By Brian Gilliland

LEWES — Following a 660-vote defeat last month, the Cape Henlopen School District is tentatively scheduling another referendum for May 21, according to the Sussex County Board of Elections.

The issue will also be discussed Thursday at 6 p.m. at Love Creek Elementary School in Lewes, during a workshop meeting that officials scheduled April 4. April 24 had originally been the first meeting of the board since the proposal was defeated.

Stephanie DeMalto, public relations coordinator for the district, confirmed the new meeting Tuesday. She declined to comment on the referendum, adding that information would be shared at Thursday’s gathering by superintendent Bob Fulton.

The meeting will be available virtually at capehenlopenschools.com (click on “Board of Education”).

Requests for comment from Mr. Fulton and members of the school board were also declined.

Prior to the failed referendum March 26, the superintendent said one thing that would happen if the vote didn’t pass would be the district would “come back next year and ask for more money.” He added that one thing that wouldn’t happen is a threat to cut programs.

“We aren’t in that situation,” he said at the time.

However, officials were also dismissive of holding a second referendum in one year when the topic was broached during an information session at Milton Elementary School earlier in March. Mr. Fulton did say the district could come back in 90 days with another proposal but didn’t appear to be seriously considering it then.

After the referendum was voted down, he said, “We are going to regroup, and we are obviously disappointed with the result, but our next steps are to look at the data more closely to figure out the community needs.”

During the election last month, more than 7,900 ballots were cast, according to the Delaware Department of Elections, up from about 3,200 in the last vote in 2018. Unofficially, more than 3,600 voted in favor, while more than 4,200 voted against. About 110 absentee ballots were included, as well as 34 blank votes, according to the department.

Voters at Cape Henlopen High School, the most active polling place, were evenly split, with about 2,030 for and about 2,100 against. Rehoboth Elementary voters leaned in favor of the proposal by about 930-730, but those at Mariner Middle were against by more than a 2-to-1 margin — almost 600 for and more than 1,300 opposed, according to unofficial data.

The referendum was divided into two parts, with operational expenses taking up $0.335 of the total proposed $0.549 increase, to cover things like salaries and benefits in a 60-40 split with the state, according to Cape officials. The capital expenses, coming from local taxpayers only, included a $15 million property purchase of 102 acres, $21.5 million for a new district office, $6 million for a transportation maintenance facility and about $36.1 million for an indoor swimming complex.