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District seeks state approval for multi-year capital plan; local referendum expected for local share
Summary
Christina School District staff presented a resubmitted Certificate of Necessity (CN) to the Delaware Department of Education covering replacement and major renovation projects and said a local capital referendum would be scheduled if DOE approves the submission.
District staff asked the board to approve a resubmission of a Certificate of Necessity (CN) to the Delaware Department of Education that would fund a multi-year capital plan including middle-school replacements, renovations and safety- and pathway-related projects at high schools.
Mister Wicks summarized the CN as largely a resubmission of last year’s request tied to the facility strategic plan phase 1, which includes replacing buildings (references to “replace over Cobbs” and work at “Shoe Madill” in the presentation transcript) and major renovations at other schools. He said the district split last year’s high-school package into an educational‑pathways component identified by the teaching-and-learning team and a safety-and-security addition for high schools.
Wicks said the total local ask was “very, very close to what we asked for last year” and that the district accounted for inflation. If the board approved the CN and DOE approves it, Wicks said the next step would be scheduling a local capital referendum to fund the local portion; he described the district’s approach as designed to limit taxpayer impact by phasing the local share across fiscal years as older debt comes off the books.
Board members asked clarifying questions about timeline and referendum structure. A board member confirmed the CN process can result in partial approvals by DOE so the district can proceed with approved pieces rather than all projects at once. Wicks said the district’s plan could be structured over six fiscal years and that if DOE approves only portions the district can return for remaining pieces later.
Discussion vs. formal action: the CN resubmission was described and a motion to approve the consent agenda (which included CN materials) passed later in the meeting; the transcript also shows the board approved the consent agenda without pulling the CN item. Final DOE approval and any referendum scheduling remain subject to state review and future board actions.
Ending: If DOE approves the CN, the district said it would schedule a local referendum for the district’s local share and pursue a multi-year, phased approach intended to limit immediate tax-rate increases.
