Cape Henlopen School District first referendum since 2018

DELAWARE – The Cape Henlopen School district will be holding a referendum on Tuesday, March 26th. It’s the first referendum for the school district since 2018. According to  Superintendent Bob Fulton, Cape Henlopen has has been growing rapidly over the past several years. This growth has lead to the district hiring roughly 30 new teachers annually, as it sees an additional 2-300 new students each year. Items on the referendum include construction projects–like the school district’s first pool–though nearly 80 percent of the referendum is related to staffing, Superintendent Fulton said: “For every teacher we hire, our local expenditure is between thirty to forty thousand, so right there is almost a million dollars. Just with hiring new people, not doing anything with our current employees or any raises or anything.”

Superintendent Fulton noted that even with Cape Henlopen’s rapid growth, the school district has not raised their operating tax rate in 6 years, since the district’s last referendum in 2018. Fulton admitted that his views have changed as Cape Henlopen schools have grown, and he now recognizes the importance of a wider array of projects: “I pushed back on parents and community when they wanted a pool because I thought it was good to do the schools first. But now I’m realizing, there’s always gonna be a school to build and it’s time to do those other things.”