A school board vacancy could shape a rural Sussex district’s referendum plans
- Sussex County Republican Committee
- 1 hour ago
- 4 min read
August 17, 2026
Why Should Delaware Care?
Pressures from overcrowding and inflation are continuing to burden Delaware schools, particularly in Sussex County. Last fall, officials from the Delmar School District said they would need to pass a referendum to ease those pressures, but residents of the small, working-class community could push back.
The question of whether the persistently overcrowded Delmar School District moves forward with its first tax referendum in more than a decade could depend on who fills a vacant seat on the school board.
Earlier this month, board members deadlocked during a public meeting to consider two candidates for the position, which became vacant in July after then-board Vice President Shane Bowden resigned amid charges of driving under the influence, according to a report from WBOC.
During interviews with the candidates — Shawn Brittingham and Farrah Morelli — board members asked each whether they would support raising taxes to support the district’s operations and capital expenses.
Morelli, who served on the Delmar Board of Education until her term expired earlier this summer, said she may support referendum requests, but would first need to see a proposal from the school district.
“I’m not going to vote just blindly because somebody says, ‘Here, we’re going to vote on operating expenses,’” she said.
Brittingham, who has served on the Delmar school board and with the Delaware State Board of Education, said he supported a potential referendum, arguing that it could ease persistent overcrowding in the school district.
Still, Brittingham noted that the decision of whether to raise taxes ultimately is up to the voters.
“Your taxpayers are the ones that make the decision, not you,” he said to board members during the meeting earlier this month.
Earlier this year, Spotlight Delaware reported on overcrowding in the rural Sussex County district, finding that two high school classes are sometimes held concurrently in the school’s auditorium and that teachers sometimes must leave their classroom during planning periods, so others can use the space.
Separately, former Delmar School District Superintendent Andrew O’Neal said last year he may have to reduce staff, and postpone essential repairs if the district does not find new dollars through a referendum.
At the time, he pointed toward overcrowding, teacher and staff salary increases, and inflation-induced cost increases as reasons for needing to increase taxes.
Delmar’s struggle reflects a broader challenge facing Delaware schools of keeping pace with rising costs and aging facilities. In many Sussex schools, those challenges pair with a growing enrollment. In some Wilmington-area schools, they pair with struggles of too few students.
While Delaware’s recent capital budget, called the Bond Bill, did free up new dollars for school construction, districts seeking referendum still must ask taxpayers to approve additional dollars.
An operating referendum is raised entirely from local dollars to go toward expenses, such as teacher salaries. Capital referendums pay for school construction with costs split between state and local dollars.
Delmar’s school was built in 2000 for a capacity of just under 1,200 students. More than 25 years later, a growing student population has pushed the district over its capacity by nearly 300 students.
During the meeting earlier this month, the Delmar school board did not select Brittingham or Morelli to fill the vacant seat.
Board members Neil Baker and Jordan Johnson voted in favor of Morelli, while board member Russell Smart and board President Raymond Vincent voted for Brittingham.
The district will continue its search for candidates to fill the vacancy and will hold more interviews during its September board meeting.
Ongoing referendum discussions
Last winter, the Delmar school board announced it would not hold a referendum until 2027.
During a Dec. 9 meeting, Board President Raymond Vincent noted the district’s “very real financial pressures,” saying the need for an operational referendum is real.
But the timing, he said, is not right to ask residents to raise their own taxes.
At the time, Vincent cited overlapping unanswered questions that could affect the way schools in Delaware receive money, from the Public Education Funding Commission’s recommendation to approve a new funding model to the likelihood of updated property tax legislation coming from the General Assembly in the wake of its reassessment committee hearings.
If a referendum passes, the corresponding tax increase would only apply toward Delawareans, and the money raised would only be applied to the district’s middle and high school in Delaware.
Two miles from the middle and high schools, Delmar Elementary School is located in Delmar, Maryland, and is part of the Wicomico County Public School District.
Maryland students living in the town can attend Delaware’s Delmar School District for middle and high school, but only Delawareans are eligible to vote in a district referendum.
The last time the Delmar School District held and passed a referendum was in 2015, when the district raised money for capital improvements to school facilities and for operating expenses.
