The Village of Dennison is calling on the Claymont School Board to rescind a decision made at April’s meeting.
Council unanimously voted to beseech the school board to not move forward with an inside millage switch that will cost taxpayers more money.
Back at the BOE March meeting, the finance committee spoke about the district losing around $1.5 million in state funding in fiscal years 2026 and 2027. There is no audio due to technical difficulty, but the meeting minutes say, “an option of moving inside millage within the 10-mill limitation from current expense allocation to a permanent improvement allocation was discussed” and that “a public meeting must be held to explain and receive feedback from the community.”
Claymont’s Superintendent did not want to go on record but said that the school board followed steps of posting a public hearing notice in the local newspaper as required. No one showed at the April hearing.
Dennison Mayor Greg DiDonato says the district could have made the announcement more public.
“We think there’s a right way. One it should have been fully disclosed. They never put it on their personal Facebook page for the school, which says a lot to me. You know, five members need to realize that the school is made up of thousands of people and the input of thoughts and answering questions are important. The process really stunk. Advertising a public hearing in the local newspaper in the legal section in March. The public hearing was on April 2nd. It started at 5 and adjourned at 5:01pm and no one showed up, and it simply said in the legal ad it may have an impact on your taxes. Well, I don’t know if someone considers $140 minimal. To a lot of people, it’s not.”
DiDonato reached out to the county auditor and those with a $100,000 home would see a $140 property tax increase. A person on homestead exemption would see an increase of $95 for the same home value.
“I asked the county auditor if this was final. His comment to me, it’s only final until they mail the bill in January of next year. All these schools can take it off. If you believe in something and there’s a need then sell it to the public and explain it because now it raises questions.”
DiDonato adds he was shocked to find out that taxes could be raised without a vote of the people but says it’s allowed because of wording in an old law.
The next Claymont Board of Education meeting is scheduled for October 13th at 6pm at the administrative office.
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