Students and staff at Delcastle Technical High School in the New Castle County Vo-Tech School District have been sitting in classrooms with unbearable heat for over a week. But the district is refusing to fix the real problem.
Howard High School of Technology
Verdict In On Amy Joyner-Francis Murder: Carr and Snow Guilty, Wright Not Guilty
Amy Joyner-FrancisAlmost a year since Amy Joyner-Francis was viciously beaten in the Howard High School of Technology bathroom and died as a result of those injuries, the verdict was delivered this morning against her assaulters. Trinity Carr was found guilty of both third-degree criminally negligent homicide and criminal conspiracy. Zion Snow also got the third-degree criminal conspiracy verdict. Chakeira Wright was found not guilty because of a lack of substantial evidence suggesting she was involved in the conspiracy to attack Joyner-Francis. It was also revealed she attempted to pull Carr off Amy during the assault.
Delaware Family Court Judge Robert Coonin read the verdict this morning. I can’t say I like this verdict. I never liked the official “cause of death” and found it to serve the girls who killed Amy more than the cause of justice. None of this will bring Amy back.
The final decision can be read below:
Delaware Competency-Based Education, Part 1: Rodel, DOE & Achieve Inc. Team-Up
Competency-Based EducationPersonalized Learning, as a concept, has been around since the 1960’s. In its original form, it was an effort to personalize learning between a teacher and a student. Students don’t always learn at the same pace. The term has been bastardized by corporate education reformers over the past five years. Their idea is to launch a technology boom in the classroom where investors and ed-tech companies will get tons of money. To do this, they had to use education “think-tanks” and foundations to sway the conversation towards this lucrative gold-mine. No one has been a bigger supporter of personalized learning in Delaware than the Rodel Foundation. They began talking about this new and exciting education reform movement as early as November, 2011. A company called Digital Learning Now! released their 2011 report card on different states ability to transform into a digital learning environment and Delaware scored poorly on their report. According to this Rodel article on the report written by Brett Turner (the link to the report card doesn’t exist anymore), Turner wrote:
…the initial results are not promising, demonstrating that we have significant work ahead of us before the necessary policies are in place to ensure our students benefit from high-quality next generation learning opportunities.
Digital Learning Now! was an initiative of the Foundation for Excellence in Education. Other digital “experts” the company thanks in their 2012 report include the Alliance for Excellent Education, the Data Quality Campaign, iNACOL, SETDA, Chiefs for Change, Getting Smart, and the Innosight Institute. The Foundation for Excellence in Education was founded by Jeb Bush in 2008, just as Common Core was in its formation stages. In the Rodel article, Turner talks about how Delaware needs to adapt to this environment so our students can succeed.
Over the next two and a half years, as Race to the Top became more of a nightmare than a promise of better education, Rodel began to take steps to have Delaware become a part of this next big thing. They formed the Rodel Teacher Council to recruit well-intentioned teachers to join their personalized learning dream team. I don’t see these teachers as evil but rather teachers who are easily manipulated and coerced into being connected with the “next big thing”. I see them as unwitting pawns of Rodel.
Rodel didn’t write much about personalized learning too much during this time, but they did release a Personalized Learning 101 flyer in 2013. At the same time, four Delaware districts formed BRINC: Brandywine, Indian River, New Castle County Vo-Tech, and Colonial. Using funds from Race To the Top and a Delaware DOE “innovation grant”, the districts used Schoology and Modern Teacher to usher Delaware into the digital learning age. Rodel’s blog posts about personalized learning didn’t touch on the concept again until February, 2014 when a Rodel employee by the name of Matthew Korobkin began writing posts about digital learning. More followed by other Rodel employees in the coming months. At this time, Dr. Paul Herdman of Rodel was palling around with an ed-tech company called 2Revolutions and went around Delaware talking to groups about the glory of personalized learning.
In the beginning of June in 2014, Rachel Chan with the Rodel Foundation attended a seminar in Washington D.C. on personalized learning sponsored by iNACOL. She wrote about this extensively on the Rodel website.
