Breaking News: Newark Charter School Let Her In The Lottery!!!!

I just heard from the father of the daughter with a rare disability that Newark Charter School’s admissions office is letting his daughter into their lottery.  This is good news, and I’m glad for everyone who reached out to Greg Meece at Newark Charter School.  I got an email this morning from someone in Florida who emailed Meece!  While this is not a guarantee she will be accepted into the school, she has a chance which is all the parents wanted based on her very unique situation.  From what I’m hearing, there were 3,500 applicants and only 80 slots are open.  The school has 190 Kindergarten students, but because of their enrollment preference that siblings get first dibs, that filled 110 slots already.

I wish this family all the luck in the world and I look forward to hearing the outcome.  There are still some questions regarding the admission policy in and of itself, but for now, good news all around.  The lottery is tonight at 6pm.

Education Funding Improvement Commission Meeting #4 At 9:30am This Morning At DOE In Dover

The Senate Joint Resolution #4 Education Funding Improvement Commission is having their fourth meeting this morning at the Delaware Department of Education building in Dover.  The meeting will be held in the Cabinet room, where the State Board of Education holds their meetings.  There is one item on the agenda that looks very interesting.  State Rep. Paul Baumbach and the DOE’s David Blowman will be giving a presentation on weighted funding.  I’m not sure how I feel about this.  I was engaged in a Facebook conversation about this last night where others were comparing it to salary caps on baseball or football teams.

What is very curious though is the fact that Lindsay O’Mara, Governor Markell’s Education Policy Advisor created the pdf of the agenda that shows up on the Delaware Public Meeting Calendar.  Who is running this show?  With this timeline with the committee ending in May, that gives a legislator enough time to draft up a quick bill to implement the findings and get it through the General Assembly by the end of June.  Can you say “pre-determined”?

It’s funny how the State Board is giving the Wilmington Education Funding Improvement Commission a hard time.  They claimed WEIC’s proposals could clash with this task force.  I asked about this sort of thing happening at the very first WEIC meeting in September.  Dan Rich said all of this, including the Vision Coalition’s Student Success 2025 and the Statewide Review of Educational Opportunities were all sort of planned to work in conjunction with each other.  Meanwhile, WEIC is having their second “post State Board of Education vote of no action” meeting tomorrow night at 5:30pm at the Community Education Building in Wilmington at 5:30pm.  Is this when the the transparency promised by WEIC takes a back seat while the commission makes severe changes to the plan to satisfy the State Board of Education?  Or was this also pre-determined?  Or am I a conspiracy theorist like a certain Charter School Board President/Head of the Delaware GOP recently told me?