Why Should Delaware Care?
Delaware is one of just a few states that send school funding questions to voters through the referendum process. Just two districts are going out for a referendum this year after multiple school districts have failed to pass referendums in recent years. Both the Caesar Rodney and Laurel school districts are looking to raise funds to cover operating costs and provide competitive salaries.
The Caesar Rodney and the Laurel school districts will ask their communities to approve tax increases during referendums scheduled for Monday.
The Caesar Rodney School District is seeking an additional $6 million annually, while the smaller Laurel School District is asking for $1.6 million.
If voters approve Caesar Rodney’s request, owners of a home worth about $300,000 in the district would pay just under $23 more per month in property taxes.
If Laurel’s request is successful, an average $230,000 home would pay roughly $14.25 more each month.
Both districts say they need the new dollars to fund ongoing operations, including initiatives to retain and recruit teachers and other educators. Districts throughout the state have struggled in recent years to retain educators amid what school advocates call a national teacher shortage.
Beyond teacher pay, Caesar Rodney says its $6 million request would also pay for school safety, arts programs and bus services, among other items.
Laurel says its requested $1.6 million would also stabilize the district’s budget.
Despite the needs, the decisions to hold referendums come after Delaware school districts have failed in recent years to convince their communities to raise school taxes.
Among those was Caesar Rodney where voters rejected a referendum in 2023.
Then, last spring in nearby Smyrna, nearly 60% of voters did the same when the local school district requested $5.4 million. In the months after the failed referendum, Smyrna schools struggling to pay its bills, leaving the district and its union of teachers and other staff members in a standoff over pay.
Also last year, voters rejected two referendum requests from the Indian River School District, even after school board members in the booming Sussex County area went public with their fiscal woes.
The money from Indian River’s request would have been used to pay “increased operating costs and to maintain a competitive salary package,” that district said last year.
Last year was the first time since 1997 that no school district voters in Delaware approved a spending referendum.
The Caesar Rodney and Laurel school districts hope to reverse that trend when they each hold referendum votes on Monday.
Polls in the Caesar Rodney School District will be open Monday Feb. 9, from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. at Caesar Rodney High School, Fred Fifer III Middle School, W. Reily Brown Elementary School, Allen Frear Elementary School, Nellie Stokes Elementary School, Star Hill Elementary School, David E. Robinson Elementary School, and the Magnolia Volunteer Fire Company.
Polls in the Laurel School District will also be open Monday Feb. 9, from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. at Laurel Elementary School, the Laurel Fire Department, and the North Laurel Early Learning Academy.
Two districts trying to catch up
Neither district has taxed its property owners as much as others in recent years.
According to the Caesar Rodney officials, the district has the lowest local funding and the lowest school tax rate in Kent County. Educators within the district also earn less than those in neighboring districts.
Meanwhile in Laurel, the school district has not held a referendum since 1985. And as a result, educators have told Spotlight Delaware that the small Sussex County district has not been able to keep teachers’ salaries competitive with wealthier districts.
In August, Spotlight Delaware reported about the struggles that rural, working-class districts, such as Laurel, face to keep teacher salaries competitive with those in wealthier areas.
Patrick Gross, head of the educators’ union in Laurel, said then that he believed Laurel would ultimately hold a referendum in the coming years, but he was cautious about its success.
“I think that the referendum is going to be key … If we can get that done, we’ll see,” Gross said last summer.
The total salary for a teacher in the Laurel School District with 10 years of experience and a master’s degree is just more than $71,000, according to the district’s salary schedule for the 2025-26 school year.
A teacher with the same experience and education in the wealthier Cape Henlopen School District — about 30 miles from Laurel — makes more than $79,000.
Furthermore, the Cape Henlopen School District, which serves more than 6,500 students, had a budget of more than $180 million during the Fiscal Year 2025.
Laurel schools had a budget of just less than $44 million that same year, while educating more than 2,600 students.
Educators’ salaries are funded by a combination of state and local tax revenue, with the state paying approximately 70% of a total salary.
The state share takes into account a teacher’s education and experience. It also funds a preset schedule of pay raises for each teacher.
The local share of an educator’s salary is primarily funded by property taxes.