Later that month, the United States Department of Education released their state reports on special education in America. Delaware received a rating of “needs intervention”, prompting Governor Jack Markell to set aside funding in the state budget for a special education “Strategic Plan”. What no one knew until recently was this plan consisted of hiring Korobkin away from Rodel and into Secretary of Education Mark Murphy’s office to put this plan together.
Later in the summer of 2014, the Delaware Department of Education, with the Rodel Foundation of Delaware, banded together to form a clandestine group of “stakeholders” to look at competency-based education in a personalized learning environment in Delaware. The biggest hurdle in getting this going in Delaware was the barriers in the state code. Their were many players in this non-public group, including members of the Rodel Teacher Council who were also working on a “Personalized Learning Blueprint” at the same time. This group shaped the future of education in Delaware. But they used people to do so, including some of the members of this group.
The timing for this group couldn’t have come at a better time. There were many distractions happening that allowed them to fly under the radar with no one the wiser. Invitations were sent out to select participants from Theresa Bennett at the Delaware DOE. She was an Education Specialist for English/Language Arts in the Curriculum, Instruction and Professional Development area of the DOE. She was the person who scheduled all the meetings. An introductory webinar, sponsored by Achieve Inc., was held on August 14th, 2014.
After an explanation of competency-based education and personalized learning from some folks at Achieve Inc., they opened the webinar up for questions. At the 30:07 mark on the video, Appoquinimink Superintendent Matt Burrows explained his district already began the process for personalized learning. He mentioned several hurdles, especially the teachers’ union. Next came Judi Coffield, the former Head of School at Early College High School, a charter school run through Delaware State University. Coffield asked how Carniege units and high school grades would come into play with this. Bennett explained what role the DOE played in this and how she and Rachel Chan from the Rodel Foundation were going to run the group. Bennett went on to explain that select allies were invited to participate in this group. She also talked about a meeting with Achieve Inc. in Washington D.C. in May of 2014 to pave a path forward.
Bennett did a roll call of who was participating in the webinar. Jose Aviles, the director of admissions at the University of Delaware, was not on the call. Bennett explains how Aviles accompanied her to the Achieve Inc. meeting. “Is there a representative from Delaware PTA on the call?” No response. “Is Donna Johnson on the call?” Silence. “Kim Joyce from Del-Tech?” Nothing. “Pat Michle from Developmental Disabilities Council?” Empty air. She added Laurie Rowe and Stanley Spoor with Howard High School of Technology would be joining them. Susan Haberstroh with the Delaware DOE joined later in the Webinar.
Rodel and Markell knew they needed to stage a distraction to further this personalized learning agenda away from prying eyes while at the same time steering the conversation towards their end goals by using the distraction. They knew one of these distractions would automatically happen based on federal mandates from the US DOE, but the other would need careful planning and coördination. The first drove the need for the second.
A few weeks later, Governor Markell and then Secretary of Education Mark Murphy announced the six priority schools in Wilmington. The DOE picked the six “lowest-performing” schools in Wilmington, DE and announced the two school districts involved, Red Clay and Christina, would have to sign a “memorandum of understanding” and submit to the demands of the Delaware DOE. This put the entire city into an educational tailspin. Teachers in the affected schools felt outrage at the Governor and the DOE. Parents didn’t know what this meant. Politicians scrambled to make sense of it all as primaries and general elections faced them while constituents furiously called them. Teachers in Delaware were still reeling from the upcoming Smarter Balanced Assessment and the scores tied into their evaluations. Meanwhile, the secret meetings of the Delaware Department of Education Competency-Based Learning Guiding Coalition began without any public notice as an email went out from Bennett…
Thank you for your interest in the Competency-Based Learning Guiding Coalition. If you were unable to attend the informational webinar, please use this link to access the recording: http://www.achieve.org/DelawareCBLwebinar
The Guiding Coalition will be charged with laying the foundation for competency-based learning in Delaware. This will include creating a working definition of competency-based learning and what it could look like in Delaware, understanding current barriers to implementing CBL in Delaware, and establishing support for CBL initiatives to take root in the state. Once we have a common understanding of CBL, we will surface key ideas and develop recommended strategies for helping CBL take shape in the state.
