A Christina Administrator Is The New Board President Of DE Academy Of Public Safety & Security

The Delaware Academy of Public Safety & Security Board of Directors chose their new board President last evening.  This board member was not on their board before last evening and he serves on another charter school board.

What Is Margie Lopez Waite Doing Now? And Is A 3rd Charter In The Mix With Her Plans For DAPSS & ASPIRA?

Will a Wilmington charter school become embroiled in the ongoing saga of Delaware Academy of Public Safety & Security and Las Americas ASPIRA Academy?  Many are saying yes.

DE Academy Of Public Safety & Security Get 200 Students To Save Themselves From Shutdown

Talk about the last minute!  If the Delaware Academy of Public Safety & Security did not have a student enrollment of 200 students by tomorrow, their charter would have been revoked.  They hit that number so they have met their first condition of their probation.  Under 200 students would have meant the school would not have been financially viable as a non-profit public school.  This is “unofficial” but I am hearing this from excellent sources so I don’t doubt the viability of this claim at all.

I don’t ever wish to see any school closed unless there is some unbelievable egregious stuff going on there (case in point: Delaware Met).  I sincerely hope the school can meet the rest of their probation conditions over the coming year or so.  The whole point of any school is the success of the students.  I do wonder what schools won’t have these students next year.  Are they coming from districts or other charters or a combination of the two?  That is school choice for you and at the end of the day it is a parent’s decision!

DE Academy of Public Safety & Security Has 10 Days To Put Up Or Close Up!

Ten days.  That will make all the difference for the Wilmington charter school.  If they don’t get 24 students to apply AND commit to the struggling charter school, they will have their charter revoked at the end of this school year.

It was just last month that Delaware Academy of Public Safety & Security narrowly missed getting shut down by the Delaware State Board of Education.  But the conditions mounted against them could kick in charter revocation at any time if they failed to comply.  The very first condition was the school must have 200 students by May 1st.

Last night, at the State Board of Education meeting, Denise Stouffer from the Charter School Office updated the board on DAPSS’ probation.  To date, they had 176 students enrolled for next year.  They need another 24 in the next ten days or they are toast.  That includes commitment letters signed by parents.  They could still reach that number but it would be very tough.  Their enrollment number has not gone up much since the State Board rendered their decision last month.

Ten days.  For 176 students already enrolled for next year, this could be problematic for them come June 29th if the charter for DAPPS is revoked.  These students and their parents or guardians will be forced to find a new school for the 2019-2020 school year.  Do they start looking if the school doesn’t meet their numbers by May 1st or wait to see what happens over the next few months?

CSAC Recommends DAPSS Stay Open For One Year With Conditions While Queen Margie Exerts Control

At the Delaware Department of Education building in Dover, the Charter School Accountability Committee recommended Delaware Academy of Public Safety & Security stay open for another school year with very stringent conditions.  At that point, Colonial’s Board of Education could very well decide to take over their charter.  Queen Margie once again made it all about her.  But the discussion that reached this point was very intense.  Much more information here than you will find in the Delaware DOE press release.

Academia Antonia Alonso, Early College H.S., First State Montessori, Sussex Academy and Thomas Edison All Get Renewal Recommendations But One Has Serious Conditions

All five of the Delaware charter schools have received renewal recommendations from the Charter School Accountability Committee (CSAC). The State Board of Education will decide if they agree at their December 14th meeting. Anyone wishing to submit formal public comment must do so by December 8th. Everything looks good for these charters except for one of them. Which one?

Newark Charter School Students Want Me To Take Down My Most Recent Article On Them… I’ll Do It, But With Conditions…

It’s been a long week for Newark Charter School.  Ever since the… I don’t know what to call it… let’s just go with the incident… it seems like some students and parents took offense to my article asking questions.  As I’ve said a gazillion times in comments, I went with what I had.  Kilroy put something up but took it down.  I read what he wrote, and if they were mad at me…  But I digress.  It seems some students want me to take down the article I put up Friday.  I’ll do it, but this isn’t just some freebie.  There has to be some quid pro quo…

This is what I want to see happen, and I will take down my article.

• The Newark Charter School Board of Directors agrees to have more than 16 minute open session board meetings.
• The same Board of Directors agrees to get rid of all enrollment preferences for the school.
• Newark Charter School begins filing, effective immediately, their IRS 990 tax filing and agrees to do so every year.
• Newark Charter School openly and publicly announces their support for Meredith Chapman as the 8th Senate District candidate.
• Newark Charter School’s board votes in the positive to switch from having the Delaware Dept. of Education as their authorizer to the Christina School District.
• Newark Charter School’s teachers will be able to organize and vote as a collective body to join the Delaware State Education Association.
• All Newark Charter School students shall have what is known as a “week of exchange”.  The NCS students shall spend a week at Christina schools while Christina students (only 2,000) of them shall be able to go to Newark Charter School for  a week.
• Newark Charter School shall stand with the Christina School District in improving all the schools in their district and begin a restoration process so NCS and Christina School District students can heal the wounds caused by over ten years of conflict between the two entities.  As well, the two will enter a practice of sharing resources and best practices so all children between the two can thrive as much as humanly possible.

and…

• Greg Meece has to go to the next Christina Board of Education meeting after the board votes on all the above and do the safety dance.  What is that?  He has to sing Safety Dance verbatim AND dance based on the video from Men Without Hats from 1983 as his public comment.  This is not an attempt to mock Greg Meece.  It is a situation that many would want to see and would go a long way towards burying the hatchet and entering a period of peace between the two.  It’s not like this hasn’t happened before.  I saw a Principal from my local school district get on roller skates and dress up as a woman during a pep rally.  So it can be done.  It might soften Meece up a bit as well.

If all those things happen, I will take down the article.  Use your voice NCS students.  If you can make it happen, I will honor your request.  As a gesture of good faith on my part, I will change the title of the article from Friday night.  Deal?