As President of the Christina School District Board of Education, Minnehan is the voice of the board at their meetings. She holds the gavel! With recent events concerning priority schools and the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission, the Christina Board will be in the spotlight quite a bit in the coming months. The biggest matter facing Christina right now is what happens if the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission does not pass. The State Board of Education votes on the redistricting plan on January 21st, and if it passes it goes on to the General Assembly.
If, at any point, the plan fails to move forward, the DOE will pounce on Christina’s priority schools. They are already gearing up for it. But Christina has dire matters on its plate. The first is their precarious financial situation. They could be in serious financial trouble if they don’t pass their next referendum attempt, the third in the past two school years. As well, there is the issue with what appears to be an acting Superintendent stepping a bit outside of his comfort zone on district matters. Bob Andrzejewski already made this list, and not for good reasons. Since then, the Christina board voted down his request to join the BRINC Consortium in a 4-2 vote. But as of last week, it appears Andrzejewski is submitting grant applications to the Delaware DOE without the knowledge of his board.
As the face of the Christina Board of Education, Minnehan will be the voice behind how to reign in Bob A, as he is often referred to in Delaware education circles. It is essential that the board make Bob A understand they are the deciding authority in the district. Minnehan will play a large part in how that is done. The last thing the district needs is an acting superintendent going rogue. The board will begin a search for a permanent superintendent in February.
The Season Of Myths 
I agree Minnehan is someone to watch, but I would highlight the work of the whole Christina School Board. I believe Bob is in more of the driver’s seat then you think until the board signs a contract with a new superintend. I hope he does something with his time here, which will mostly likely be until July 1st. He has nothing to loss. I believe that would be short sighted to reign him in or push him out now and it inhibit our ability to recruit the level of talent we require to make the necessary changes to improve our Schools. The entire pool of superintend candidates are watching how our board works with or against Bob.
Looking back at last year our district double dipped on their first referendum ballet and then had a third referendum question on the second ballet, so we had 3 failed referendum attempts on two ballets. Those 3 failed referendum questions highlighted how out of touch with our community the Board and Freeman were and it appears that nothing has changed. We have the same issues in Christina last year as we do today, but today we have less reporting about those same tired stories.
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