The time commitment for the Advisory Group of the Guiding Coalition will be attending approximately two or three 2-hour meetings during the coming school year, with 30-60 minutes of pre-work for each meeting. There will also be opportunities to engage further through optional readings, school visits, webinars, and other convenings if your schedule/level of interest allows.
We are excited to share that an expert facilitator will be guiding each of our meetings; we would like to collect information to inform our meeting agendas. Please complete the following survey by September 10th: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DECompetency-BasedLearning.
Please complete a Doodle to help us best schedule the meetings for this group. We hope to begin late September/early October, with meetings held in Dover. Responses to the Doodle poll will help us find the best day/time for the first meeting. Please use this link: http://doodle.com/mts6ncf74v77mnf
Best,
Theresa
Theresa Bennett
Education Associate, ELA
Curriculum, Instruction, and Professional Development
Delaware Department of Education
401 Federal Street, Suite #2
Dover, DE 19901-3639
Coming up in Part 2: Delaware gets Marzanoed
Judge Sends A Dangerous Message In Carr Ruling For Amy’s Murder & The District’s Role In The Events
Amy Joyner-Francis, Trinity CarrWhile a judge’s ruling in how Amy Joyner-Francis’ murderer will be tried sparks controversy, the role the New Castle County Vo-Tech School District may have played has been silent and ignored.
According to The News Journal last Friday, Delaware Family Court Judge Robert Coonin made a ruling in how Trinity Carr will be tried in the murder of Amy Joyner-Francis, the high school student who died after an assault at Howard High School of Technology. Carr will be tried as a juvenile, not an adult. In most likelihood, the maximum sentence Carr would receive, if found guilty, would be “community supervision and treatment until age 19” as per the News Journal article written by Jessica Massulli Reyes.
Judge Coonin also ruled Amy’s fingernails were more likely ripped out trying to fend the attack as the video showed her grabbing Carr as her murderer was being pulled away from her. Coonin said there was insufficient evidence to suggest Carr lacked remorse because she did not know she had killed Amy after the fight.
None of this will likely give Amy’s family any feeling of justice. I am very uncomfortable with Carr essentially walking the streets. Her actions, and I don’t care what anyone says about a pre-existing condition that is suspect at best, led to the death of a sweet teenager. Carr’s Sunday School activity doesn’t erase her actions that day. No, I don’t think Carr should get the death penalty, but this sends a bad message to the youth of Delaware. A very dangerous and bad message.
The heart of the ruling deals with Carr’s age. She is sixteen years old. Technically, she is a minor. The Delaware Attorney General’s Office had extreme issues with the planning that went on before the assault on Amy. The length of the assault, the viciousness of it, and the physical results of the attack were foremost in their mind in issuing charges. Revealed at Carr’s first hearing on the matter was the unrevealed pulling out of Amy’s fingernails. Coonin ruled they were a result of Amy trying to protect herself based on video footage. While this could be true, it also points out a desperation on Amy’s part to save herself. Which swings back around to the viciousness of the attack.
We have heard the tales of “bloodlust” in people. Where they go beyond the point of reason and brutal savagery takes over. I have to believe that most people make a conscious choice to cross that line in their mind. What Carr did is not a normal choice unless she made certain decisions during the timeline of events. This was planned in advance, the day before. But there are situations where she may not have been able to make that final choice where rage took over. Coonin’s ruling gives teenagers a very false idea that they could get away with something like this. While it is my fervent hope it would not, the minds of teenagers are very different than those of an adult. I highly doubt this would come out even if it were the case, but what if Carr has a disability? What if she was on medication that had an adverse affect on the neurology of her brain? I have no idea if this is the case or not, I am merely questioning a possibility. While this would not justify her final actions in my mind because of the premeditation behind it, this could potentially lead to important questions that need to be addressed.
How aware was the school of the feud between Carr and Amy? Should they have been aware? As part of our bullying laws in Delaware, social media is addressed in those laws. But how much monitoring of that social media takes place? No one can see everything at once. That would be impossible. But one thing I haven’t ever heard is the possibility of having a school narc to monitor things like this, especially in schools where there are higher incidents of fights and inappropriate touching. Someone who could keep abreast of things like this. Hearing the buzz so to speak and acting on it. There have been narc’s for drugs in schools. Why not bullying or threats that result in vicious fights or, as an extreme, a student’s death.
