Sussex Technical High School funding criss now in legislators hands
More than 700 applications to become the next freshman class at Sussex Technical High School are currently in limbo. How many students are accepted depends on funding, which is currently in the hands of legislators.
“We don’t have any excess money anywhere anymore, we’ve spent all the money,” says Patrick Cooper, Sussex Technical High School Board of Education President.
The school board is requesting a tax hike to a new rate of 50.5 cents per $100 of assessed property value. Taxpayers are currently paying 23.5 cents, which is reportedly the upper limit the vocational school can impose. To raise it, they need the General Assembly and the Governor to approve it.
The board argues that the funds would help them meet the needs of increasing enrollment, but legislators like Representative Pete Schwartzkopf say, insisting on that in the first place, is the root of the problem.
“If you know you’re running through your money you have to stop spending, so why are you still increasing your enrollment I just don’t understand that,” he says.
Among the 10 high schools in the county, Sussex Tech has the largest enrollment, more than 1,500 students. Their teachers receive a set amount of money from the state, which is a requirement for all teachers in Delaware. If they want to pay their staff more, they can use the “local” share, which comes from taxpayers.
According to Schwartzkopf, out of eight categories for payment of teachers across the state, Sussex Tech leads four of the categories. In the county, they led two additional categories.
“By increasing their enrollment it’s triggering more positions, the states paying their share they just can’t pay the local fund share,” says Schwartzkopf.
Sussex Tech School Board members argue that teachers for a specific trade require a little more pay.
Because of funding issues last year, they were reportedly forced to lay off 18 of them. At least three of them have been re-hired since, but they say there is no more wiggle room.
“It could be staffing positions, it could be programs, it could be sports it could be anything, so it’ll have a dramatic effect on the school,” says Cooper. “Right now the kids are the ones that could potentially suffer.”
The request for funding has brought out what has been apparently years of arguing when it comes to the “fairness” of how the public schools operate versus Sussex Tech. 47 ABC will have more on these issues that the General Assembly has to address on 47 ABC at 6 tomorrow.
