GEORGETOWN, Del. - Sussex Technical School wants to open its doors to more students but was denied state funding for a replacement school.
The Delaware Department of Education's budget request for the 2021 fiscal year was $167.8 million. In a statement, the department of education said, "Sussex Tech did not make the recommendation list because the cost was too large to fit into the department’s request package, given the state’s bonding limitations, projects already approved in prior years for multi-year funding, and state capital needs for non-school projects. Note that vocational technical school districts do not fall into the capacity projects due to the fact they are capped for how many students they can accept."
According to school officials, a replacement school for Sussex Tech would cost $150 million. The superintendent of the school district, Stephen Guthrie, said it would be more cost effective to build a replacement school instead of making repairs across the campus. The school estimated repairs would be $170 million.
Guthrie also said more applicants could be accepted to the school if it was rebuilt.
"We had 270 openings last year for freshmen, we had 802 applicants so we want to better serve the students in Sussex County who want to go to a technical school," said Guthrie.
If the state approved and granted funding for the new school, tax payers would pay an additional $3.18 in property taxes for the first year, then it would decrease each year following.
The district plans to send in another submission next summer.