Sussex Consortium gets $5.7 million from bond bill

This year's legislative session ended with a bond bill bonus for Sussex Consortium.

Cape Henlopen School District got the news they had been waiting to hear when $5.7 million was earmarked for construction costs for the new facility.

“We got great news from the state. Our local legislators really went to bat for us,” said Brian Bassett, director of facility operations and construction.

In 2016, the state agreed to pay 100 percent of the costs of a new Sussex Consortium facility – about $19 million for a new building and another $1.8 million for land. The district and state have settled on a site that covers 25 acres at 17344 Sweetbriar Road.

However, three months after the state approved the new Sussex Consortium, it increased its square-foot allocation for new construction by about $100 a square foot. Cape Henlopen had sought funding under the updated allocation – about $6 million more – in order to pay for the new 67,000-square-foot building.

There are about 270 students enrolled in the consortium, which runs the county's autism program and educates special needs students.

Six classrooms have been added to both Mariner and Beacon middle schools to allow consortium students to assimilate in a traditional classroom with their peers. Cape High has five classrooms for consortium use while Milton and Shields elementaries each have four.

Students who cannot handle the traditional school setting are educated at the main Sussex Consortium campus, which operates out of the Lewes School on Savannah Road.

Bassett said as plans for the consortium progressed, officials realized they needed more money to offset rising construction costs for labor and materials.

Increased construction in the region has also boosted construction costs, Bassett said.

Plans for a therapy pool and an additional 25,000 square feet of space that architects had included in a larger design option are on hold for now.

Still, district officials are pleased with the extra money.

“It's phenomenal that they were able to get some money for us,” said Bassett.

Cape Henlopen school board members thanked local legislators for their work securing funding for Sussex Consortium. In a letter to Speaker of the House Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth, Sen. Ernie Lopez, R-Lewes, and representatives Stephen Smyk, R-Milton, and Harvey Kenton, R-Milford, the board said, “We look forward to the day when we can all stand together and the cut the ribbon on this much-needed project.”