Deep Thought: Paul Clark’s Vision for NCC
Ugly strip malls set back behind acres of surface parking only. No pedestrians allowed.
Tags: Delaware, New Castle County, Paul Clark
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Oh, and don’t forget elementary schools surrounded by dozens of “portable classrooms”
Sort of like New Orleans, but without relief in sight.
Funny stuff. Paul Clark, deep thought and vision all on one line.
If the real issue is school district capacity, rather than impose additional regulatory mandates on New Castle County, which is already more restrictive and regulated than the rest of the State, why not improve how public schools are planned and funded. New Castle County already participates in the State mandated Comprehensive Plan Process, Plus review, and School Capacity/ Voluntary Assessment. In addition, New Castle County contacts the respective school district on all major plans. It appears to me if school capacity is an issue, it is an issue even if no workforce housing is built. Plans already approved call for thousands of new homes to be built. The system for planning and funding public schools has been a failed system for years and continues to get worse. With Delaware’s high percentage of students in private schools and an aging population, why do we continue trying to fund public education system by property tax and referendum? This is an area that addition state initiatives would be most beneficial. Knowing growth is coming, documented in the recently approved comprehensive plan and approved plans on the books, we should turn the never ending banter of e-mails into how everyone can better understand and communicate the issue and how funding and planning of schools can be improved. Paul G. Clark
Mr Clark,
Please provide documentation of NCC notification to the affected school district on the major plans. I am shocked that this mis-information continues to circulate. Either NCC has a procedure in place that is not being followed or there is lack of knowledge withing the Administration of procedures.
At any rate NCC does not notify the Schoool District.
Additionally, I guess some of the call for additional regulation would be that it makes no sense to construct additional schools when there are schools being closed in northern NCC. What would truely be visionary would be to direct the growth to areas where infrastructure already exists.
On another topic, why would a government agency grant relief to builders to build housing at levels that should be market driven. No one is saying that the houses can’t be valued at $200-250,000. The issue is why let the builder increase density, unless NCC is more concerned about builder’s profit that impact on children!
I would say that the high pecentage of children in private school has nothing to do with school construction funding but rather the population of ht eschool. A public school MUST accept every student regardless of history and desire to learn, a private school can select which students attend.
Just think how much more money Appoquinimink could put in the classroom if we did not have such a high percentage of tax dollars going to Debt Service. Our community has shown it will support funding for classrooms, but as with everything it must be reasonable.
Additionally, thank you for saying plans already approved call for thousands of new homes. You may want to speak with Mr Coons regarding this. Appoquinimink worked with the county to develop a 10 year plan to identify school needs. The ink was not even dry and NCC changed density without communicating with the school district.
A serious problem is that the State approved your comprehensive plan without apparently understanding the impact on schools. I would be happy to have a meeting where the State and NCC sit down with the District and identify the problem and what can be done to correct it. The problem right now is that an open door exists for developers to file a plan to secure additional density while the problem is resolved.
In closing, School Board Members throughout the State have been working for years to change the funding method for construction of schools.I believe there is some concern at the State level that if the method were to change it would open the floodgates and the State is obviously not in a position to fund construction.
Ed Czerwinski
The above is Clark and Czerwinski’s recent email exchange. FYI ‘n all.
“With Delaware’s high percentage of students in private schools and an aging population, why do we continue trying to fund public education system by property tax and referendum?”
Complete BS. Delaware’s funding of public schools at the state rather than the local level is among the highest in the nation.