Lake Forest School District holds an informational public meeting Monday night ahead of a capital referendum later this month.
Voters will decide the fate of $7.7 million dollars in state-approved capital projects across the district. Those projects include security upgrades to Lake Forest schools, improvements to the Lake Forest High School football field, and replacing aging equipment at a community pool.
Superintendent Daniel Curry says the proposal is tax neutral, but worries that holding the referendum as state lawmakers consider proposals like Governor Markell’s 10-cent gas tax could create an atmosphere where people are inclined to resist any new spending.
"So it leaves the schools and the school’s children and their needs and the community’s [needs], it leaves them subject to all and any anti-tax position," said Curry.
The state will cover five million of the $7.7 million price tag for the improvements, and more than a million will come from Kent County’s School District Capital Improvement Fund. The district will bond the rest of the cost, which would result in a slight tax increase for residents, but Curry says a reconfiguration of debt service will create a savings that effectively eliminates any increase for taxpayers.
He hopes that explaining that to residents will help encourage people to consider the referendum on its merits and neutralize the arguments of anti-tax groups frustrated with unrelated issues in the state’s tax structure.
"We believe that schools can stand on their own. If the community likes what we’ve been doing, likes the way we’ve been good stewards of the tax dollar, [we ask] that they support us on this because we’ll make it tax neutral," said Curry. "[We ask] that they take up whatever issues they have with regard to the tax structure in the state of Delaware with the people who make those decisions and don’t take it out on the children.
Monday night’s public meeting begins at 6pm at the Lake Forest School District Central office. The referendum will be held on May 28.
