Brandywine board removes 1.7% add‑on, votes to split tax rate to ease residential burden after reassessment

The Brandywine School District Board of Education voted Aug. 18 to remove a 1.7% allowance that had been added to the district’s 2025–26 tax rate and to split the district tax rate between residential and nonresidential parcels at a 1.85 ratio.

Board members said the combined action is intended to restore, as closely as possible, the distribution of tax burden that existed before New Castle County’s recent property reassessment and to provide relief to most residential taxpayers who saw sharp increases in assessed values.

The change follows a special session of the Delaware General Assembly that authorized New Castle County school districts to reset 2025–26 tax rates and to split rates between residential and nonresidential property classes (House Bill 242), and other bills that set installment payment options and refund rules for taxpayers. "The difference between the two numbers, the $6.987 million, is the referendum," Mister McCoy, who presented the financial materials to the board, said when explaining how referendum revenue ties to the new rates.

Why this matters: New Castle County’s reassessment realigned assessed values across neighborhoods. The district’s finance presentation showed residential parcels’ share of the school district tax…