The Lake Forest School District Board of Education on Aug. 28 approved submission of a Certificate of Necessity (CN) application for an addition to WT Chipman Middle School intended to expand flexible classroom, cafeteria and extracurricular space.

Superintendent Dr. Lucas and staff described the project as an addition adjacent to the existing Chipman cafeteria with a total cost presented in the CN application of about $2.2 million. The board voted to submit the CN; the submission starts a state review process in which the Delaware Department of Education would "rack and stack" requests and, if selected, the Office of Management and Budget and the Joint Finance Committee would provide final appropriation. The board resolution to submit the CN carried unanimously (vote recorded as 5
0to00).

Board members asked detailed questions about how the Department of Education evaluates capacity and project priority. Staff noted that the district's current Chipman cafeteria is about 3,800 square feet, considerably smaller than the Delaware School Construction technical guidance recommendation of roughly 5,800 square feet. Board members also highlighted that DOE's working threshold for being "over capacity" is relatively low (85% reported in discussion), which can affect CN competitiveness.

The superintendent said the district would pursue the CN repeatedly until approved and outlined a fallback plan should the state deny the request: the district could assemble a spending plan using a combination of minor capital funds, impact fees (currently discussed at roughly $3.3 million in transcript discussion) and reserve funds for priority projects such as pool resurfacing, tennis courts and track repairs.

The board approved the CN application unanimously and directed staff to continue pursuing state funding while preparing local planning alternatives.