LEWES, Del. — The Cape Henlopen School District is adding eight modular classrooms to help ease overcrowding at Cape Henlopen High School and the Sussex Consortium.
Dr. Jason Hale, the district’s director of operations, said four single-classroom modular units are being placed at the high school and four are being placed at the Sussex Consortium. Hale said the district needs the classrooms because both buildings are over capacity. “With continued growth in the district and no approval for expansion of the high school, we have no choice, as we are over capacity in both buildings,” Hale said.
Hale said the district has spent the past several years making sure every inch of its buildings is being used. He said adding the modular classrooms was not a decision the district made lightly. The upfront cost for the eight classrooms is about $300,000. The district will also pay about $140,000 a year to lease them, according to Hale.
The upfront cost for the eight classrooms is about $300,000.
Some people in Lewes said the modular classrooms show the need for more school infrastructure as the area continues to grow. “We also need schools as part of that infrastructure. People are coming. We need places to educate our children, and Cape Henlopen is getting too small for the population,” said Robert Laughman, of Lewes. Lev Drevno, a Cape Henlopen School District middle school student, said he thinks the district should consider building another high school instead of adding modular classrooms.
“I think maybe we should build another high school instead of putting trailers because, I mean, trailers, it kind of ruins the entire aesthetic of the high school,” Drevno said.
According to the state’s school capacity report, the Cape Henlopen School District is at 103% capacity.
