This story WILL be updated, but Delaware Met is not closing for now as per Matthew Albright with the News Journal who tweeted the following 45 minutes ago:
This news is coming from their board meeting where at least two legislators attended. One was State Rep. John Kowalko because he asked the board how many of them have educational experience. The board canceled the executive session to discuss personnel. But there are a multitude of unanswered questions here. How are they going to be able to adequately service the students? If the bulk of their students have internships, how does that work with a special education student who needs supervision? (These questions were not mine but were brought up to me today which raises a very good point). What about all the conflicts of interest on the board? What exactly happened for them to suddenly close the school last Thursday? Who is the individual who originally emailed me on this? Will the Delaware DOE, who notified the school they are concerned with their “financial viability” (which usually leads to a formal review), place the school on formal review? As soon as I know more, so will you!
Updated, 6:52pm: Delaware State Rep. Kim Williams tweeted the board voted to keep the school open.
Updated, 7:20pm: Delaware Met has 223 students, of which 60 are special education which gives them a 26.9% special education population. They have 2 special education teachers and are looking to hire two paraprofessionals. The school was actually closed for three days last week for professional development for teachers who seemed to be as lost as the students. A former Moyer employee told the board he heard the Delaware Department of Education expected the board to close up shop tonight and that was what they wanted. Innovative Schools said the school has a lot of money and they are good financially. When it came time to vote if the school should stay open, the Board President looked at the Innovative Schools rep for approval, who nodded yes. One member of the board kept referring to the students as her “babies”. State Rep. John Kowalko barraged the board with questions. Public comment was not given at the advice of the school’s attorneys (yes, at a public meeting). One observer said there was gang symbol graffiti all over the cafeteria. The board spent a significant amount of time discussing the school’s cell phone policy. Yes, you heard that right. Sounds like this school doesn’t have the first clue about what the hell they are doing.
The Season Of Myths 
Charter schools, most of the time, are started by people who have read about this cool educational theory or idea that is working somewhere else (sometimes even an exclusive private school who aren’t beholden to state tests and CCSS and who can pick and choose their students and expel whoever they want…) and think it would be great to get an awful lot of grants and tax money to create a “public school” in the same model. These people are usually not educators who know better and who actually have experience with real live students. Even if these charter school founders aren’t corporate reformers trying to line their pockets with tax dollars, it takes more than good intentions and a good idea to run a school. I feel sorry, first, for the students, and second for those poor teachers who are trying to teach and earn a living under an unprepared and probably unqualified administration. Been there, done that…won’t ever do it again.
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Point of clarification: the school has more than 218 students. The 218 figure came from a financial analysis run by innovative schools. They were using 218 as a worst case scenario number. As in, if the school has as few as 218 students by the Sept. 30 enrollment deadline will it still be viable? I don’t know how they conjured 218 as the worst case #.
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Albright said they have 227. If they aren’t financially viable at 218, that must mean they would be below 80% at that #, so they must have been approved for about 274 students for this year. Just guessing now without looking at the actual figures. I’m listening to the Youtube video where they are talking about that now. Thanks for the heads up!
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The video recording shows they say they have 223 now.
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