The Cayuga County Chamber of Commerce hosted a reception last week to welcome the Auburn schools superintendent and the Cayuga Community College president to their new jobs.

The event put a spotlight on the fact that local education is at a major turning point.

The largest school district in the county and the college are both entering new eras of leadership, with J.D. Pabis serving as superintendent of the Auburn Enlarged City School District and Daniel Larson as president of CCC. In a few months, they'll be joined by a new superintendent for the Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES due to the pending retirement of Gary Gilchrist.

These leaders are inheriting major building projects that have either been completed or are well under way.

They also come into a job at a time when many taxpayers are growing weary of incremental tax increases at just about every level of government.

As these leaders look forward, they will surely want to start thinking of all the ways they can expand programs and services.

We hope they do just that, because it's crucial for educational leaders to have a clear vision for a better future.

They must do this, however, with a firm understanding of the past so they can appreciate the mindset of many taxpayers.

Pabis, Larson and the new BOCES superintendent need to start searching for ways to make their administrations more efficient; they shouldn't be dreaming up new bureaucratic positions. They need to encourage a culture of creative cost saving; they shouldn't be encouraging free spending.

It's an exciting time in local education, and the best way to sustain that excitement is to demonstrate that our schools can make progress and show fiscal restraint at the same time.