Meet the Cape school board District C candidates

With the Cape Henlopen School District board elections coming up Tuesday, May 13, it’s time to get to know the six candidates vying for the three open seats.

Only two of the elections are contested: the District C seat and the at-large seat.

The three candidates battling for the District C seat are Andy Lewis, Patty Maull and Laura Parsons. 

Andy Lewis 

Lewis held the District C seat on the school board from 2009 to 2019. He ran for re-election in 2019 but was defeated by Janet Maull-Martin, who ultimately stepped down and was replaced by the Rev. Marjorie Belmont.

“I feel like I wasn’t done,” he said.

Lewis is an avid sports fan, historic board game lover and father to two sons, both of whom graduated from Cape. He’s been the announcer for football and softball games at Cape for several years, and although they’re paid positions, he doesn’t accept the money and has asked the school to instead give it back to the students.

He’s a board chair for the Boardgame Players Association, which hosts an annual international board gaming convention in Pennsylvania. He’s also the state coordinator and a district administrator for Delaware Little League, having served on the league’s district staff since 2009 and formerly serving as the president of Lewes Little League.

He considers himself very data-oriented and works full time as an engineer in an international testing lab and equipment supplier, which he said gives him a unique perspective to bring to the board.

“I look at things in numbers and specifics,” he said. “I’m not driven as much [by] emotion.”

He’s been on the district’s volunteer citizen budget oversight committee for several years, helping to maintain fiscal transparency and accountability in the district.

“I don’t have a problem asking questions, like, ‘Why are we doing that?’” he said. “I also understand that sometimes I’m not arguing for what I believe, I’m arguing for what is right. It is a matter of doing what’s best for all the students in the district, and I stress the ‘all students’ part. I want the best things for our kids so they can do whatever it is they’re meant to do.” 

For many students, that may mean attending college. For many others, it means going directly into the workforce, and the schools must prepare them for that, he said.

“My overall vision for the district is to continue to improve the education that we’re providing our kids,” he said. “But again, it’s not just about what we’re doing for test scores. It’s about how we’re accommodating all of the different students that we have.”

Moving forward, he said the board must be more clear in explaining the district’s needs and the realities of the numbers that people will see in future referendums.

For example, he heard that some residents opposed the last referendum because they worried that building the new district office and bus facility would increase local traffic.

“What I don’t think they understand is, OK, maybe it’s 80 or 100 vehicle trips a day because that’s there,” he said. “If the school doesn’t put something there, that’s 100 acres, that’s 400 homes with most likely two cars in each. That’s 800 car trips a day versus 100. So you didn’t want it because you didn't want the increased traffic, but by not putting it in, you’re going to get even more.”

He said it’s especially important for the district to make clear just how significantly its schools are being impacted by the community’s rapid expansion and growing enrollment numbers.

“We have 4,000 new housing units that have already been approved to be built in our district,” he said. “If half of those housing units have one kid, that’s 2,000 additional students. That’s three elementary schools that are now full. Even if you went with 10% of those housing units, that’s still 400 students, [which] is over half of an elementary school. That’s a lot more people that we need to educate that we’re getting no money to help us with.”

He is a proponent of impact fees in Sussex County, which would require property developers to submit a one-time payment to the county to help fund any capital improvements that a school may need to accommodate new developments. 

Patty Maull

Maull is a Cape graduate and a mother of four, two of whom currently attend Cape High. Her oldest daughter graduated from Cape and now works for the district. 

Maull works as a hairstylist at a local salon and has been doing hair for 20 years. She loves spending her free time with her kids and husband, who’s a fellow Cape graduate and local.

She first got involved in the district as a classroom aide, helping out during recess and lunch when her daughters were in kindergarten. Over the years, she’s helped to organize several events and initiatives for the district, including a holiday program benefiting the local homeless community.

She was the president of the marching band’s booster program for several years, and she currently serves as a mentor to two students in the district – one at Beacon Middle and the other at Cape High. Every week, she spends 30 minutes with each of her mentees at their school, often playing games, helping them with their homework or just talking about life.

When she first started the training for the program, she said she learned that kids today typically get less than 15 minutes a day of focused, uninterrupted one-on-one time with an adult. She’s happy to help increase that time for her mentees.

“It really does help these kids,” she said. “It’s been helpful for me, too, being able to have that connection with other kids [in addition] to my own.”

Maull said she’s always been an advocate for her daughters, all of whom have been in the district’s special education program.

“I have a passion for advocating for children, especially for the ones who don’t have anyone advocating for them,” she said. “It means a lot to me.”

