Parents react to county executive decision on Mardela Middle/High School

MARDELA SPRINGS, Md. – ‘We were pretty excited to see that Mardela High School was finally going to get the attention that it needed after so many years,” said Robert Short, a Mardela Springs resident.

Parents at Mardela Middle & High School on Monday expressed their concerns after they discovered that the county executive Bob Culver paused plans to renovate the decades-old school building.

“I understand Bob Culver has a job to do, but I understand that we need this upgrade,” said Short.

“We’ve waited long enough, and we’ve been pushed back and pushed back and it’s our turn now,” said Short.

The County Executive Bob Culver said his decision is the result of meetings with the Board of Education that pushed for more attention on the county’s Imagine 2022 plan. It is a plan that includes a universal Pre-K and teacher pay raises.

“The board of education said that they really wanted to push the Pre-K and the 2022 Imagine Plan that Dr. Hanlin, and again, Wicomico County is a small county,” said Culver.

“We only have so much money to go around,” said Culver.

Some parents said they are upset because the school’s renovations have been pushed aside while other schools have gotten the attention.

“Just compared to other schools, it’s antiquated,” said Short, “It’s adequate, but it’s also not large enough, and they’ve been teaching out of portables for years and years and years.”

The county executive said plans to renovate the school is on his list of priorities, but he said different factors like the 15 dollar minimum wage increase next year to 11 dollars per hour has forced him to pull off for now.

“These are things that are unknown to us right now, so we couldn’t just go ahead and commit $700,000 without knowing where it’s going to go because it would be a good possibility that the $700,000 would be spent and it would go nowhere,” said Culver.