Teachers At Thomas Edison Ticked Off At Board For Suspending Thomas-EL & Denying State Approved Salary Increases

The teachers at Wilmington’s Thomas Edison Charter School are NOT happy with the Board of Directors today.  As I broke the news this morning, Head of School Salome Thomas-EL was removed from the school this morning by the police with the board present.  What was the issue?

The school had a surplus of funds from their FY2017 budget to the tune of $534,000.00.  The teachers were requesting a 1.5% increase in salary which Thomas-EL asked for from the board.  The request was denied.  What happened from there I do not know… yet.  But to publicly shame a charter leader who is beloved by his staff and the community around him is in very bad taste.  Not to mention the appearance this gives to students.  This is a school with a low-income/poverty population hovering around 96%.  The last thing they need is to see their school leader kicked out of school over what amounts to him fighting for higher teacher pay at a school that is known for having the lowest paid teaching staff in New Castle County.  But they can afford to have lavish Christmas parties and send seven people to a charter school conference?

Thomas Edison’s teachers, like all Delaware public school teachers, received either a 1.5% salary increase or $750 (whichever is greater) last year.  The board sent a letter to their educators a year ago advising them they would receive this increase but then backed out a couple of months later.  The board’s response was that charter schools are not required to give those raises as approved by our state legislators in the annual budget.  Based on their board approved budget for FY2017, the amount for salaries was $5,877,429.00.  If they gave the 1.5% increase, that would have amounted to $88,161.43.  With a surplus of $534,000 (or $588,000 according to their final June 2017 monthly financial statement), that would have been a drop in the bucket.  My guess with the increase in local funds of over $176,000 is funds received from the settlement with the Christina School District over local funding.  So where is that money  going if it isn’t going to teachers?  Where does their surplus money go to?

The answer to that is more frightening than the question itself.  Thomas Edison has a foundation.  The school transfers their surplus money into a foundation account.  What happens from there is anybody’s guess.  In looking at their July monthly financial position statement, it shows a board approved “transfer” budget which I can only assume is coming from their “foundation” account.  In July it shows $25,000 transferred and in August another $25,000.  But if the school has a $534,000 variance and they are transferring funds into the foundation account, what is being done with the rest of that money?  In looking at their expenditures for May 2017 compared to June 2017, it looks like their expenses went up considerably in June considering school ended that month.  And why isn’t the school posting financial statements for their foundation on their website?  If I were the State Auditor, I would be looking into this as soon as possible.

This is not an attack on Salome Thomas-EL or the charter school.  This is looking to be another round of what the hell is this charter board doing?  The optics on this at the time of their charter renewal do not look good.  Could this be Family Foundations Academy redux?  I would LOVE to see their monthly foundation bank statements! If you have nothing to hide Board of Directors at Thomas Edison Charter School, I am asking that you make your bank statements from your foundation bank account available on your website immediately!

It looks like we need legislation around district and charter “foundation” accounts as well.  You hear that legislators!

*To clarify, Salome Thomas-EL was NOT arrested this morning.  Police were used to escort him off school premises.

An Open Letter From State Rep. Earl Jaques About The School District Consolidation Task Force

I just received this email in regards to the School District Consolidation Task Force and where it will go from here:

School District Consolidation Task Force – HCR 39

A Letter from the Chair – Rep. Earl G. Jaques, Jr. 

September 20, 2017 

I have gotten a lot of questions from task force members and those who attended this week’s meeting about the path of this task force moving forward. Where are we going from here? 

I thought it would be helpful to review what we have achieved so far as a task force and outline my goals for our future meetings. 

Our first two meetings have been focused mainly on organizational matters.  At the first meeting we elected the Task Force Chair as required by HCR 39. Then we established four sub-committees (Academics/Student Needs, Finance, Teachers/Staff, and Structure). These four sub-committees are being led by four outstanding individuals with extensive knowledge and experience in their fields. In order to include a diversity of opinions and perspectives, we added additional members to the original 22 members designated by HCR 39. At our second meeting, we approved these additional members to give us a group with backgrounds and experiences from across our state.  

