Delaware Governor John Carney and Delaware Secretary of Education Dr. Susan Bunting will talk to educators, parents, and citizens tonight about education funding and the state budget tonight at 7:45pm. To be included on the call, you had to sign up yesterday by 2pm. I signed up on Tuesday. I will be reporting live from the Town Hall. What concerns me the most is not what Carney is saying. It is what he isn’t talking about…
At the Capital School District Board of Education meeting tonight, the vendor for their Strategic Plan, Demosophia, presented a white paper on the plan. Their findings were based on forums held with the public as well as a series of one-on-one interviews and small group discussions with different stakeholders in the district: teachers, administrators, board members, students, parents, and citizens. The next part of the Strategic Plan is co-labs. With these, a diverse set of stakeholders will convene for all-day sessions on 4/28 and 4/29 to formulate a definitive plan for the district which will be presented to the Board of Education next month.
Below is the white paper. One thing to keep in mind is the data the Delaware Department of Education put together from the IDEA Parent Surveys sent out last year. Recently, Delaware Attorney General Matt Denn encouraged all parents of students with an IEP to participate in the survey rather than the random number sent out by the DOE.
It’s the middle of the day. You are at work and you start to wonder about something you read a couple days before. It was something about education, something concerning students with disabilities. Your son has a disability. Oh yeah, it was concerning suspensions and expulsions. You read it on some blog. It was alarming to you because little Johnny has been getting in trouble at school. You aren’t sure if it the disability or his bad manners. He got suspended a couple times. The State Board of Education was meeting right now to discuss a regulation about it. The blog post rattled you a bit because Johnny could easily be one of those kids. You wish you could go to the meeting, but you are out of vacation days and you certainly don’t want to use up your sick time to go to a State Board meeting. If only they had these meetings later in the day…
Delaware State Representative Kim Williams introduced a bill yesterday that would allow the above worker to attend that State Board of Education meeting at 5:30pm or later.
I fully support this bill. It would allow parents and teachers to attend State Board meetings without having to interrupt their day. The State Board isn’t exactly a paying position either, so it would benefit the State Board members as well. As well, many Superintendents and other school admins attend these meetings which takes time away from their school or district. The timing is perfect on this bill! As parents become more involved in education matters, it is important they have the opportunity to attend these kinds of meetings. About 99% of Delaware school boards meet at night because they know parents want to come. Why should our State Board of Education be any different?
There was a time when both the Delaware Department of Education and the State Board of Education did not hold as much power as they do now. They were more of a compliance body as opposed to the policy setting machine they have become. Even the role of the Executive Director of the State Board of Education didn’t have such a fancy title back then. And that position certainly didn’t run the show like our current one does. Please support this bill as parents, teachers, educators and Delaware citizens!
The Season Of Myths 