What is the school’s role in this tragedy? I’ve reported before that many teachers at Howard High School of Technology were involved in professional development that morning. While not completely verified, the role of hall monitors has been very spotty at this school according to several sources wishing to remain anonymous. Yes, testimony has come out that a teacher did get to the bathroom and heard Amy’s final words. But how much time elapsed between the point when a bunch of students were running into a bathroom, Carr confronted Amy, pulled her by the hair into a bathroom stall, Amy resisted, and Carr was able to punch and kick Amy over twenty times? This is something the school would know. But they aren’t talking. Some of that could be because this is a criminal investigation and they simply can’t talk about it. But I have to believe that if teachers were present, and not in professional development at 8 or 8:30 in the morning, this tragedy could have been averted. I don’t blame the teachers for this, I blame the administration. While the true fault lies with Carr, the school’s actions, while intentional or not, did lead to Amy’s death. And this is the thing no one else is talking about publicly. If this were outside of school, this wouldn’t even be an issue. But this happened inside a school building, filled with adults.
While I tend to doubt the New Castle County Vo-Tech School District would ever publicly address this aspect to Amy’s death, I sincerely hope this evolves into discussions with their board and district staff. It may have already happened. There is a public task force on school safety happening in Delaware. I hope changes occur that would allow for something like this to never happen again, not only in their schools, but all Delaware schools. We owe it to Amy, and all those who have been victim to any kind of vicious assault or murder, to try. If anything like this could be in any way prevented by the local school authority, we need to look at all scheduling aspects, how much security we may or may not need in our schools, and some type of apparatus to watch student’s actions to see if a crisis could happen. This is something our schools should have always been doing. It should not take the death of Amy to finally make our students the safest they can possibly be.
The School Safety Committee is meeting tonight at the Friends of Woodlawn Library, 2020 W. 9th St., in Wilmington, Delaware, at 6pm. While I am unable to make it, and I know this is late notice, but I would try to attend if you can. Don’t be afraid to give public comment. Someone’s life could very well depend on it.
Hearing Gives Details About The Amy Joyner-Francis Murder With Victim’s Last Words
Amy Joyner-FrancisThey jumped me. They snuck me. -the last words from Amy Joyner-Francis
Yesterday, a Family Court hearing in Delaware convened to decide whether or not Trinity Carr should be tried as an adult in the murder of Amy-Joyner Francis. Disturbing evidence came out during the hearing solidifying the theory that Carr, Zion Snow, and Chakeira Wright planned the attack for 20 hours before the fight.
The News Journal gave a very gruesome detailing of the outcome of the paragraph in their lead which appeared in print today:
A fatal attack in which Howard High School of Technology sophomore Amy Inita Joyner-Francis was punched in the head two dozen times and had her fingernails ripped out started because of a group text message, a Wilmington police detective said in court Monday.
The State News did not mention the fingernails being ripped out in their lead, but did give more weight to the blows against Amy…
A cellphone video of a high school restroom fight that left a 16-year-old Delaware girl dead shows the victim on the ground, struggling to fight back and escape as she is repeatedly hit and kicked in the head while her assailant holds on to her hair.
If I had to guess, the part about the fingernails played a huge role in the decision of prosecutors to try Carr as an adult. This was a very vicious and brutal attack. For someone to drag a teenager by the hair, punch and kick her in the head over twenty times, and tear out her fingernails… that takes a viciousness and callousness with an intent to seriously harm or kill someone. But what astonished me even more was the fact that a math teacher, who found Amy in the bathroom and heard her last words, had to run to get a nurse. Where were all the students who witnessed a classmate getting seriously hurt to the eventual point of death? Why did none of them, upon witnessing this scene, run to grab a nurse?
Details emerged, according to The News Journal article, that Carr showed no remorse upon learning of Amy’s death…
Deputy Attorney General Theresa Sedevic, however, said that even after Carr learned of her death at the Wilmington police station hours later, Carr blamed Joyner-Francis for the attack and was upset only that the incident would mess up her chances of getting a nursing degree.
