorized a bond of up to $98,959,922 for building renovations and approved a 2025-2030 SEIU labor contract at its April 21 meeting, with every recorded vote passing 8-0.
Syracuse skyline seen across Onondaga Lake from Willow Bay — photo:
Andre Carrotflower
(BY-SA 4.0)
▶Key Actions & Decisions
●• Approved the routine business block — April 7 minutes, personnel actions, preschool and special education placements, gifts and grants, and surplus items — in a single vote. Aye 8, Nay 0.
●• Approved the proposed 2025-2026 Liverpool Central School District budget as presented. Aye 8, Nay 0.
●• Adopted the annual budget and Real Property Tax Report Card by roll-call vote. Aye 8, Nay 0.
●• Authorized a bond resolution for the renovation and improvement of certain school district buildings and facilities not to exceed $98,959,922, including the issuance of $13,525,000 in serial bonds. Aye 8, Nay 0.
●• Approved the 2025-2026 OCM BOCES Final Request for Services contract authorization. Aye 8, Nay 0.
●• Cast the board's ballot on the 2025-2026 BOCES budget and on the annual election of BOCES board members. Aye 8, Nay 0 (both).
●• Accepted the recommendation to award Mechanical Commissioning Services to M/E Engineering. Aye 8, Nay 0.
●• Entered executive session at 7:14 p.m. to discuss SEIU collective bargaining strategy and to meet with Superintendent Search Consultants on candidates to interview; briefly returned to open session at 7:37 p.m. before re-entering executive session one minute later, at 7:38 p.m.
●• Approved the 2025-2030 SEIU Collective Bargaining Agreement after returning to open session. Aye 8, Nay 0.
●• Set a May 8 budget public hearing and a June 2 regular meeting; adjourned at 9:28 p.m., roughly three and a half hours after the 6:03 p.m. start.
Interim Superintendent Brian Nolan was on hand April 21 as the Liverpool Board of Education worked through one of its heavier agendas of the year — a construction authorization worth up to $98,959,922, a new five-year contract with its service employees' union, and a search for the district's next permanent superintendent — without a single dissenting vote on any of it.
The board's eight members, Nicholas Blaney, Hayley Downs, Kimberly Martin, Jecenia Bresett, Daniel McKeever, Stacey Chilbert, John Solazzo and Kimberly Melnik, voted the same way on every motion the minutes record that night: aye, unanimous, no discussion noted. That held through the routine business block (meeting minutes, personnel actions, preschool and special education placements, gifts and grants, surplus items), through adoption of the proposed 2025-2026 budget and the accompanying Real Property Tax Report Card by roll-call vote, and through the district's BOCES business — a service contract for 2025-2026, and ballots cast on the BOCES budget and on the annual election of BOCES board members.
The biggest single item was a bond resolution authorizing the renovation and improvement of certain school district buildings and facilities at a cost not to exceed $98,959,922, paired with the issuance of $13,525,000 in serial bonds. The minutes give no further breakdown of which buildings or what work the money covers, only the authorization itself, moved by Daniel McKeever and seconded by Kimberly Martin. The board also voted, on the same unanimous basis, to accept a recommendation awarding Mechanical Commissioning Services to M/E Engineering.
Later in the evening the board turned to two closed-door matters that the minutes bundle into a single motion: collective bargaining strategy for a new agreement with the SEIU under Article 14 of the Civil Service Law, and a meeting with the district's Superintendent Search Consultants about candidates to interview for the top job. The board entered executive session at 7:14 p.m., briefly emerged to open session at 7:37 p.m., then went back into executive session a minute later, at 7:38 p.m. The minutes record no business conducted during that one-minute interval in open session.
When the board next took action, it was to approve the 2025-2030 SEIU Collective Bargaining Agreement, on a motion by Hayley Downs, seconded by Jecenia Bresett — another unanimous vote, locking in the union contract for five years. The minutes do not detail terms of the agreement beyond its dates.
The superintendent search itself surfaced only in that one line of the executive-session motion. The minutes do not say how many candidates the consultants presented or when interviews might happen, leaving the timeline for naming Nolan's permanent successor unclear from this record alone.
The board closed out the night by setting its near-term calendar: a budget public hearing for May 8 at 5:30 p.m. at the District Office, a regular board meeting the same evening to begin after a 10-minute recess following that hearing, and its next regular meeting for June 2 at 6 p.m., also at the District Office. Having convened at 6:03 p.m., the board adjourned at 9:28 p.m., a meeting of roughly three and a half hours built almost entirely around votes nobody in the room appears to have opposed.
