Delaware's Delmar School Board will wait until next year to fill a vacancy to break a deadlock over whether to hold a referendum to shore up its finances. In our partnership with Spotlight Delaware Delmarva Public Media's Don Rush talks with reporter Julia Merola about the decision. The full interview can be heard on this Friday's Delmarva Today at noon on WSDL and WESM.
RUSH: The Delmar School Board in Delaware is considering a referendum to shore up its financial needs, but that decision has been stalled by a key vacancy. This is Don Rush. There were two prominent candidates, one who favored a referendum and another who said they would take a "wait and see" position. So the panel is evenly deadlocked and has decided to throw that choice to the voters. In our partnership with Spotlight Delaware, we talked with reporter Julia Merola about the impasse.
MEROLA: So a school board in general, they're in charge of so many things, deciding who's the superintendent of the district, in charge of deciding whether or not a district ultimately goes out for a referendum vote. So all of these things come down to the school board members. Right now we're looking at a four member board. So if you're trying to go out for a referendum and two people vote yes and two people vote no, you can't hold the referendum and it makes things really complicated. Again, we're looking at this four person board trying to get an appointment for the fifth person. The votes aren't aligning with who they think should be selected for the person. Ultimately they've decided we're not going to do this again. We're just going to wait until the board of ed election this spring.
RUSH: Is there an issue of the direction that the board wants to go in, in terms of determining who, say, each side wants or is this a personality issue? What sense do you get about that?
MEROLA: I think it's interesting because last month when we had the same issue of there was a board of ed meeting, there was interviews conducted who could potentially fill the vacancy. There was two people vying for one seat. One of those candidates, Shawn Brittingham, he said up front, "I'm very much in support of a referendum." The other candidate was Farrah Morelli and she was aware of the district's concerns and why they felt they needed a referendum, but she felt that she wasn't just going to vote blindly for holding a referendum. So it kind of seemed like those decisions were a little more split. I think that some of those thoughts may have carried into the board of ed meeting earlier this month. But again, there were two more candidates to consider, one of which there was a motion to point him to the board and there was no second. So that motion ultimately failed. But I think it is fair to say there is a conversation of whether or not they want someone on the board who is really pushing for a referendum or someone who may be more cautious also.
RUSH: So in terms, by the way, of Delmar and the issues of say staff and salaries and overcrowding and that kind of thing, are they in a world of hurt? I mean, do they have some serious issues here?
MEROLA: Going back to late last fall when we were first talking about is Delmar going out for referendum, that was part of the reason, wanting to be able to better compete for teachers. Because I think when you're in Sussex County, one of your competitors is going to be a district like Cape, they have access to more funds to hire educators and retain educators more than Delmar. And it's not just Delmar who faces that issue. It's other school districts do like Laurel, that's another big one. So I think it's just something that a lot of school districts in Sussex County are also facing.
RUSH: Spotlight Delaware reporter, Julie Merola on the Delmar school board struggle to decide whether to hold a referendum to shore up the district's finances. The full interview can be heard on this Friday's Delmarva Today at noon on WSDL and WESM. For Delmarva Public Media, this is Don Rush.
