Committee: Take Christina, Colonial out of Wilmington

A committee created to find ways to improve education in Wilmington has recommended drastic changes such as removing two school districts from the city, rethinking charter schools and overhauling how schools are funded.

The Wilmington Education Advisory Council aims to provide a better future for inner-city students by helping them find a path to escape chronic violence and poverty.

"Now is the time to act and to do so in ways that will strengthen Wilmington education for decades to come," wrote Tony Allen, a senior Bank of America executive and the council's chairman, in a letter to school and city leaders. "The benefits of these actions for Delaware and its largest metropolitan center cannot be overstated."

Created by Gov. Jack Markell last year, the council is made up of 20 educators, business leaders, city officials and community activists. It is the latest in a long struggle both to save Wilmington's youth from an unrelenting tide of shootings and to improve urban schools that many feel are under-performing.

The proposed solutions includes several controversial ideas:

•Removing the Christina and Colonial School Districts from the city.

•Placing a hold on the approval of new charter schools until the state can design a comprehensive plan for how they should grow.

•Changing the way schools are funded in Delaware to funnel more resources to high-poverty schools.

•Creating an office of education in Wilmington government to give city officials more say in what happens in schools.

The interim report comes right after a particularly bloody weekend for Wilmington youth – at least six teenagers were shot, and two died.

Before the committee makes its final recommendations to Markell and the General Assembly, it is seeking widespread input from the community.

In his letter, Allen acknowledged that his group is hardly the first to attempt grand changes.

"It's been 60 years since the 'Brown' decision [which ultimately led to Wilmington's school district being split into four suburban districts] and 40 years since Delaware, by legal prescription, first attempted to address the needs of all its students," he wrote. "Still, thousands of Wilmington children are unable to fully benefit from a quality public education."

Still, Allen says the recent rush of action on schools has built "momentum," that the committee hopes will lend urgency to their cause.

"There are so many things going on in Wilmington education right now that, regardless of what side you're on in any of them, I think everyone is saying 'something needs to be done," he said.

Fewer districts in the city

First, the report says the city needs to streamline a system of governance that is "fragmented and dysfunctional."

Wilmington is currently served by four traditional school districts, Red Clay, Brandywine, Christina and Colonial, and by the New Castle County Vo-tech district. That system is a legacy of desegregation, when officials split the city in four and spread urban students among their suburban peers in an attempt to mix white and black students.

But many in the city have long complained that this arrangement prevents a coherent, unified vision for city schools. They have also lamented the fact that most city high school students have to take buses into the suburbs.

The council's solution is to take city schools out of the hands of Christina and Colonial. Red Clay would get all of Christina's schools. Colonial does not have any schools in the city, just students.

That would make Red Clay easily the state's largest school district, serving mostly city kids.

Not counting the charter schools Red Clay authorizes, Christina is the largest public school district in Delaware, serving 16,721 kids. Red Clay is a close second, serving 16,539.

Counting the charter schools it authorizes, Red Clay is the largest. The commission argues Red Clay is uniquely suited to control most of the city schools since it is the only district with experience overseeing charters.

Many have argued Christina's attendence zones don't make any sense because it has a non-contiguous "island" in the city's east side that is not connected to its suburban schools in Newark. The committee's research found the district is one of only four in the country with non-contiguous boundaries.

Colonial has less than 150 city students and does not operate schools in the city limits, the report points out, but buses them out into the suburbs.

Red Clay and Christina were the districts targeted by the state's highly controversial "Priority Schools" plan to put top-notch principals and teachers in six city schools and give them flexibility from many district rules.

Christina, especially the Christina School Board, has a reputation for clashing with the state, sometimes attempting to derail state leaders' plans.

Its board only barely approved an agreement over Priority Schools last week, a month after Red Clay did so. And the district lost its final year of federal Race to the Top funding after it refused to implement a state plan for big teacher bonuses.

John Young, the board member who has most vocally criticized the state, says he's not necessarily opposed to Christina leaving the city.

"It is difficult to argue against this articulation for improved local control as Christina's non-contiguous relationship with Wilmington has been less than ideal for almost 40 years," Young said. "However, the findings in this report are complex and will require tremendous political will from all involved parties. I am uncertain, outside of this obviously dedicated group, where that will may be found."

Young says it would be "a huge lift" to change districts as the report recommends. The state would have to decide what would happen to students who are currently bused to Christina's suburban middle and high school students, for example.

Christina Superintendent Freeman Williams said it would be "premature" for district officials to comment on the report until they had time to digest it, but said the district is "committed to engaging fully in the discussion over these proposals."

Colonial's assistant superintendent, Carlton Lampkins, also said the state needs to be careful.

"There's always some hurdle or some unintended consequence of doing these kinds of moves. It's like what happened with desegregation," Lampkins said. "If it does come down to it, will the families have a choice? Do our parents want to leave us? They may decide they don't."

Plan for charter schools needed

The group argues charter schools have further fragmented school leadership in Wilmington.

Charters have seen explosive growth in the city over the past few years. Last school year, charters served about 1,100 high school students, while next school year they are projected to serve 1,758, the report says.

Some lawmakers, traditional school leaders and Wilmington officials have publicly worried that rapid growth is sapping students and resources from traditional school districts and further dividing the city's educational voice.

Last week, Wilmington City Council asked the state to place a moratorium on new charter schools. The ACLU has also filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights seeking to prevent new charter schools from opening, arguing they are contributing to resegregation.

The committee wants the state to develop a plan with the desired number of traditional, vo-tech and charter schools, so that the city is making smart decisions about whether charters are meeting needs. Until that plan is developed, the committee says the state should stop approving new charters.

Charter supporters say they're willing to work with the state, but don't think it's wise to limit options.

"While we agree that a plan for our state, including an understanding of the current education landscape, is needed, we do not believe that limiting school choice is the way to make it happen," Kendall Massett, executive director of the Delaware Charter Schools Network, said in a written statement. "The charter process already requires that a need be exhibited for a particular school to open. All approved charters have met that requirement."

Funding and other changes

The committee also acknowledged long complaints from city officials that they do not have a voice in educational issues. To fix that, the report recommends creating an Office of Education and Public Policy in city government which would engage parents, advocate for special needs students and mobilize community support.

The state also needs to seriously rethink how it funds schools, the committee said.

Throughout the Priority Schools debate, many teachers and district leaders have said procedural tweaks and organizational changes can't make up for a lack of resources. It takes more money and programs, they say, to serve inner-city kids, who often deal with poverty, hunger, violence and absentee parents.

The committee wants to see a "weighted funding formula," which would give high-poverty schools more resources to deal with those challenges. That would mean less, however, for low-poverty public schools, barring a massive infusion of new money.

Another problem, the report says, is that property values have not been re-assessed in 30 years, which means some taxpayers are underpaying into a key revenue source for local districts.

Though it acknowledged that a re-assessment would face stiff opposition from homeowners, the committee says it would broaden and stabilize the funding base for schools.

In a statement posted on the city website, Mayor Dennis Williams said he supported the council's reccomendations.

"The recommendations proposed by the Wilmington Education Advisory Council serve as another step forward in acknowledging the need for major reform in Wilmington's school system," Williams said. "In particular, I support the Wilmington Education Advisory Council's recommendation to create an Office of Education and Public Policy in city government, as this would increase city involvement in Wilmington schools."

Contact Matthew Albright at malbright@delawareonline.com, (302) 324-2428 or on Twitter @TNJ_malbright.