To ensure transparency, we have put all minutes, power point slides and other related material on our designated section on the legislative website; more materials will be uploaded to this site soon. To view the documents uploaded please scroll to the bottom of the page to “Minutes, Reports, and Information.” In addition, all materials have been sent to every member of the taskforce and those members of the public who asked to be included on the email lists. In cooperation with our statewide media partners we were able to get the citizens of Delaware to provide us with their ideas, suggestions and comments on what they would like to see happen with our school districts. We received 146 different written responses.  

This past Monday we hosted a task force meeting in Sussex County to receive verbal comments from county residents. At this meeting David Blowman, from the Department of Education, presented an overview of our state’s districts, schools and students with some informative graphs and maps. The response to his presentation was overwhelmingly positive, so much so that members present expressed their wishes for residents in Kent and New Castle Counties to have the opportunity to view it as well.

In accordance with this feedback, we plan to hold the same meeting at William Penn High School (October 16th) for New Castle County residents and then shortly after that meeting to hold one again for Kent County residents. In order to give residents of each county the opportunity to view the presentation and share their thoughts we have decided to move the meeting schedule a bit.

Instead of waiting until November to meet as a full task force as was originally planned, the Kent County meeting will be moved to October 25^th at Caesar Rodney High School. Then the full task force will meet in early November (details TBA) to vote on the various plans suggested so that the sub-committees can start their work. I envision this vote as being one where 2-3 proposals are chosen to be explored and modeled and compared with the current system. This is a very important topic and so our work cannot be rushed. I will ensure that sub-committees have adequate time to complete their work while also making sure that public submissions and comments are properly heard. 

Once the sub-committees’ work is completed we will meet as a full task force to determine the feasibility of the various components and discuss recommendations to be included in our final report to the State Legislature. 

I look forward to continue working with all of you on this very important issue area. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to reach out to me or my legislative aide, Madinah Wilson-Anton.

Respectfully Signed,

Earl Jaques

27th Representative District

Developing Story: Thomas Edison Leader Salome Thomas-El Removed From School By Police This Morning

Breaking news: The police just removed Thomas Edison Charter School Head of School Salome Thomas-El from the school.  The Board of Directors was present for this.  Details are sparse at the moment, but from what I’m hearing the board was not pleased about the direction Thomas-El wanted to take the school in.  Apparently wanting more pay for staff and administration is a big no-no.  The teachers are not pleased with the decision and there could be a walk-out.  It looks like there is no such thing as due process at this Wilmington charter school.  More details to come as this story develops…

 

Super Merv Stops Red Clay Board From Violating State Law

In the matter  of replacing former board member Mike Piccio’s seat last evening, the Red Clay Consolidated Board of Education came very close to breaking the law.

A motion to appoint a replacement came up.  Delaware state law dictates that a school board shall replace a vacant board seat with an appointee until the next regular school board election.  Piccio’s former seat expires in 2019 so the new appointed board member would only serve on that seat for nine months.  The vote came…

Three board members voted yes and three voted no.  A tie vote meant the motion failed.  But it really shouldn’t have come up for a vote because of what exists in state code.  As well, it is also board police in conformity with state law.  State Rep. Kim Williams, who was in attendance at the meeting, immediately recognized the glaring error and immediately notified Superintendent Dr. Merv Daugherty.  As she wrote on Facebook at the time:

The Red Clay Board vote was 3 no to 3 yes to fill the vacant school board seat in District E. The motion failed because of a tie vote. The policy states the following: A vacancy for any reason other than the expiration of a term shall be filled by appointment for the remainder the fiscal year. A new member shall be elected at the next regular Board Election to fill the remainder of the previous member’s term.  They did not follow the board policy.

Daugherty forced the board to rescind their vote.  At this point, the Board is accepting letters of interest from those who reside in the Wilmington nominating district.

The board voted for the President and Vice-President titles.  Martin Wilson is the new President and Faith Newton is the Vice-President.  The board will vote on the appointee for Piccio’s seat at their October board meeting.