THE GREAT BIG CAPE HENLOPEN SCHOOL BOARD ROUND UP NEW AND IMPROVED WITH MORE WATER AND LESS STAFF
April 11th, 2008 by Maria Evans
The Townsend Village Center, a proposed commercial and residential development that would sit across the street from Cape Henlopen High School, was addressed again last night at the Cape Henlopen School Board meeting, but this time not by a board member.
Terry Bartley told the board that choosing to keep the High School in Lewes shouldn’t mean the Board can’t get involved in the issue.  AUDIO
The proposed development was unanimously shot down by Lewes Planning and Zoning recently, but The Sussex County Council still has the authority (but hopefully not the audacity) to approve it.     Â
Milton Mom Sharon Davis, addressed the Cape School Board Thursday night to stress “fiscal prudence in the current environment,” AUDIO, among other things:
“The budget that has been presented to you paints a picture of financial health that might tend to bolster confidence in committing to spending as it recommends. After all, it increases expenditures in a number of significant and necessary programs, and still results in an overall surplus. But, knowing what we know about the financial health of this State and not yet knowing fully what the fiscal health of the county may be, does it make sense for you, as those responsible for the fiscal well-being of this district, to simply pass this budget and wait to see what happens next year.” - Sharon Davis Â
Mrs Davis went on to urge the Board to “NOT vote on this budget tonight.” The budget was ultimately tabled due to typographical errors, like it had no money budgeted for the library at Milton Elementary School. Whoops!Â
Yeah, that says “REDUCTION IN FORCE OF 37 UNITS” which translates into teachers, teachers assistants and paraprofessionals. THAT translates into larger class size.      Â
If you’re the Superintendent in a Sussex County School District, and your every budgetary move is being micro-analyzed by a group of parents who are angry that you balanced the budget by not replacing teachers and increasing class size, how do you walk into a School Board Meeting and announce that you may have to cut staff (i.e. around 37 teachers, teaching assistants and paraprofessionals), in one breath, and then announce that the pool that got shot down in a referendum and a second athletic field for the new High School are back on the table in the next breath?Â
Even though it was shot down by a District wide referendum, the swimming pool for the new Cape Henlopen High School may be back on the table because of a chunky windfall:Â Â Â Â Â Â
So, the money may be there for a pool and a second athletic field for the High School. The other possibility mentioned for the windfall, is giving the extra money back to the School District tax payers, but it’s clear which way District Superintendent George Stone wants to go.  AUDIOÂ
What the parents attending the meeting wanted, was for the money to be spent on extravagances like more teachers and books and teaching supplies, and, yes, those parents “get” that you can’t take money from one pot and put it into another, but it doesn’t make it any better when you’re worrying about already increased class sizes getting increasier. (See how important a good education is!)
These were the questions people were asking today: Can the money be redirected by another referendum to education instead? What would a referendum cost? Â Is Dr. Stone right and this is a great chance to bring some good facilities to the district?
More to come…Â Â Â Â Â
April 12th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
If these schools would stop building sports complexes and focus on the job at hand, EDUCATION, we would not have these problems. One football field requires, Just the playing field mind you, .852 Acres. Buy that property near the beach and what does it cost?
So you pay for the fields at the expense of teaching. Poor choice.