Delaware transportation council rejects grant tied to ASPIRA Georgetown

Why Should Delaware Care?
With a large Latino population by percentage, demand for bilingual education is high in Georgetown and its surrounding area. ASPIRA Georgetown charter school seeks to satisfy that demand but its opening has been beset by obstacles.

The expansion of the ASPIRA bilingual charter school into Sussex County hit another obstacle last week after Delaware transportation officials denied a roughly $900,000 grant request submitted by the owner of the property where the school would be located. 

Members of the state’s Transportation Infrastructure Investment Fund Council said during a meeting on Wednesday that they would reject the request after receiving legal advice indicating that the grant was ineligible because the school does not fall under the state’s definition of a business.

The setback highlights the latest in a series of hurdles that officials at ASPIRA have faced as they worked to expand from their current location in Newark into Sussex County at the site of a former cold storage. Without the grant, project leaders say they must now secure alternative financing.

The state’s decision last week follows an announcement last fall from ASPIRA that the opening of the Georgetown school – originally slated for the 2026-27 academic year – would be delayed to the fall of 2027. At the time, ASPIRA’s then-Delaware CEO Margie Lopez-Waite said the school project had “hit roadblocks,” but affirmed that it would move forward.

The delays at the time were, in part, due to the federal government shutdown preventing the owner of the school building from immediately securing federal tax credits, the owner, Dan Bond, said then.

Last week, Bond pushed back against the state’s decision to deny the transportation grant, which he had requested to help pay for the installation of sidewalks and the repaving of a road around the proposed school. 

Bond owns the building under the name ASPIRA Georgetown OZ Property Management LLC, which he said is a private company – not a charter school. 

“We have an agreement with the public charter school that they will lease the building,” he said during the meeting. “If we’re being not allowed because we are not a private company, that is incorrect.”

Susanne Laws, an official with the state transportation council, said the application was reviewed knowing that the applicant is a property management company that would be leasing to ASPIRA. 

George Lees, a deputy attorney general who issued legal guidance to the council, said his opinion had nothing to do with the merits of the application, but that the occupant has to qualify as a business. 

“Title 14 … defines charter schools as public schools, not as businesses, and that’s the issue, quite frankly,” he said. 

During Wednesday’s meeting, Lees recommended that Bond and the ASPIRA team reach out to local legislators and request that they introduce language authorizing the transportation council to grant money for the school building.

Or lawmakers could direct funding through the legislative grant-in-aid program to the school project, he said.  

Asked if the grant denial could further delay the opening of the school, Bond said “we will not be greatly hampered in rehabbing the building.” Still, he acknowledged that means he will have to seek out another source of funding.

In a written statement to Spotlight Delaware, ASPIRA Charter School Board President Guillermina Gonzalez said school officials are “extremely disappointed” with the grant denial, but reiterated that school officials are looking forward to opening their Georgetown location in September of 2027, as planned.

Separate from the transportation funding, Bond has already applied for a number of tax credits for the school construction, accounting for about $7 million of the $16 million required to finance the project. 

Last fall, he said he also obtained a $500,000 pre-construction loan from the nonprofit NeighborGood partners to begin demolition work on the building.