Polls are Open
In Christina, Brandywine, and Cape Henlopen School Districts the polls are now open for Super Referendum Wednesday. They will stay open until 8pm this evening.
It is vitally important to make your voice heard in the community, especially when it comes to schools. The kids who walk through those doors every day are quite literally the future of Delaware and the country. Take a few minutes out of your day today and go cast an informed vote if you live in any of these districts.
You need to be at least 18 years old, a US Citizen with ID and proof of residence in the District you are voting in. You can vote at any polling place in the District. You don’t have to be a registered voter or own property.
Get out there and VOTE!
Tags: Education, public schools, referendum, students, Teachers
How is Cape selling theirs when their high school is brand new and gorgeous? Just curious.
Cape is asking to build 2 new elementary schools and renovate two. Increased enrollment is the cause for 2 new schools.
People have been a little critical of this referendum as it seems like there is no long term plan, just reactionary “quick we gotta build a school” as it has been for the last few referendums. Cape says “no this is it, we got it, we won’t be coming back” .
Both the high school and middle school were missed opportunities as no energy efficient sustainable design elements made it into the final designs. During the high school debate, someone suggested LEED certification. LEED is a pretty expensive/high bar. When the estimates came in for going LEED sustainable, they were quickly eliminated. So that beautiful high school for the ages is using decades old construction methods. ‘murca.
Cape also completely screwed up the high school referendum by having the pool as a separate vote. It failed. They tried another referendum. It failed. So now the Cape Students have to truck themselves down to the small YMCA for practice and meets.
Just bothersome that Milford can’t even get a referendum passed to tear down an old building and Cape is going for yet another one.
Frankly, the whole system is absurd. The funding should be equitable between districts. This whole notion of schools in the poorest areas having to beg poor people to vote to raise their own taxes is absurd.
Milford has a lot more conservative “no new taxes for anything” people than here in Cape.
Milford had a few public relations problems with their referendum.
“People have been a little critical of this referendum as it seems like there is no long term plan, ”
Yep, two full years after the 2014 referendum passed, they still have no plan for who will attend the new school that is currently under construction. Parents have no idea what the boundaries are going to be and of course, when the report comes out in June (the current published date) it will be outdated because now they will have to deal with 2 new schools and 2 renovated schools with differing capacities.
Cape is selling referendum based growth, capacity, aging facilities.
The turnout seems to be pretty high at Cape, but then school is in session. Hard to tell student and staff cars from voter cars. Steady stream of voters but not jammed.
Re: Cape
They know the boundary lines, but revealing them will cause an explosion. Someone is guaranteed to be unhappy. Such is the life of redrawing feeders – which will be revealed once construction is completed.
Pardon me but the new high school at Cape went geothermal. It was not Leed certified but the cost savings to tax payers over oil boilers over the long haul will prove to be a prudent choice for the rank and file living in the district.
There is more to energy efficiency than geothermal and CFL bulbs.
WDEL reporting Christina passes, Brandywine fails.
Ugh. Fuck these greedy assholes up here in Brandywine. Some fucking people will do anything they can to prevent anyone else from having it as good as they did. Then they complain that crime is on the rise in north Wilmington. Not sure how sending a message that our schools aren’t getting much funding is going to attract middle class families and small businesses to this area.
I just want to take a brief moment to thank each and every one of you who voted to support the Christina referendum and the children who will benefit from your decision. I also want to take this opportunity to invite those who opposed the referendum to contact me and allow me to be a facilitator of dialogue with Christina District administrators and board members so that together we can assure and reassure you that this success is in the best interest of public education and the children.
Once again thank all of you for exercising your civic responsibility and coming out to vote. All of you should be proud that you participated in the democratic process.
Respectfully,
Representative John Kowalko
“Ugh. Fuck these greedy assholes up here in Brandywine.”
Nice generalization. Not all of us are greedy assholes, or assholes of any kind. Some haven’t had raises that have kept up with the cost of living. Some are on fixed incomes.
I think the district did a lousy job selling this referendum. I don’t remember seeing any information come through the mail, or by email. I ran into an older couple tonight. They moved here recently from western Pennsylvania. Their neighbor asked them this afternoon if they had voted. They had no idea there was a referendum. So they went and voted – two “no” votes.
The district has been a good steward of our money in the past. And the last time there was a vote they did a very good job telling residents why the money was needed. Maybe they got complacent and figured they didn’t need to spend money to sell the referendum, that parents of current students would be enough to get this one passed. BSD has some work to do. They’ll be back in a few months and will get a referendum through.
At least Brandywine won’t be sharing responsibility for the Christina priority schools in the city. That thought was considered but wasn’t even included in the WEAC report. Why? Political cowardice. Such a plan:
But Red Clay was a pushover.
Chasing families and businesses away is not going to raise anyone’s salaries. Short sighted to oppose the schools, should invest in them – we all benefit in the long run.
The Cape referendum passes at nearly a 3 to 1 margin….in Sussex County. No clue why or how.
Likewise, if you’re on fixed income, scaring away the tax base could lead to future cuts in services, lower property values, and a rise in crime.
“The Cape referendum passes at nearly a 3 to 1 margin….in Sussex County. No clue why or how.”
Cape and the rest of the east coast are more like Vermont or Massachusetts than the rest of Sussex County. Wealthy, white, moderate to liberal.
The only thing I knew about the referendum in Brandywine was that is was going to be used for artificial turf fields. Other than that, I had no idea what else it was for.
Brandywine rolled the dice by trying to package three separate issues into a single vote.
I’m quite certain it failed because of the uproar over the least significant of the items — turf fields.
The district did little to address the significant issue of whether turf fields are safer than natural grass for young athletes — saying only it would decide on the best type of surface after the vote was passed. Instead, it hoped it could slip this through as part of a larger package.
The failure of the referendum to pass could jeopardize the chances of approval for the proposed capital improvements. The district didn’t separate the improvements out because it contended that they would not require a tax increase — it would keep the rate for capital improvements the same because old bonds are being paid off this year.
Well, when the old bonds are paid off … residents should be seeing a tax decrease … so the next time they vote, they will have to authorize an increase in their debt service tax.
So … trying to pull a fast one on the turf fields cost them the needed funds for operating expenses and put the capital improvements in jeopardy.
X Stryker, I’m not disagreeing with you. You make valid points. What I’m saying, and what others have pointed out, is that the district didn’t seem to make any effort to explain or promote the benefits of the referendum other than turf fields, the smallest component. And when you look at the total number of voters, around 7,600, and consider that enrollment in the district exceeds 10,000, well, they did a poor job of even getting their parents to the polls.