Well, if this listener has anything to say about it.. AUDIO MP3 :05sec… This very unofficial results from an early morning poll on the Jared Morris radio show regarding the Cape Vote today… The results stand from a phone poll:

No: 25 votes
Yes: 6 votes
Not In district, but No: 7 votes
In district, but not voting: 1 vote

Cape Voters,

Before you head to the polls to vote tomorrow 06-12-08, Listen to this audio here: (especially if you missed Dan’s Morning Show and The Jared Morris Show).

George Stone/Selby Discuss Vote (with Analysis) (.mp3 appox:20 min)

On Gaffney’s Morning Show today, Superint. George Stone and School Board Pres. Estelle Parker Selby discussed tomorrow’s vote. Voters will decide on rebudgeting funds and a new $1.6 Million (already collected funds) Turf Sports Field. An interesting interview in and of itself, however, during my program at 10:30am (the Jared Morris Radio Show) — Dan and I reviewed a few audio segments from Dan’s earlier interview and some interesting points were made regarding boys vs. girls sports, the condition of the current artificial turf field and discrepancies of Cape statements regarding the standing field.

As I said on today’s program, I’m not telling you either way to vote… It’s up to voters and parents to decide how they feel about the current situation in the Cape District. Read up on the vote, listen to the above interview and analysis and best of luck.

JMX

The athletes.

Last night at Baywood Greens was The 27th Annual WGMD Sports Boosters Scholarship Awards where outstanding local high school athletes are honored and given $250 in scholarship money, with two, a boy and a girl, receiving the big award of $1,000 each.

WGMD’s Jared Morris and Dan Gaffney. Jared was broadcasting live from the event and Dan was the Master of Ceremonies.

WGMD’s David Schoumacher and $1,000 scholarship winner Max Coveleski from Cape Henlopen High School

Max Coveleski from Cape Henlopen High School took the big prize for the boys. Max will be heading off to Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he’ll be studying Physics and Engineering. AUDIO

Ellen Rowe, $1,000 Scholarship winner from Sussex Tech and WGMD’s David Schoumacher.

Ellen Rowe from Sussex Tech won the $1,000 award for the girls. Ellen will be off to St. Joe’s in Philadelphia. AUDIO

The Hockers from Hocker’s G&E and Hocker’s Supercenter, and the Coveleskis, Max’s parents.

Pastor Gary Knapp from the East Gate Presbyterian Church and his wife Alisa. Pastor Gary opened and closed the event.

The Lawson’s from DryZone are our newest Sports Boosters.

Our sales team. Athletic? Maybe….

Larry Bauer, the keynote speaker, and Jack Renault, WGMD’s General Manager.

Lesley Rogan from Peninsula Rehab and Sports Medicine and Linda Wilson from WGMD.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF OUR OUTSTANDING LOCAL ATHLETES!

The Athletes:

Cape Henlopen High School:
Christine MacDonald
*Max Coveleski

Delmarva Christian:
Rachel Lins

Lake Forest:
Abigail Hill
Leland Hobbs

Milford:
Rhonda Thomas
Joel Sullivan

Stephen Decatur:
Allison Justice
Logan West

Sussex Tech:
*Ellen Rowe
Zachary Rickards

Delmar:
Alison Bloodsworth

Indian River:
Brittany Steele
Luke Wingate

Laurel:
Kelsy Ann Gordy
David Bartee

Seaford:
Kelsey Riggleman
Andrew Halter

Sussex Central:
Christin Headley
Ronald Lee Tyndall

Woodbridge:
Sarah Judy
Reuss Idler

 

Cape Henlopen School District’s referendum will be held on June 12th, the day after school ends. You can click on the images below to get the full sized versions.

Here’s what the referendum is going to look like:

And this is the District’s Fact Sheet on the referendum:

If you’re interested in learning more about the referendum, the next meeting to discuss it will be Tuesday, May 27th, at 6:30 p.m. at Shields Elementary School.