This article was drafted by AI (claude-sonnet-agent) from the official meeting transcript and reviewed by a human editor.
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Related Board of Education (Liverpool) Meetings
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●• Approved the March 31, 2025 minutes and a slate of routine business — personnel actions, gifts and grants, surplus items — by consent, 9-0
●• Recognized Dana Ziegler as a SAANYS Outstanding Educator
●• Authorized a revision to Proposition #2 for the annual meeting notice and ballot — Motion Carried, 9-0
●• Approved a tax settlement with Harbor Pearl DHM LLC — Motion Carried, 9-0
●• Approved a tax settlement, by roll call vote, with Ranalli Generations LLC v. Town of Clay — Motion Carried, 9-0
●• Authorized, by roll call vote, an expenditure for an appraisal in the case of Birch Properties and 4800 Bear Road, LLC v. Town of Clay — Motion Carried, 9-0
●• Appointed seven Election Inspectors — Rosa Whaley, Barbara Osborne, Susan Graves-Horner, Maria Knapp, Amy Morton, Michelle Clark and Julie Carlesco — for the 2024-2025 school year, at their contractual rate — Motion Carried, 9-0
●• Heard public comments from four residents on gender dysphoria and transgender matters, wifi/cell phone use, support for a neighboring district, the budget-curriculum connection and the Liverpool Public Library
●• Entered executive session at 8:28 p.m. to discuss a student residency determination, tenure recommendations and collective bargaining under the Taylor Law; returned to public session at 10:30 p.m. — Motion Carried, 9-0
●• Adjourned at 10:31 p.m., roughly four and a half hours after convening at 6 p.m.
●• Approved minutes from the March 24 regular meeting and the March 25 capital project referendum. Motion carried 7-0.
●• Approved a Budget Amendment as presented and acknowledged receipt of the January 2025 Treasurer's Report. Motion carried 7-0 each.
●• Approved surplus items and the remaining Routine Business items as submitted. Motion carried 7-0 each.
●• Recognized Liverpool High School for a POOLS Award.
●• Approved revisions to Policy 7554 and the deletion of Policy 7556. Motion carried 7-0 each.
●• Approved creation of the APISA - Asian and Pacific Islander Student Association Club. Motion carried 7-0.
●• Modified the 2024-2025 School Calendar and adopted the 2025-2026 School Calendar. Motion carried 7-0 each.
●• Entered executive session at 6:51 p.m. for a disciplinary appeal, the Superintendent Search and tenure recommendations; returned to public session at 8:18 p.m., an 87-minute closed session.
●• Denied the appeal of "Student #1's" long-term suspension and directed Interim Superintendent Brian Nolan to notify the parent/guardian. Motion carried 8-1, with Stacey Chilbert casting the lone Nay.
●• Adjourned at 8:19 p.m. Motion carried unanimously.
On a Night of Unanimous Votes, Liverpool's School Board Did Its Real Business Behind Closed Doors
●• Approved the March 10 regular meeting minutes, the March 17 budget workshop minutes and the March 17 public hearing minutes as submitted — Motion Carried, 8-0.
●• Approved personnel actions, preschool and school-age special education placements, surplus items, gifts and grants, and a budget amendment as part of a single block of routine business — Motion Carried, 8-0.
●• Approved second readings of revisions to Policy 7554 and the deletion of Policy 7556 — Motion Carried, 8-0 on each.
●• Approved revisions to Policy 5661 — Motion Carried, 8-0.
●• Tabled the proposed 2025-2026 school calendar for further discussion; no vote was recorded.
●• Approved the Annual Meeting Resolution by roll call vote — Motion Carried, 8-0.
●• Appointed Kara Young, Maria Knapp, Catherine Morabito and Melinda Mayer as Election Inspectors for the 2024-2025 school year at their contractual rate — Motion Carried, 8-0.
●• Approved, by roll call vote, a SEQRA Type II Determination for the 2025-2026 Capital Outlay Project as prepared by counsel — Motion Carried, 8-0.
●• Accepted the resignation of an employee identified in the minutes only as Employee 07031, effective April 4, 2025, and approved a separation agreement with that employee — Motion Carried, 8-0.
●• Voted to dissolve four inactive Liverpool High School clubs — Academic Decathlon, Bass Club, National Junior Honor Society and Student Ambassadors Club — and transfer remaining student activity funds to the Student Council account — Motion Carried, 8-0.
●• Entered executive session on matters connected to collective bargaining under Article 14 of the Civil Service Law and tenure recommendations; returned to open session at 9:49 p.m. and approved the MOA between the district and Unite-HERE Local 150 — Motion Carried, 8-0.
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