Did you think I was done with Delaware Met?

Yesterday, the DOE released their Take Note newsletter.  In the middle of it was a section about CIP grants awarded to 14 different schools, both district and charter.  The grants were for “innovative induction models”.  Would you like to take a wild guess who got $6,000 from this grant?  None other than Delaware Met!  I guess they can write a good application, or did Innovative Schools write it?  It’s getting very hard to tell the difference anymore.  But you can be damn sure Innovative Schools wants a cut out of everything the school does!

Providence Creek Academy’s P-Card Misappropriation Of Funds But How They Took Quick Action

When I see the words “p-card” and “misappropriation of funds”, I am usually pretty hard on charters.  The reason for that is because I don’t see a great deal of action taken on it.  All too often, I see excuses and “reasons”.  Providence Creek Academy seems to be the exception to the rule.  They found an issue, reported themselves to the auditor’s office, and took the necessary steps to ensure it would not happen again.  The employee is no longer at the school and the charter has set up necessary controls to make sure one person is not able to ever abuse a p-card or school finances again.  I am impressed!  See the below audit report, included with the school’s charter renewal documents.

Interim Head of School Chuck Taylor, Principal Audrey Erschen, and Board President Amy Santos are to be commended for taking very fast action AND correcting the process by which this could happen.  While the amounts are not shown or who the employee was, the school did do something about it.  I imagine more will come out when the State Auditor’s report comes out, but this is a sea change from what I’ve been seeing with other charters.  I still support House Bill 186, and believe this could stop a lot of these things from happening, but what PCA did to fix their issue should be used by ALL charter schools.

Delaware’s Numerous October Education Meetings

As the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission barrels ahead and the State Board of Education tries to firm up an accountability system for Delaware, look for several meetings this month.  I’m going to try to get them all in, so look for a tab below this blog name going forward.  I will be updating this list through the next couple days.  Keep a close watch on the weather as several of the meetings or events could be canceled or delayed based on Hurricane Joaquin!  If you have an event or meeting you would like included on here, please feel free to leave a comment or email me at kevino3670@yahoo.com but I will be putting the traditional school districts and CBOC meetings up later today, along with the other WEIC meetings and town halls.

10/1: Professional Standards Board, 5pm-9pm, Townshend Building, 2nd Floor Conf. Room, Dover

10/1: Great Oaks Charter School Joel Klein Event, *$100 ticket, $25 for educators*, Community Education Building, Wilmington

10/5: Accountability Framework Working Group (AFWG), 1pm-4pm, Townshend Building, 2nd Floor Conf. Room, Dover

10/5: Charter School Charter Renewal Public Hearing (Campus Community, MOT, Providence Creek), 5pm, Townshend Building, 2nd Floor Conf. Room, Dover

10/5: Charter School Major Modification Public Hearing (Mapleton Charter), 5pm, Townshend Building, 2nd Floor Conf. Room, Dover

10/5: Freire Charter School Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, 5:30pm, Wilmington, Governor Markell and Mayor Williams scheduled to attend

10/5: State Board of Education Workshop on alignment of standards, curriculum, and assessment (Smarter Balanced), 5pm-8:15pm, Grotto’s Pizza-Capitol Room, Dover

10/5: WEIC: Red Clay Town Hall Meeting, 7pm, Warner Elementary School, Wilmington

10/6: Delaware Education Support System (DESS), 1pm-4pm, Government Support Services Blue Hen Conference Room, 100 Enterprise Place, Suite 4, Dover

10/6: WEIC: Funding Student Success, 2pm, Red Clay District Office, Wilmington

10/6: Citizens Budget Oversight Committee Meetings: Delaware College Prep (no time given),

10/7: Delaware Developmental Disabilities Council: Children & Families Committee, 1:30-3:30pm, DDDS Office, Bear

10/8: WEIC: Redistricting Committee, 4:00pm, Red Clay District Office, Wilmington

10/8: SCR22 Educational Technology Task Force, 4:30-7:00pm, Townshend Bldg., 2nd Floor Conf. Room, Dover