She decided to channel that passion into a school board candidacy.

“I want to be a voice for parents, for staff and especially our kids,” she said.

Maull said she believes the biggest issues currently facing the district are a mental health crisis and overcrowded schools. 

Her conversations with people in the district, including her own friends and family, led her to realize just how huge the mental health issue is, she said.

“We are working on it, but I think we need a little more support with that, giving the teachers the resources to help the students and even help themselves,” she said. “If a kid is struggling, whether it’s with something at home or with something at school, they’re not going to have the best academic experience. If we’re able to give them the support they need, I think that makes a big difference in the classroom.”

Maull also said she would love to see an impact fee in Sussex County to help the district fund building expansions in response to overcrowding.

“There are over 6,000 in the district,” she said. “Eventually, all those kids are going to end up at the high school. And it’s only going to grow even more. So we definitely have to get our schools bigger. That would be my biggest thing.”

So many people are moving here because of the great schools, she said. But if the district can’t afford to expand and accommodate the influx of students, then people are no longer going to want to move here, she said, which would cause property values to go down.

“We’re very lucky to have the district that we have,” she said. “So we need to take care of it, and we need to make sure that the county is helping us to take care of it.”

She wants voters to know that she is always available to listen and to talk to them, and that she will always advocate for what is right.

Laura Parsons

Parsons is a cosmetic nurse, business owner, active community member and mother to three boys, all of whom are currently in the Spanish immersion program at Lewes Elementary. Her youngest son is in kindergarten, meaning her family has 12 more years in the district.

“That’s a lot of skin in the game,” she said. “I have so much invested. My children are in school more than they’re with me at this stage, so the impact of the curriculum, the teachers, the staff, the aides, the coaches is greater than my impact at home. If elected, I’m going to champion endlessly for the well-being, excellence and safety of all the children in our community. Each and every one of them.”

She sets her own work hours for the most part, which allows her the flexibility to prioritize her kids, and in her free time, she enjoys traveling, running, skiing and cooking. She said having kids in the district gives her a unique vantage point, allowing her to watch in real time the policies, procedures and initiatives that are put into place.

“The greatest policies can be developed, but until they’re put into practice, the realities of those policies aren’t really known,” she said. “I don’t feel that anything’s broken; I want to simply be able to help improve and add input.”

If elected, she said her main priorities would be to improve the district’s technology usage, address district growth and funding issues, and provide mental health resources to staff and students. 

”I believe that technology is our future, and these kids need to be prepared, but they need to be prepared safely,” she said. 

Every child in the district receives an iPad, and Parsons said she would like to see more cyber-safety mechanisms put into place to ensure the students’ safety and to help reduce cyberbullying.

“The kids are able to find loopholes in the security,” she said. “That’s a big thing. And I’ve been able to educate the district; they sometimes don’t know these loopholes exist. And I’ve been very vocal about where we can secure these things and keep our children safer.”

She suggested the district install educational and productive games and apps on the iPads to teach the kids skills like website building, e-commerce, SEO and programming.

In terms of the district’s rapid growth, Parsons said it must ensure it has the proper infrastructure and appropriate class sizes for kids to be able to learn. 

“They can’t do that in overcrowded environments,” she said.

Regarding mental health, she said it’s vital for the district to protect both its children and teachers, and she believes staff should have access to counseling and other resources.

“Teacher burnout is a very serious thing right now,” she said. “These teachers are having to deal with things that in decades past never existed, and now they are huge pillars in raising our children.” 

Overall, going forward, Parsons hopes for a more collaborative district that invites and considers the input of teachers, administrators, students, parents and the community. She suggested the schools implement regular check-ins with families and staff.

“I treat a lot of teachers in my office, and a lot of the things that they need help with, they’re afraid to ask for,” she said. “So a really inclusive, collaborative environment, where everybody’s able to express what they need and want, will ensure the success of everybody. The teachers will be retained and happy, the union will be happy, our students will thrive and will feel safe. We all just really need to work together.”

Parsons also said she hopes to see continued growth on state tests and more students in the honor society, honors and AP classes, and on honor roll, aiming to prepare students for whatever college or career they choose to pursue.

She added that amidst the ongoing federal changes surrounding DEI programs, the district must continue to support all of its students, especially those from marginalized communities who are most vulnerable.

“We cannot forget about them” she said. “They cannot fall through the cracks.”

Profiles of the at-large candidates, Bill Collick and Chris Lovenguth, and the only candidate to file for the Area B seat, Jason Bradley, will appear in an upcoming edition.