When did Freire Charter School of Wilmington apply for their own teacher evaluation system? Because their July 16th board minutes indicate the following: “Kelly Davenport indicated that Freire Wilmington applied to the Delaware Department of Education to use a teacher evaluation system of its own design, and was approved.” In looking at Delaware Department of Education notes on their website, I found absolutely nothing showing an application or any type of approval for this request.
Freire did have a major modification request earlier this year which was approved by the State Board of Education, but that was to decrease their student enrollment. Absolutely nothing was said about having an alternative educator evaluation system, separate from DPAS-II. Have we now entered a world where any charter school can get whatever they want with zero transparency at all from the Delaware Department of Education? It is starting to seem that way. I know Freire is a “chain” of charters coming from Philadelphia, but that does not exempt them from transparency at all. We all know about the fight to stop them from being at their current location, but nothing has stopped them even though the local neighborhood association did everything they could. Their former school director was even arrested after he was accused of accosting one of the protesters last March.
The mention of this in their board minutes can be found on Page 2 in the below document:
The Season Of Myths 