10/8: Christina, Q&A with Acting Superintendent Robert Andrzejewski, 7pm, Shue-Medill Middle School, 1500 Capital Trail, Newark

10/8: School Board Meetings: Kuumba Academy (6pm)

10/10: School Board Meetings: Delaware Academy Of Public Safety (6:30pm)

10/12: P-20 Council, 12pm, Buena Vista Conference Room, Buck Library, New Castle

10/13: Charter School Accountability Committee: Charter Renewal (Campus Community, MOT, Providence Creek), 1pm, Townshend Building, 2nd Floor Conf. Room, Dover

10/13: Charter School Accountability Committee: Major Modification (Mapleton), 1pm, Townshend Bldg., 2nd Floor Conf. Room, Dover

10/13: WEIC: Parent, Educator & Community Engagement Committee, 5:30-7:30pm, Highlands Elementary School, Wilmington

10/13: Citizens Budget Oversight Committee Meetings: Kuumba Academy (2:30pm), Odyssey Charter School (7pm)

10/13: School Board Meetings: Appoquinimink (7pm), Christina (7:30pm), Colonial (7pm), Delaware Design Lab High School (6:30pm), Delmar (7pm), Polytech (6:30pm)

10/14: School Board Meetings: Odyssey Charter School (7pm)

10/14: Citizens Budget Oversight Committee Meetings: Brandywine (12pm)

10//15: New Castle County Combined Boards of Education Meeting, 7:30am (Breakfast & Socialization, food not free for non-board affiliates), 8:00am-Meeting begins, Sheraton Wilmington South, 365 Airport Rd., New Castle

10/15: State Board of Education Meeting, 1pm, Townshend Bldg., 2nd Floor Conf. Room, Dover

10/17: Caesar Rodney School District Referendum

10/19: Citizens Budget Oversight Committee Meetings: Delaware Military Academy (4:30-6:00pm), Las Americas Aspiras (6pm)

10/19: School Board Meetings: Brandywine (7pm), Delaware College Prep (6:30pm), Milford (7pm), Seaford (7pm), Sussex Tech (Time Not Listed), Thomas Edison Charter School (6pm)

10/20: Wilmington Education Improvement Commission Regular Meeting, 4pm, Sarah Pyle Academy, Gymnasium, Wilmington

10/20: Citizens Budget Oversight Committee Meetings: Gateway Lab School (5:30pm), Newark Charter School (5:30pm), Sussex Academy (3:30pm)

10/20: School Board Meetings: First State Military Academy (5:30pm), Gateway Lab School (7pm), Newark Charter School (7:30pm), Prestige Academy (6pm)

10/21: Citizens Budget Oversight Committee Meetings: Christina (6:30-8:30pm), Positive Outcomes (5pm)

10/21: School Board Meetings: Capital (7:30pm), Laurel (7pm), Positive Outcomes (5:45pm), Red Clay Consolidated (7pm), Smyrna (7pm), Sussex Academy (3:30pm), Woodbridge (6pm)

10/22: WEIC: Colonial Town Hall Meeting, 6:30-8:00pm, George Read Middle School, New Castle

10/22: Citizens Budget Oversight Committee Meetings: Academy of Dover (5:15pm), Early College High School (4pm)

10/22: School Board Meetings: Academy of Dover (6pm), Cape Henlopen (6pm), Early College High School (5:15pm), First State Montessori (6:30pm), lake Forest (7pm), Las Americas Aspiras (?)

