As a result of last week's operating referendum failure, cuts are coming to the the Christina School District, starting with teachers.

"It's a devastating night for Christina's teachers," said school board member John Young.

The Christina School Board voted 4-3 to eliminate five full-time teaching positions. Young was among the three board members who voted against eliminating the positions. The district will also not renew 58 teacher contracts.

Young said more cuts have to be made within the district to balance the budget.

"[It's] closer to $6 million in cuts comes from all of the teachers that won't be re-hired or brought back, and there are approximately $3 million worth of cuts that we're going to be making in other areas, which are going to reduce supplies, reduce sports opportunities for freshmen, and some other things we're going to have to grapple with at a future meeting," Young said.

Teachers came out in droves, wearing red, to the meeting Tuesday, May 7, 2019 at Gauger-Cobbs Middle School in Newark.

"Everybody needs to be employed, it's sad, it's more than just five, it's all of the temporary contracts, like 58 contracts. It's a sad day that people will not have a contract," said Christina Education Association President Darren Tyson.

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Everyone on the board made it a point to say that one teacher loss is too many, and they know their decision will hurt the district.

Everyone--teachers, school board members, and district officials--agree the funding formula from the state needs to change, and they plan to contact lawmakers in Dover to put pressure on them.

Lawmakers don't necessarily disagree, but have not had the political will to change the system. A new bill, sponsored by Rep. Earl Jacques, seeks to allow local school boards the ability to bypass the referendum process and automatically increase local taxes for operating expenses by up to 2 percent annually. The proposal has drawn vehement opposition with some on social media calling it "taxation without representation" and others saying districts should be forced to live with less--like everyone else.

'We have to do something different:' Referendum system for funding Delaware schools could be overhauled Delaware's referendum system to pay for school district operations could be scrapped. Instead, a mechanism would be set up to allow school boards to increase their local property taxes by two-percent or less each year without going to the voters. Why does one lawmaker think this is a good idea?

What hurts School Board President Meredith Griffin Jr. most is that he said the failure of last week's operating referendum has halted the district's momentum.

"We've been turning things around and a lot of places academically, we've actually even seen an increase in our student body in our suburban schools of almost 500 students this year," said Griffin. "And so to find ourselves in a position where the referendum has failed, and now, we have to stop some of the momentum that we were beginning to gain is extremely disappointing," said Griffin.

The school board meets again next Wednesday, May 15, 2019 for its regularly scheduled meeting.