In reviewing the Charter School of Wilmington’s board minutes from June 24th, 2014, I found something that probably didn’t mean too much before September 4th, but is particularly interesting now.
From their Board minutes:
Focus on elementary schools. They don’t have science classes, we aim to promote early interest
Current focus is on Marbrook and Highlands; prior focus on Shortlidge
So I dug some more. From their 5/27/14 minutes:
Future work plans include benchmarking with other DE schools
2/25/14 minutes:
Cheryl Potocki (teacher) met with Red Clay administrators to explore partnerships with Red Clay elementary schools as well as CCSA and CSS.
1/28/14:
Outreach: Met with RCCSD (Sam Golder) January 23rd to discuss support and coordination for contacts with Red Clay middle schools and elementary schools. Plans will include mentoring, the Buddy program and Science Ambassadors.
Yes, everyone will start saying it. What about Warner? With such high special education populations in all three of the Red Clay elementary schools, my guess is Warner will become a special ed school, like Positive Outcomes in Kent County is for high school students, but not for severely complex students with disabilities. Who needs inclusion?
I checked the Newark Charter School minutes but wasn’t able to find anything there about the Christina charters. But if I were a betting man, they will be all too eager to lend a helping hand if those schools become charters. The plot keeps thickening…
The Season Of Myths 
Let’s be careful here. First, there’s absolutely no evidence in these quotations that CSW knew anything about the Priority Schools gig, as indicated by the fact that the names of the schools they are, or have been working with, don’t match up with the DOE list.
Second, the Science Ambassadors program and the Buddy program have both existed for years. My daughter tutored in some of our inner-city schools four years ago. RCCSD and CSW have a complex but ongoing longterm relationship, and this particular set of board items appears to generate not from any ESP or leaks about the Priority Schools, but from CSW attempting to expand its eventual recruiting base and offer its students more community service opportunities.
Besides, officials in RCCSD and CSD both knew for weeks if not months ahead of time which six schools the State would be targeting. That’s never been a secret.
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I was just throwing it out there to see what sticks or if anyone had a response. Once again, had the Board digitally recorded the meeting, like most of the major school districts in the state do, all would be transparent. To me, it was just ironic they mentioned two out of the three in Red Clay they want to work with. They are both low income schools, which doesn’t seem like a future recruiting base due to their demographics, and they are both priority schools which everyone and their mother knows will become charter schools if the DOE gets their hands on them.
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