North New Castle News

The Christina School District is continuing its search for a new district superintendent. 

Richard L. Gregg told the district in October that he would not be renewing his contract, which expires at the end of June. Gregg has served as superintendent since 2017. He has had a distinguished career in Delaware and Pennsylvania, with over 39 years of service.

“I am proud of the work we accomplished during my tenure in Christina and am pleased to say that I worked with a talented, dedicated administrative staff,” Gregg told the Delaware Business Journal.

Gregg was credited with bringing a degree of stability to the district, which has experienced a revolving door of superintendents over the years, the Journal reported.

Long-standing issues that the district faces include enrollment losses, below average test scores, high poverty rates and financial challenges that were made worse under Delaware’s school aid formula. The district runs from Newark and Bear into the City of Wilmington.

The Christina School District Board has approved rates for the June election referendum. The board is seeking a property rate increase of 29 cents per 100 dollars of assessed property value. That is down from last year's 34 cent increase proposal that voters turned down last year.

Board President Dr. Meredith Griffin said lack of funding last year meant that the schools could not afford enough teachers. 

"The biggest cut that we had last year was in teachers. We let go of a lot of teachers last year. We didn't renew many temporary contracts, and we had to let go of five or six permanent contracts,” he said. 

The increase will mean about $18.16 per month more in property taxes for the average home in the district. The increase will come in three phases, with an additional five-cent increase in year two and another five-cent increase in year three. 

Voters will have the option to increase the 29 cents to 34 cents if they wish to support a new English and Language Arts (ELA) curriculum.

A third part of the referendum seeks to raise $10,080,500, or 1.33 cents, for a series of capital projects.