Dr. Dan Shelton Milks Financially Ailing Christina School District

The mysterious contract for Dr. Daniel Shelton, the Superintendent for Christina School District, was finally released today in an article by Amy Cherry over at WDEL. Considering Shelton started out at Capital five years ago in the $150-$160,000 range he sure made a windfall moving over to Christina School District. Because he is now making $199,000 a year (for the first year, read further to find out how that could drastically increase).

Among Dr. Dan’s many perks, he received $15,000 for this school year as a “transition” stipend to cover his costs of relocating to the district. Because, yes, it apparently costs $15,000 to “transition” when you live in the Red Clay School District all the way to Christina School District. I would love to see the justification for this exorbitant fee (and that’s exactly what it is). But luckily for the taxpayers of Christina, Delaware, and all of America (because his contract is paid through local, state, and federal funds), it will only cost us $9,000 a year to cover Dr. Dan’s automobile expenses to the tune of $750 a month.

Even more egregious and insulting to the taxpayers of Christina-Delaware-America, Dr. Dan gets an automatic step increase of 2% a year ALONG with whatever percentage of raises the local teacher unions get for their increases. Because hell, why not? No apparent conflict of interest here given that HIS OFFICE NEGOTIATES TEACHER CONTRACTS.

What confuses me though is the fact that the Zoom meeting to vote Dr. Dan in took place on 6/4/2020. All the board members were in different places at the time. So how in the world did they all manage to sign this contract on 6/4/2020? Furthermore, the contract had zero public input which would have been helpful given that the district was going out for a referendum at the time. And four out of the seven board members were elected by the board and not the public.

While everyone is figuring out what to do with Covid-19 and schools, it looks like Dr. Dan took FULL advantage of the chaos to get himself a contract that benefits him immensely.

To read the contract between Dr. Dan and Christina, feast your eyes. It is QUITE a read. Thanks to WDEL for doing all the legwork on this!

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15 Who Made An Impact On 2015: Dr. Dan Shelton

Teachers at Kirk Middle School in the Christina School District were not happy last June.  They were losing their beloved principal, Dr. Dan Shelton.  In June, the Capital Board of Education picked Shelton as their newest superintendent after a more than four-month search.  Shelton, who took the reigns from the retiring Dr. Michael Thomas, began the role in July.  Not only was Thomas leaving, but so was Assistant Superintendent Sandra Spangler and Director of Human Resources David Vaughn.

Shelton and the Board quickly found replacements and set out for the tasks at hand.  Christina’s loss was Capital’s gain.  From all I have heard, Shelton is doing a fantastic job at Capital.  I have heard nothing negative about him at all.  In a recent article in the Dover Post, Shelton weighed in on the Every Student Succeeds Act.  He explained to reporter David Paulk that he was concerned about the “lump” funding for grants but he was glad the federal government was “stepping back”.  While this remains to be seen with the feds based on their recent threats about funding cuts with opt-outs, I am confident Capital will handle this appropriately.

Meanwhile, Shelton will oversee the ten schools under the Capital umbrella and will bring a fresh and innovate look to the district.

Dan Shelton, former Principal in Christina S.D., is new Superintendent for Capital School District

According to the Dover Post, the new superintendent of the Capital School District is Dan Shelton.  Shelton served as the Principal at Smith Elementary School in the Christina School District.  More details can be found in the article by Dover Post’s David Paulk:

http://www.doverpost.com/article/20150618/NEWS/150619811