LEWES, Del. - The Cape Henlopen School District held a press conference on Tuesday to outline what its next referendum would pay for. The district has been studying voter feedback and hopes to gain approval in May without a pool included.
"Now's the time because it's been six years since we've had any increase to our current expense or to our debt service, so we need to we need to pass this," Superintendent Bob Fulton says.
Mariner Middle School was one of the polling locations on March 26 where the majority of voters said no to the district's first attempt to raise taxes to pay for capital projects and security expenses. 70 percent of the ballots that were cast there were against the referendum.
The May referendum still calls for buying about 102 acres off Cedar Grove Road, a new district office and a transportation facility. Superintendent Bob Fulton says 90 percent of the money generated is for safety and security expenses, as well as to pay school staff salaries and energy costs.
"Obviously with safety and security, we've made a lot of improvements," Fulton says. "We'd hate to kind of cut back on those improvements, but that's a possibility."
The district wants to raise $42,974,605 for capital projects and $4,575,000 for current operating expenses. The total tax impact after a three-year phased increase is about 39 cents per $100 of assessed property value per year for the average home, which Cape says peaks at $109 in fiscal year 2027. The rate would then begin to decrease in fiscal year 2028 as bonds are paid off. This is down from the approximately $153 the district proposed in March.
According to Cape, the tax impact will be a phased increase over three years:
- Year 1 – The increase will be 30.5 cents for the operating expenses, and then that will stay the same moving forward.
- Year 2 – Cape will add in part of the debt service increase which would be 2.3 cents.
- Year 3 – An additional 6.3 cents for debt services will be added to bring the total increase to the 39 cents, which is the $109 for the average assessed home.
"I'm glad they're going to put it up again because I hope it passes," says Cate Evans of Lewes. "It's a needed increase for our schools to be able to operate. They need to operate for the safety of our kids, to take care of our teachers, to support our buildings. It's a relatively small investment that we each can give to then invest back into our community."
A lot of people on social media and who CoastTV News spoke to off camera questioned why another referendum is happening so soon. The district says if this one doesn't pass, it won't be able to go to referendum again for another year.
"Then we're going were have to have some serious discussions about cuts and what we can't do," Fulton says. "We're fortunate currently that we're able to hire every position we qualified for."
Fulton says Cape is being proactive and trying to buy land now before it gets more expensive down the road.Â
"Unless we get the property, unless we get the district office over to the new property, we can't expand the high school, which we're in desperate need to do," Fulton says.Â
While only property owners pay the tax if approved, anyone at least 18 years old who lives in the district and is a U.S. citizen can vote. More voting locations and voting machines will be added for the May referendum. The polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the following locations:Â
- Cape Henlopen High School
- Mariner Middle School
- Rehoboth Elm. School
- Beacon Middle School
- Lewes Public Library