Voters approve Cape schools referendum
Cape Henlopen School District taxpayers overwhelmingly approved a spending referendum Wednesday, March 23, that will help rebuild or renovate its four elementary schools and a new Sussex Consortium.
Read more about Sussex Consortiums future plans
Voters approved the $130,187,400 proposal in a 2,947-1,031 vote, according to unofficial totals from the Sussex County Department of Elections.
Local taxpayers are on the hook for about $48.1 million of the bill — 40 percent of the cost for the work at the four elementary schools — while the state will cover the remainder, including the entirety of the work for the Sussex Consortium.
The estimated tax increase between now and 2020 is $74.28 for the average household, according to the school district.
Mary Ann Sley, 65, heard someone else say they’d vote against the measure simply because it raised taxes as she was walking toward the polls at Mariner Middle School in Milton. That struck Sley as shortsighted, she said.
"People don’t understand the correlation between good schools and property values. These guys are just thinking about their tax rates.”
Moreover, Sley said, her career as a middle and high school counselor in New Castle County – she recently retired, moving to Lewes – made her a yes vote.
“If you put money into the schools, the kids are the ones who get the most out of it, and consumers do too,” Sley said.
Others saw it differently.
“I’m probably going to vote against it,” said Bob Howard, 77, a 10-year resident of the Cape Henlopen School District, on his way in to vote. “Not that I don’t think we need new schools. But I don’t think the board has been cost-conscious enough.”
The approved proposal includes new facilities for H.O. Brittingham Elementary School which could open as soon as fall 2018 and Rehoboth Elementary School, which could open the following fall. Both are planned to have the same design as the tentatively named Love Creek Elementary School, the district's soon-to-be fifth elementary school, which recently broke ground and is expected to open in time for the 2017-18 school year.
Cape Henlopen School District breaks ground on school
A renovation and new addition will occur at Milton Elementary School and a new addition at the Lewes School building will be done to house Richard A. Shields Elementary School. When completed, the elementary schools will all have the capacity for 720 students.
Enrollment at the school district, which just eclipsed 5,200 students, has increased by nearly 1,000 since 2002. A 2007 projection from the state predicts the school district will have 5,939 students in 2020, 6,476 in 2025 and 6,890 in 2030 — an increase of 2,579 from 2005.
The average age of the four elementary school buildings and Sussex Consortium's Lewes School is 70, according to Brian Bassett, the school district's director of administrative services.
The elementary school work is part of a 20-year facilities plan that was implemented in 1999, which also called for the construction of Mariner and Beacon middle schools and a new Cape Henlopen High School, which the district said were all completed on time and under budget.
For Carey Graviet, 36, of Milton, carrying a toddler on her way to the ballot box, a “yes” vote was a no-brainer. She has a child in kindergarten in the Cape district, and younger children as well.
“The high school is new, the middle schools are relatively new, but the elementary schools need a lot of help,” Graviet said.
The district last had a referendum two years ago, when voters approved funding for the construction of Love Creek and additional classrooms at the middle schools, by a 3,597-2,410 margin.
Cape Henlopen School District referendum passes
School referendum supporters in Sussex County tread warily when pitching to the region’s sizable population of retirees, some of whom have little patience for tax increases funding school expansion.
“We’re not going to vote for it. When people get old enough, we’ve paid all our life for school taxes,” said one 89-year-old man from Milton who declined to give his name. “There should be a cutoff, especially for people who don’t have kids, like us.”
The News Journal's James Fisher contributed to this report.
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