April School District Happenings: New Castle County Edition

April School District Happenings: New Castle County Edition

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The oft unnoticed school board elections are happening in every New Castle County school district May 10th. In only one of the districts is an actual contest taking place. 5 of the 7 seats up for election across the county have candidates running unopposed, which too often is the case in BOE elections. As anticipated, Brandywine School District will be returning to the public sometime in May seeking approval for capital and operating referenda. Last evening their Board voted to go back out; this time there will be no turf involved.
A Requiem for the Wilmington City Council

A Requiem for the Wilmington City Council

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The Wilmington City Council passed the budget for the next fiscal year -- 7-6. Other than the 600K that Bud Freel made sure got added to deal with cameras and to be sure that the WPD could run an Academy if needed, this City Council passed a budget utterly free of any opportunity for asking for better accountability from the Williams Administration and utterly free from dealing with the big issues the city has: improved safety, accountability for programs and departments and a better reckoning of a projected surplus -- $2M surplus even though this fiscal year will end with a $500K deficit.
Wilmington City Council Steps Up to Try to Control the City’s Costs

Wilmington City Council Steps Up to Try to Control the City’s Costs

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The last city budget process highlighted once again the difficulty of using that fast-track process to start implementing some budget discipline within the city’s operations. Indeed, that budget not only raised the property taxes of city residents, but also left the city with a surplus – a surplus that no one understands its purpose. There were multiple problems brought up during the hearings – the number of vacant but budgeted positions, the fact that the city isn't paying its portion of the water and sewer bill, and the fact that the budget largely ignored the WEFAC finding that the city’s financial difficulty can’t be resolved by taxing its way out of it. On top of that, city residents really pushed back on city council people over the passage of that tax increase.  To respond to this, City Council is finally exercising its prerogatives as the body that approves spending, to start pulling spending back. This week they started with the staffing at the Fire Department, and they promise to look at all City Departments with an eye to reduce funding for vacant positions and look for better efficiencies.