10/26: WEIC: Meeting the Needs of Students in Poverty Committee: 4pm, United Way of Delaware, The Linden Bldg., Third Floor, Wilmington

10/26: WEIC: Christina Town Hall, 7:00-8:30pm, Pulaski Elementary School Auditorium, Wilmington

10/26: School Board Meetings: Delaware Military Academy (5:30pm), Great Oaks (5:30pm), Indian River (7pm), New Castle County Vo-Tech (7pm)

10/27: WEIC: Funding Student Success, 2pm, Red Clay District Office, Wilmington

10/27: DPAS-II Advisory Committee, 4:30-6:30pm, Townshend Bldg., 2nd Floor Conf. Room, Dover

10/27: Citizens Budget Oversight Committee Meetings: Family Foundations Academy (5pm)

10/27: School Board Meetings: Caesar Rodney (7pm), Charter School of Wilmington (5:30pm), Providence Creek Academy (7pm)

10/28: Vision Coalition 8th Annual Conference, 7:45am-2pm, Clayton Hall, University of Delaware, Newark *$30 ticket*

10/28: WEIC: Charter & District Collaboration Committee, 5:30pm, Location TBD

10/28: Citizens Budget Oversight Committee Meetings: Academia Antonia Alonso (5pm), Campus Community (4:30pm), East Side (4pm)

10/28: School Board Meetings: Academia Antonia Alonso (5:30pm), Campus Community (5:30pm), East Side (5pm), Family Foundations Academy (7pm), MOT Charter School (7:30pm)

10/29: WEIC: Redistricting Committee, 4:00pm, Graham Hall, 111 Academy St., Newark

*The Delaware Met & Delaware STEM Academy have no scheduled board meetings on their websites

Looking For Delaware Advocates For IEP Meetings

For the past year, I’ve had a link on here up at the top that says Delaware advocates.  I have been negligent about keeping this updated.  If you are a Delaware advocate, and are offering your services to assist parents in IEP meetings, please let me know if you would like your name on this list.  I will post your email address and if you have a website please provide that as well.  If you are an organization that provides these services, please let me know.  If you have any questions, please comment on the article and feel to reach out to me at kevino3670@yahoo.com if you want to be added.

If you are already on this list and do not wish to have your name on here, please let me know.  Thank you!

Everything Comes Full Circle…

I’ve always had this dream of a huge debate with Markell, Murphy and Herdman on one side, and John Young, Mike Matthews and Diane Ravitch on the other.  That will never happen, but it could have…

From: YOUNG JOHN <JOHN.YOUNG@christina.k12.de.us>
To: Murphy Mark <Mark.Murphy@DOE.K12.DE.US>
Sent: Thursday, October 1, 2015 12:00 AM
Subject: Re: Welcome aboard

Secretary Murphy,

Sorry it didn’t work out like we both wanted. Good luck in the future.

John

---

From: Murphy Mark
Sent: Monday, May 14, 2012 9:35 PM
To: YOUNG JOHN
Subject: RE: Welcome aboard

Hello John,

I just learned that the staff already set up my state email… and I log on to find a few messages.  I was pleasantly surprised to see and read your note.  Thanks for the supportive words.  I am eager to start, and to work with all around the state who value the quality of the education our children receive. 

Yes, I have read and listened to many of your critiques.  And often, I believe that I understand them (there are those who say we share some ideas and orientations).  Certainly, I may not always agree with your ideas, tone, or the strategy you use.  But, I also believe that people – like you – who invest huge amounts of their time reading, learning, thinking, and contributing are people who approach our educational challenges with the goal of making a positive impact.  So I assume positive intentions.

I hope we have the opportunity to meet sometime soon.

All the best,

Mark

---

From: YOUNG JOHN
Sent: Thu 5/10/2012 7:37 PM
To: Murphy Mark
Subject: Welcome aboard

Mr. Murphy, 

 

Welcome to your new role. You may be aware, I am one of the fiercest critics of DE policy. Sometimes this leads people to believe I am against them, personally. This is not the case, ever. Should you ever be interested in how or why I am reacting to policy, feel free to call or e-mail, anytime. I am open to return criticism and challenge since I am willing to offer it into the public arena, I have to take it too. My criticisms are specifically and almost always based on the efficacious aspect of policy, followed closely by sustainability.

 

I wish you the best of luck and success in your new and critical job, for our kids: the thing we have most in common.

 

Sincerely,

John M. Young

Member – Christina School Board

Mark Murphy Is No Longer The Delaware Secretary Of Education

And that’s all I have to say about that!