Cecil County Schools Renew Push for new Votech School at Basell Complex

Cecil County Public Schools officials took a first step Wednesday to re-launch their efforts to win county approval of a new vocational-technical high school on their dream site—the vacant Basell science labs and buildings in Elkton— with an appeal to business leaders and a new, cost-sharing proposal that will be presented to the County Commissioners. The revised concept would knock off $1.5 million from general county government costs, by tapping separate “fund balances” maintained as a cushion for unforeseen expenses by the separate School Board. In addition, the deal could be re-structured so that the 91-acres of land would be treated as a donation by the current owners, so that the full local costs of the building acquisition and renovations could be financed by a county bond issue. (Bond proceeds may only be used for building purchase and construction projects, not land purchases.) That would mean no out-of-pocket, up front costs out of the county government’s own more than $18.5 million currently unallocated “fund balances.” Resistance to tapping some of those reserve funds was cited by some commissioners as a reason to oppose the project. The usual “Three Amigos” majority faction of the commissioners—Diana Broomell (R-4), James Mullin (R-1) and […]