Why Should Delaware Care?
Local school boards are the governing authority for school districts, and these elected officials can play a large role in the educational outcome for Delaware students. In the coming months, four Delmar Board of Education members could vote on whether or not to raise school taxes through a referendum vote.
Delmar Board of Education members deadlocked once again Tuesday night during a public meeting to consider four applicants vying for a vacant seat on the school board.
The lack of an appointment comes just one month after board members first came to a standstill between two candidates for the position, which became vacant in July after then-board Vice President Shane Bowden resigned amid charges of driving under the influence, according to a report from WBOC.
The ongoing vacancy on the board comes as district leaders continue to weigh whether they will ask residents to raise school taxes to fund teacher and staff salaries, overcrowding fixes, and inflation-induced costs. But the district cannot move forward with a referendum request unless it is approved by the board.
Shawn Brittingham, Dawn Litchford, Farrah Morelli, and Bobby Stubbs each sat through interviews with board members Tuesday night to fill the vacant seat.
Brittingham, Litchford and Morelli have all previously served as board members, and Stubbs is a business owner whose wife is a paraprofessional educator in the district. Brittingham and Morelli also previously interviewed to fill the vacant seat last month.
During their interviews, Brittingham, Litchford, and Morelli all said one of the district’s largest concerns is its need for additional dollars to address the lack of space in the building.
Earlier this year, Spotlight Delaware reported on overcrowding in the rural Sussex County district, finding that two high school classes are sometimes held concurrently in the school’s auditorium. Teachers also sometimes must leave their classroom during planning periods, so others can use the space.
“When you’re trying to make classrooms where there are none, that’s not the best environment for those kids,” Litchford said during the meeting.
Despite interviewing four candidates, board members once again failed to fill their ongoing vacancy.
Stubbs failed to advance to a formal vote, while neither Brittingham, Litchford, nor Morelli received the required majority vote to be appointed to the seat.
Immediately following the vote, Delmar Superintendent Michael Bleile told board members the district will not be continuing a search for candidates for a third time. Instead, the board will wait to fill its vacancy through regularly scheduled elections in the spring.
“Each time we go through this process of trying to fill the vacancy, there’s a monetary cost and allocation of time and resources that could be used for our students,” Bleile said.
An ongoing referendum conversation
Last winter, the Delmar school board announced it would not hold a referendum until 2027.
At the time, Board President Raymond Vincent cited overlapping unanswered questions as the reason for holding off, such as the Public Education Funding Commission’s recommendation to approve a new funding model and the likelihood of updated property tax legislation coming from the General Assembly in the wake of its reassessment committee hearings.
On Tuesday, Bleile said the district is establishing a steering committee to gather feedback on a referendum vote through events like community engagement nights.
Bleile, along with Board Members Russell Smart and Neil Baker, is working to develop the committee with the plan of holding a referendum in the spring.
Delmar Chief Operating Officer Monet Smith also told board members the district submitted a Certificate of Necessity (CN) to the Delaware Department of Education, seeking a new fire alarm system and protection system, renovation upgrades, and other improvements.
Smith said this is the district’s third time submitting the request, which will cost roughly $5.6 million. The request has been denied in the past because funding was not available, according to the Delaware Department of Education.
Last month, the Delaware Department of Education said in an email to the state’s 19 districts that it is prioritizing school construction projects that cost $15 million or less.
If the Department of Education approves the request, the state will fund 80% of the project cost. The district would then need to secure its local contribution through a referendum vote.
While students living across the state line in Maryland can also attend Delaware’s Delmar School District for middle and high school, a referendum for operating or capital expenses would only be levied against Delaware residents. The subsequent money raised by the tax hike would only be used to upgrade the district’s joint middle and high school, which is located in Delaware.
Two miles away, Delmar Elementary School is located in Maryland, and is part of the Wicomico County Public School District.
While Delaware residents attend the Maryland-based elementary school, and Maryland students can attend Delaware’s Delmar School District for middle and high school, only Delawareans are eligible to vote in a district referendum.
The last time the Delmar School District held and passed a referendum was in 2015, when the district raised money for capital improvements to school facilities and for operating expenses.
