Action on a four-year facilities improvements plan and a referendum to finance it is scheduled for the board’s Feb. 28 business meeting.

Vice president Paul Hart revealed that the board apparently has decided to wait until next year to seek an increase in its 76.4-cent operations tax rate ceiling. It was considering whether to present a two-part referendum when it goes to the voters on May 16 for authorization to sell bonds to finance the facilities plan. The referendum called off a year ago included both an operations-rate increase and bond authorization.

The facilities plan – of which Concord, according to Fantine, is "the key around which everything else revolves" – also provides for replacing the closed high-rise Burnett Intermediate School with a new one in a conventional building, gutting and rebuilding the interior of Harlan Elementary School and Talley Middle School, and modernizing and expanding Lombardy Elementary.

Windows in Mount Pleasant High School and building infrastructure at Mount Pleasant Elementary would be replaced. Claymont Intermediate would have its swimming pool, gymnasium and auditorium renovated.

A tentative timetable calls for work at Concord and Harlan to occur during the 2001-2002 academic year, Talley the following year and Lombardy in the third year. The planned city school would be built between 2002 and 2004.

If it is decided to build at Concord, the plan calls for incorporating the present cafeteria, gymnasiums and swimming pool in the west side of the building into a structure adjacent to that section. Students would remain in the existing school during construction. Those from Talley and Lombardy would use that area during the following years. Eventually, the present school, except for the section to be included in the new one, would be torn down and a new exterior wall constructed.

If Concord is renovated, a large complex of modules would house its students and later those from the other schools.

A wide-ranging discussion of the plan at the board workshop included speculation on what the district will have to do if forced by new legislation to reconfigure its buildings to accommodate so-called neighborhood schools or if it loses its city schools to a new Wilmington school district. The legislation is pending; re-establishing the city district is rumor.

Hart predicted that the proposed Neighborhood School Act will pass the state Senate soon after the current budget-hearings recess ends in March. The House of Representatives passed it last June. "This bill will bring back de facto segregation. … I think this will be a tragic mistake for the state of Delaware," he said.

The legislation includes state money to help the affected school districts – Brandywine, Christina, Colonial and Red Clay – comply. Most seriously affected would be elementary schools, all of which were originally designed to accommodate kindergarten through sixth grade.

DelDOE has approved modernizing Harlan, in north Wilmington, and replacing Burnett with the new school on the P.S. du Pont campus a few blocks away. Fantine said the district intends to "keep the character" of the Harlan building, constructed in the early 1930s. As previously reported, the Burnett replacement might be an all-grades elementary school with attendance largely determined through application of the state’s public school choice law.

"We could end up with not enough kids going to Concord. It is conceivable we might not have enough to fill up our suburban schools," board member Robert Blew said. On the other hand, Fantine said, "Harlan is going to continue to leak" regardless of what school district owns it. It is assumed that a new city district would compensate Brandywine for the building.

Also raised were the likelihood that costs, including those involved in borrowing money, will escalate and the possibility the currently flush state treasury might be drained by an economic turnaround. "There is a new [state] administration coming in [after the November election] and they could tighten the belt," said member Lawrence Pelkey. "Remember, this is phase two [of modernization]; there is a phase three around the corner. … If we keep putting the work off, my grandchildren could be ready for high school before Concord is built."

More immediately, Hart voiced objection to the pricetag attached to the overall facilities plan. "I’d like to see some contingency plans for cutting back. My gut feeling is these numbers are too big," he said.

Fantine said modernizing Concord would cost just over $23 million. The state would pay $13.8 million, the long-established standard of 60% of capital expenditure. DelDOE on Feb. 14 agreed, however, to put up only $14.3 million, which is just 46% of the $31 million it would cost to erect a new Concord. The district, thus, would have to borrow an additional $7.5 million through the sale of long-term bonds if the board decides to build anew.

Fantine said the amount offered to support construction was based on application of state formulas governing the authorized size of new schools. "Although the state [officials] agreed it’s a good idea [to build a new school], they could give us only $477,000 more than what we’d get if we modernized. The difference has to be made up with local funds," he said.

The effect of factoring in eliminating the need for classroom modules was somewhat fuzzy because of the number of variables involved. Fantine said leasing them would cost between $2.5 million and $2.9 million the first year, which includes installation, and about $575,000 in subsequent years.

The bottom line in DelDOE’s decision is that Brandywine would have to authorize $32.8 million of bonds to finance the facilities plan if Concord is modernized or $40.2 million if the decision is to build. The former would be 40% of the total $82 million cost and the latter 45% of $90.2 million.

Director of finance Michael Shockley said the district’s capital tax rate would increase from its present 5.5 cents to a maximum of 17.6 cents if Concord is renovated or 20.4 cents if a new building is erected. Calling that "the worst-case scenario," he said the estimates are based on a 6.5% interest rate on the tax-exempt bonds and 20-year amortization. The most recent state bond issue, floated a year ago, carries a 4% to 4.6% interest rate, depending on maturity. The current going rate is about a percentage point higher.

In actual practice, such bonds are sold and redeemed serially and payment of principle and interest fluctuates each year. In a four-year program, the peak cost would be about three years out and the amounts would decline after that.