The Cazenovia school district Board of Education last week approved two combination sports teams with other school districts, added a new combination team and set the groundwork for making cheerleading a school sport in 2015-16.

For the past two years, Cazenovia and Hamilton Central School District have had a combined ice hockey team for players in grades nine through 12, with Hamilton players joining the Cazenovia team since Hamilton does not have enough players to form its own team. The agreement has allowed Hamilton players to join Caz as long as the Hamilton district pays $1,100 per players to Cazenovia, based on shared costs of coaching ice rental, supplies and officials.

The Hamilton district has asked Cazenovia to approve the combination agreement again this year, which the school board unanimously approved during its Oct. 20 regular meeting.

The board also approved a repeat of the district’s combination program for Otselic Valley modified wrestlers to join with Cazenovia modified wrestlers for the coming season. The Otselic players practice with their own coach, and the Cazenovia players practice with theirs, but at matches they will be added to each other’s personnel list to coach and supervise all athletes at matches when needed. The program is at no cost to Cazenovia.

“It worked out very well last year,” Cazenovia Athletic Director Michael Byrnes told the school board. “Really it’s mostly a scheduling benefit for us.”

A new combination sports agreement was also discussed, and eventually approved, by the school board as well to combine the varsity wrestling team with the Fabius-Pompey Central School District. Byrnes said he was approached by F-P officials because they have only two or three wrestlers who want to compete, which is not enough for the district to have a team.

Byrnes said the varsity wrestling combination would be administered the same as the current ice hockey program with Hamilton, in that F-P would pay the Cazenovia district $567 per player for the program.

He said the combination would move the Cazenovia wrestling team from a Class C team to a Class B team in competitions because the population of Fabius-Pompey would be added to the Cazenovia population for determination of the district’s competitive class. He said the Cazenovia varsity wrestling coach is in favor of the deal.

The board unanimously approved the combination team, with many members saying that this could be a good procedure to get involved in now considering that school enrollments are shrinking. Member Leigh Baldwin said the district may be able to do more combinations in other sports with different districts as a way to either keep sports teams viable in Cazenovia or allow Cazenovia athletes to participate with other districts.

Finally, the board discussed changing cheerleading to a competition sport for grades nine through 12 in 2015-16 – a request made earlier in the year by cheer athletes, coaches and parents. Superintendent Matt Reilly said the idea has “increased viability” currently, with high participation numbers currently anticipated for cheerleading this winter. Cheer is currently a club sport in Cazenovia.

Byrnes said there is a lot of interest in the cheer program, but all the participants are in eighth grade this year. He suggested that the district use this year to train the team and then change it to a school sport next year.

Board members expressed a favorable attitude toward this idea, and board President Pat Vogl urged Byrnes to follow through and keep the board updated on his progress.

Also at the meeting, the board:

—Received an “unqualified” audit from its auditor, D’Arcangelo and Company, LLP, which is the best audit outcome a district can receive. The board voted unanimously to accept the audit.

—Talked with local communications expert David St. John about how best to coordinate a legislative lobbying strategy on behalf of the district to receive more state aid funding in 2015. The discussion centered on how to get district residents more educated and involved in advocating for greater state funding from Cazenovia’s state legislators.

—Heard from Assistant Superintendent Bill Furlong that the district is still waiting for approval on its capital building project form the state department of education. The department, however, is moving quicker on requests than anticipated, and an approval may come as early as November rather than in March as was expected, he said.

—Accepted a $400 donation from the Cazenovia Pop Warner Football Association, Inc., toward the cost of HUDL software, which is used to break down video plays of recorded games.

Jason Emerson is editor of the Cazenovia Republican. He can be reached at [email protected].