Wilmington school committee issues final report
After months of conversations with parents, educators and community leaders, the Wilmington Education Advisory Council says there is broad support for the major changes it has proposed and that state leaders should not delay in implementing them.
In a final report issued Tuesday, the group re-affirmed its previous recommendations, the biggest of which are removing the Christina and Colonial School Districts from the city and giving students and schools there over to the Red Clay School District and changing the state’s funding formula so that high-poverty schools get more resources to tackle the problems their students face at home.
Since its interim report was released in January, committee members have sought input from all corners of Wilmington and from state leaders. According to an official schedule, Tony Allen, the Bank of America executive who has chaired the committee, met with more than 60 different associations, leaders and other groups, from school boards to Department of Education officials to nonprofits serving kids. Allen guess he’s talked to more than 100 overall.
A Facebook page the group has used to gather input, Solutions for Wilmington Schools, has more than 1,400 members.
Based on feedback over the last few months, the group tweaked and fleshed out some their original proposals.
The committee explained more about the charter consortium it wants to see created, making clear it would be run “by charter schools for charter schools,” Allen said. It also strengthened calls for psychological and social services for students battling violence and hunger and expanded requests to beef up the city’s pre-K system.
The big themes remain the same: the city’s school systems needs to be streamlined, high-poverty schools require more resources and the state should have a plan for how all schools, charters, vo-tech and traditional public, can grow.
Though there may be broad support for what the committee is proposing, there is one recurring theme.
“It is now time to act. From the very beginning, our committee has been concerned that this latest effort could end up being simply ‘another report,” Allen wrote to Gov. Jack Markell in a public letter accompanying the report. “Without the political will to begin the process of transforming Wilmington public education, and statewide public education more broadly, Delaware will once again allow inertia to defeat the sense of urgency recognized by a growing number of parents, educators and community members.”
Markell and some lawmakers are pushing for exactly that kind of urgency. The governor and his legislative allies want to pass a bill this year to have the State Board of Education with re-drawing district lines, though schools wouldn’t actually change hands until the 2016-2017 school year at the earliest.
While Markell and some legislative allies try to move quickly, others caution against haste. Red Clay officials point out, for example, that many questions, like how the district can afford to take on new high-poverty schools when the tax base in the city is weak, need to be answered if such a big transition is to happen smoothly.
Elizabeth Lockman, a Wilmington parent who sits on the committee said parents who think the solutions are a good idea need to get involved.
“We hope this leads to meaningful change,” Lockman said. “To get this done is going to be a big lift, and we’re going to need lots more people speaking out for it to happen.”
Contact Matthew Albright at malbright@delawareonline.com, 324-2428 or on Twitter @TNJ_malbright.