Someone once told me school choice is a roll of the dice. For this parent and her two daughters, it was a one day nightmare that resulted in the parent pulling her children out of the Delaware public education system and homeschooling her daughters. Delaware Design-Lab recently requested a major modification to reduce their enrollment…
Delaware Design-Lab High School submitted a major modification application to the Delaware Department of Education Charter School Office to lower their enrollment again! This time they want to lower their enrollment by 26%. I admire their tenacity, but sometimes you just have to realize there are too many charter schools in Northern New Castle County! …
In 2016, the Delaware State Board of Education approved a major modification request to lower their enrollment. This year, they are supposed to be at 475 students based on that approval. Charter schools have to be at 80% enrollment to be financially viable. That number would be 380 for Delaware Design-Lab High School this year. …
The Board at Delaware Design-Lab High School sent parents an email on September 15th letting them know about Head of School Joseph Mock’s removal from the school. I though he resigned, but this email confirms he was ousted! Given that they had an emergency board meeting on September 13th, it sounds like this board did…
The Head of School for Delaware Design-Lab High School, Joseph Mock, resigned after holding the position for less than six months. I saw no notification on their website or social media pages. This happened the same day Dr. Salome Thomas-EL was ousted from Thomas Edison Charter School. Delaware Design-Lab has faced low enrollment woes since…
Two Delaware charter schools are in violation of Delaware state law. The Delaware Department of Education is not putting them under formal review as they did two years ago when a few charter schools did not have 80% of their student enrollment for the next school year by April 1st of that calendar year. Delaware…
On Saturday, after I posted an article on Delaware Design-Lab High School’s major modification request, the Delaware DOE asked me to remove the parent complaints because of some student identifying information that was in that section of the article. The DOE has revised the complaints, so I am giving this its own article. Like I said…
Delaware Design-Lab High School is having some major issues. While they are struggling with enrollment, it appears their school model isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Parents and students saw right through this based on some of the parent complaints below. One parent went so far as to say they weren’t releasing her child…
Another Delaware charter school scheduled to open in August 2015 could be in danger before they even open. Delaware Design-Lab High School applied for a major modification request to change it’s location from the City of Wilmington to Newark, DE. Housed in the same area as Delaware Academy of Public Safety and Security, the charter…
Another Delaware charter school is shutting down at the end of the 2018-2019 school year as Design Thinking Academy will close. Despite receiving a $10 million dollar grant from XQ schools and changing their name last fall from Delaware Design-Lab High School to Design Thinking Academy the five-year old charter school could not retain and…
The Delaware Department of Education released the September 30th counts report for the 2018-2019 school year. Enrollment in Delaware is up by 775 students. Special education is on the rise, jumping to over 16%. There are some very odd trends going on with different sub-groups in Delaware. Ones that are making me VERY suspicious.
Good luck finding out any information on the many Delaware charter schools that are up for renewal this December. Turns out the Charter School Office scrubbed that part of their website on Thursday. This same office has also gone without a leader since July 1st, three and a half months after Denise Stouffer left the role…
Updated, 9/25/18: The title of this article has been changed to reflect that the school did submit a minor modification request to change their name. This was approved by Secretary of Education Dr. Susan Bunting at the end of August. As announced by Jessica Bies with the News Journal last week, Delaware Design Lab High…
A Delaware charter school leader sent an email about student climate and discipline to their staff in April. While I understood some of the leader’s concerns, referring to your students as monkeys in a circus is probably not the wisest thing to say in this day and age. If you don’t believe me, ask Roseanne…
When you have 24 charter schools in a state, 22 of which are authorized by the state Department of Education, there are going to be years where the amount of charter renewals are going to go up. This fall, the Delaware DOE Charter School Office and the Charter School Accountability Committee are going to have…
How were the Delaware school districts and charter schools rated this year for special education? Every single one is in here and the joke isn’t even funny anymore!
**UPDATED BELOW WITH NEW INFORMATION ABOUT ONE DISTRICT** Two years ago, letters went out to five charter schools from State Auditor Tom Wagner letting them know they were in violation of Delaware’s Budget and Accounting Manual (BAM). For the purposes of this article, I looked to see how many districts and charters violated BAM in…
Every year, the Delaware State Board of Education gets to vote on charter school renewals. This year, there are seven charter schools up for renewal. I believe this is a record and will keep the Charter School Office busy from now until then. But this year could be different for these renewals because of events…
After weeks of work, all of the Delaware Public Education salaries over $100,000 have been posted with a few exceptions. Those are four charter schools who either did not respond or will in the next couple of days. But there is more than enough data to make some sense out of all this. Many asked…
Last night at the Delaware State Board of Education meeting, five Delaware charter schools received unanimous approval from board members. Academia Antonia Alonso, Early College High School, First State Montessori Academy, and Sussex Academy were approved with no conditions. For Thomas Edison Charter School, that was a different story. And for another, the State…
The Season Of Myths 