More to come…

The public parking lot at the end of Savannah Road in Lewes. It’s all sand.

A tree blocking the eastbound lane of King’s Highway, that’s the road to Cape Henlopen High School and the District office if you’re coming from Route 1 north. School was on time, but then around 8:30 a.m., an hour after the start of the day for many schools, the automated call came from the District Office that you shouldn’t send your child to school if there was flooding in your area…little late, fellas.

Downtown Milton.

The end of Old Landing Road.

Route 1 by Five Points.

The ocean at the Indian River Inlet.

A snowplow keeping Route 1 directly north of the Indian River Inlet Bridge free of sand.

The ocean in Rehoboth Beach, Rehoboth did a good job weathering the storm so far.

A small windmill on a home in Rehoboth cranking out power like a champ.

And, the R/V Russell W. Peterson, the research vessel that Bluewater Wind launched to study the possible impact of their wind farm on avian life, has run into trouble:

From WGMD News:

The Coast Guard responded to a distress call from a research vessel off the coast of Rehoboth Beach. Authorities say two people aboard the Russell W. Peterson activated an electronic positioning radio beacon and reported that the boat was breaking up and taking on water about 14 miles off the coast. A helicopter crew from the Coast Guard air station in Atlantic City, N.J., was on the scene, and two small boats from Cape May and Ocean City were also en route. The vessel, named after a former Delaware governor active in environmental issues, was christened in Wilmington just six weeks ago and was being used by Bluewater Wind to study migratory bird routes in connection with the proposed offshore wind farm.

More to come as the tide rolls in…

THE TOWNSEND VILLAGE CENTRE FLARES UP AGAIN  


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.      


 SHARON DAVIS TELLS IT LIKE IT IS, WAS AND WILL BE 


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  

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! 

 OUCH! The State of Delaware wants 10% back from all over the state, and that includes Delaware’s schools. Where will it come from in Cape?           


Yeah, that says “REDUCTION IN FORCE OF 37 UNITS” which translates into teachers, teachers assistants and paraprofessionals. THAT translates into larger class size.       


THE GREAT BIG  ”SO YOU WANT TO BE A SCHOOL DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT” ESSAY QUESTION OF THE DAY


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? 


 DIFFERENT POTS, SAME “I JUST GOT POKED IN THE EYEBALL” FEELING FOR WORRIED CAPE PARENTS


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:      





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.  AUDIO 


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?  Is Dr. Stone right and this is a great chance to bring some good facilities to the district?


More to come…       

The New High School

Cape teacher Bill Grizwald’s Architecture class gets a tour of the site.

The back of the school.

Where the Vikings hope to kick butt.

I went on a tour of the new Cape Henlopen High School and it’s impressive. But what was more impressive was the way EDiS took the time to help out a class of what could be future architects.

Bill Grizwald teaches Architectural Drawing and Engineering Drawing at the high school and his class has been coming out at regular intervals during the construction to see how it all works in the real world. AUDIO Bill Grizwald

The students are given the opportunity to ask questions and even check out the site plans. And here’s a little tidbit from the school board meeting…the project is on time and on budget according to the architect.

The Milton Elementary School/HO Brittingham Story

Board member Noble Prettyman called the idea “utterly ridiculous,” and one by one Board members voiced their opposition to the idea of reconfiguring Milton and HO Brittingham so that one school was K-2 and the other 3-5.

Milton mom Sharon Davis, who you may remember from the fight to leave the off colored bricks on the new Milton addition white, and won, made a compelling case. Ms. Davis stuck a survey in Milton Elementary School teacher’s mailboxes and got 50 back, with 96% of those teachers against the plan. There was one teacher who seemed OK with it as long as the Board did the same thing to Shields Elementary in Lewes, and Rehoboth Elementary School.

In the end the idea was tabled, and parents were relieved.

Milton Elementary School Principal Has Some Final Requests

MES Principal Sheila Baumgardner proudly gave her “School Improvement Report” to the Board and the large crowd of Milton parents and teachers then said her good byes, since she will sadly be retiring at the end of this year.

