Why Should Delaware Care?
Residents in the Christina School District are anticipating a referendum in February 2025, but the cost of two superintendents, lawyer changes and potential litigation can hurt the district’s chances of passing a referendum. The controversy plaguing Delaware’s third largest public school district affects the instruction of more than 13,000 students.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story misstated former Superintendent Dan Shelton’s salary. The story has been corrected.
The Christina School District soon will be paying two superintendents. Its board will also pay consultants to help search for a third.
That search adds to the district’s ongoing hunt for an attorney to replace its previous counsel, who announced his resignation in a July letter that ominously advised the district to seek representation with another firm, according to the Newark Post.
In all, the costly payments to find and retain the district’s highest-salaried employees are a result of months of acrimony at the Christina School District, highlighted by the suspension of Superintendent Dan Shelton, arguments between school board factions that have extended public meetings late into the night, and the Delaware Attorney General’s monitoring of the district’s compliance with open records laws.
The acrimony has left many in the public with questions about what really is going on at the Christina School District. Chief among those questions is why the district in July dispatched Shelton, an award-winning superintendent, and replaced him with interim superintendent Robert Andrzejewski.
Shelton received a salary of $235,692 in 2023, according to the Delaware state government employee database, published by The News Journal.
A Christina School District budget document lists its “superintendent” expenditure for 2023 at $105,000. It is not immediately clear why the expenditure figure is different from the state’s salary database records.
A spokeswoman for the school district declined to provide Shelton’s salary, instead telling Spotlight Delaware that it must file an open records request for the information.
The Christina School District’s budget for Fiscal Year 2024, which ended June 30, is not currently available in the district’s business services section.
One district, three superintendents?
During their Sept. 11 meeting, the board approved Andrzejewski’s contract that specifies that Andrzejewski will be paid $6,012 per pay period from Oct. 1 — the date that his license will be effective after being reinstated by the Delaware Department of Education — through the end of the year and $3,846 per pay period from January through the end of June 2025, for a total of up to $100,000.
The contract was approved by the board with a 5-1-1 vote; Doug Manley voted no while Amy Trauth abstained.
The district could pay more than $335,000 in total this school year for the salaries of both Shelton and Andrzejewski, despite only one actively serving.
The Christina Education Association, the district’s teacher’s union, opposed Shelton’s administrative leave. They previously estimated it could cost $750,000 to buy out Shelton’s contract, hire an interim leader and conduct a search for a permanent replacement.
The board also voted to pass the request for proposal for the new superintendent search firm. The 4-3 vote allowed the district to begin the process of putting together an RFP and going for a bid for a search firm — the starting stages for finding a new, permanent superintendent.
The cost for a school district to hire a search firm can vary. Some firms like Leadership Associates have asked for a total of $29,500 for a comprehensive search, which includes recruitment, background checks and cost of advertising, among other services. Other firms add additional fees for services like community engagement and travel costs.
Some board members have been wary as to how the public might perceive the district paying two superintendents while also paying a search firm for a third superintendent.
“I just want to point out, just as Miss Moriak did, that we have two superintendents that we are now going to be paying,” Trauth said during the Sept. 11 meeting. “In addition, we’re going to spend, I assume, a handsome amount of money to search for a new superintendent. At the same time, we are going to be going up for referendum, just a little worried about the optics of that.”
Christina’s legal troubles
Although the district won’t be buying out Shelton’s contract, they have a new financial obligation to consider on top of the additional superintendent salary.
Shelton’s attorney filed a cease-and-desist letter demanding that the Christina school board stop the actions he claimed were defaming Shelton and violating his rights. The letter also said the board owes Shelton for lost wages, harm to his reputation and emotional and physical distress.
Shelton’s attorney, Thomas S. Neuberger, has also pointed toward his case against Sussex Vo-Tech. Neuberger’s client in that case was an assistant superintendent who claimed the district’s Board of Education punished her for helping to expose her former boss’s misconduct. His client received a more than $1 million verdict.
The Christina School District Board of Education’s relationship with its own longtime lawyer has also been strained after this summer’s actions.
James McMackin III — whose law firm, Morris James LLP, has represented the district for 41 years — told the Christina board he was stepping down on July 12. McMackin has said he will continue to represent the board until it finds new counsel. The board approved requesting quotes for a new firm at a board meeting in August.
McMackin’s law firm falls under the “special” fund on the district’s open checkbook site. The district spent a total of $106,697.74 within 59 transactions during FY 2023 and spent $120,619 during FY 2024 within 40 transactions.
Christina looks to pass referendum
Operating funds are used to fund the ordinary operations of a school district; those general operations are funded through real estate taxes that are referred to as the operating tax. The total tax rate is currently $2.16 per $100 of assessed value. This amount cannot change unless voters in the school district approve it in a referendum vote.
While the district works to find new legal counsel and a new superintendent, they’re also working toward a referendum vote in February 2025.
In an August 2024 meeting for the Citizen Budget Oversight Committee — a board of education committee — Chief Financial Officer Bob Vacca showed that the district’s unencumbered operating balance is more than $26.1 million.
This meant that the district has $26 million to carry it through the summer months, as the district needs a minimum of $22 million to “bridge the low point,” which lies between July and October. Vacca said that the district will need to go out for a referendum because it “won’t make it” this time next year from June through October.
However, some leaders are starkly opposed to the idea of a referendum given the board’s decision to place Shelton on administrative leave this summer, and the board’s ongoing tumultuous meetings.
“You have an agenda item to hire an interim superintendent, when you have an award-winning superintendent on your payroll. And you plan to go to the voters asking for more money next year? Good luck with that,” said state Rep. Paul Baumbach (D-Newark) during public comments for the August board meeting.
The Christina School District community will be able to determine whether tension within the board’s leadership affected the ability to pass its referendum in February 2025.