After a standing ovation from the crowd, Ms. Baumgardner took the opportunity to slip in a few requests, things that she really thinks the school, and the district need to be more successful:

- At least 2 more special education teachers and at least one new PARA for MES.
- A full time HOSTS coordinator since MES and HOB share one.
- A playground for kindergartners, since MES doesn’t seem to have the same equipment as other schools.
- Another technology technician for the District.

During the budget discussion, the stagnant condition of the District’s “Odyssey of the Mind” program was brought up, and Baumgardner brought up how teachers just don’t have the time for extra activities with all of the extra work they’re getting with No Child Left Behind coupled with state directives.

This Milton Elementary School parent salutes you, Mrs. B., you have certainly set the bar high.

Enter The Budget

Here’s the budget skinny, at least until it gets a little more dissected and digested….

Dr. Pete Coveleski wants the Board to have more control over the local portion of administrative salary increases, something they found out they had control of last November.

And good news, the district is $3.2 million in the black.

Cape School Board member Spencer Brittingham.

Cape Henlopen School Board member Spencer Brittingham wants the board to discuss “Milton Configurations” at tonight’s meeting. That may sound benign, but what he’s really talking about is a plan where Milton’s two elementary schools, HO Brittingham and Milton Elementary School, would reconfigure so that HOB would be students grades K-2 and Milton would be for grades 3-5.

Apparently this is an idea that’s sprung up before, and this time it may have sprung up over correspondence from an HOB parent complaining that she was turned down when she wanted to choice her kid(s) into Milton Elementary School.

The whole scenario was thrown into the public arena by WGMD’s Dan Gaffney on The Dan Gaffney Show, and what followed can only be described as outrage. So much outrage that Spencer Brittingham showed up at Milton’s PTO meeting last night to answer parent’s questions.

Dr. Stone made his feelings clear, he doesn’t want to mess up either school’s rating by changing them up.

Brittingham had a different take on the situation.

“How long do we allow choice to take away the high achieving students from one school and put them all in another school?” - Spencer Brittingham AUDIO

Meanwhile the Milton parents, joined by one HOB parent, basically told Brittingham that if there was a problem with kids choicing out of HOB for whatever reason, then fix HOB and leave Milton alone. Many parents voiced their concern over breaking up siblings, and the fact that the school has worked so hard to build a sense of community. Needless to say, parents were angry, and they didn’t hold back. Brittingham stood his ground.

The debate will continue tonight at Mariner Middle School in Milton at 7:30.

Why do you always seem to schedule the Delaware Student Testing Program (DSTP) during the week when we “spring forward” and kids lose an hour of sleep? DUH.

Sincerely,

Maria Evans

In a flurry of last minute filings there will be a race for the Cape Henlopen Area “A” school board seat, which is a 5-year term – and it includes incumbent Noble Prettyman of Milton, who filed on the last day along with Larry Schrock of Milton.  Greg Fuller of Lincoln had already filed for the seat a week ago. 

In other school districts:

There are two contested races in the Indian River School District – in District 4 – incumbent Don Hattier faces two challengers – Harold Walters of Frankford and Christopher White of Ocean View.  And in District 5 – there are two seats up for re-election – both incumbents are running – Reggie Helms of Selbyville and Donna Mitchell of Frankford are challenged by Sharon Brittingham of Selbyville.  In District 3 incumbent Nina Lou Bunting will retain her seat on the school board as the only one who filed.  All the Indian River seats are three year terms.

There is one contested at large seat in Delmar – between incumbent Shawn Brittingham and Greg Cathell for the 5-year term.

In the Woodbridge School District – there is one seat up for re-election and it will mean a new face for the school board as president Shawn Bowman is not running for re-election.  That at-large seat has Coulter Passwaters and Walter Budy vying for the 5-year term.

School board elections for all districts will be held on Tuesday, May 13.