The murder occurred inside a Delaware school, Howard High School of Technology. A source within the district, who wished to remain anonymous, told me the district pretends like the murder never happened. No one talks about it. This source felt like the New Castle County Vo-Tech district moved on and forgot about what happened.
I have never bought this bad theory that an unknown heart condition was the cause of her death. Amy died because someone killed her. Plain and simple. Even though the articles talked about how Carr has received counseling and is making progress, it doesn’t erase what she did. She planned to hurt Amy. She killed Amy. She needs to be tried as an adult and given an appropriate sentencing for an adult if found guilty. Why is Carr allowed to travel out of state when she has been accused of murder? Why is she allowed to teach Sunday School to kids at a church in Philadelphia? But more importantly, why is she under homebound instruction which is paid for by the school district? Does this mean Carr was not expelled from the school district after murdering a classmate in a bathroom? What kind of message does that send to Amy’s parents when not even the school district could bring even an iota of justice to their daughter’s murder? Students have been expelled from Delaware schools for much less. None of this makes sense.
None of this will bring Amy back to her family who misses their daughter every single day. There is no such thing as justice when you lose a loved one like this. Nothing will bring their daughter back.
The Judge in the case is expected to render a decision on how Carr will be tried by the end of next week according to The State News article.
Vaya Con Dios Vo-Tech Vicki?
Newcastle County Vo-Tech, Vicki GehrtAt last month’s New Castle County V0-Tech’s Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Vicki Gehrt wanted to get the ball rolling early on her contract renewal. Her contract isn’t up for another six months, but apparently she felt the need to bring it up now. The board wasn’t too keen on that. Details are scarce, but it wound up with the non-elected board going in and out of executive session throughout the night. As Gehrt and friends stayed in one room with Gehrt visibly upset. Scuttlebutt has it that the board is not too enamored with Gehrt, especially after the Amy Joyner-Francis death at Howard High School of Technology as well as other issues.
Ultimately, the board decided to table any talk of Gehrt’s Superintendent renewal until it is actually up for renewal. But they do have a board meeting tomorrow night. Will Vo-Tech Vicki bring it up again? Will there be more drama with unannounced adventures in executive session? And will the board meeting be heard for all to hear? Last month, the board was prepping for the House Bill 61 all school boards must record bill which goes into effect in a couple of months. But no recording was put up on the website. This is definitely a to be continued story…
Two Truths And A Lie
Two Truths & A LieThis is the beginning of what I hope will be an ongoing feature of this blog. Below will be several groups of statements and facts. Two will be true and one will be a lie. It will be your job to guess or determine which is fact and which is fiction! Comment away!
#1
*EastSide Charter School and Family Foundations Academy are blaming their Smarter Balanced scores on the fact their kids are not as computer literate as their peers in other schools
*Sussex Academy won’t be able to finish their pool because of mercury in the ground.
*Freire Charter School signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Wilmington Police Department
#2
*Brandywine Superintendent Dr. Mark Holodick was so happy their referendum passed he was seen doing cartwheels the next day.
*Academia Antonia Alonso wants no help from the Charter School Office at the Delaware DOE with their upcoming move to property at Odyssey Charter School.
*Howard High School of Technology suspended students who were in the bathroom the day of Amy’s death and kept suspending them for weeks on end without any form of due process.
#3
*Charter School of Wilmington held a legislative breakfast.
*Charter School of Wilmington wants an audit inspection to be released that has been on hold since March.
*Charter School of Wilmington will be allowing 20% of all students with disabilities who applied this year to be admitted to the school in August.
#4
*Early College High School parents are not happy about the school’s grading system since the school’s scores didn’t match up with Delaware State University’s grading system
*Penny Schwinn is coming back to the Delaware DOE.
*Dr. Lamont Browne mentioned my blog post about his resignation at a Family Foundations Academy board meeting.
#5
*Family Foundations Academy held pep rallies prior to the school’s testing window for the upcoming Smarter Balanced Assessment to pump up kids.
*A Delaware State Representative recently had a Facebook post titled “State Representative Looking For Beaver”.
*The same State Representative found some beaver and had a barbecue.
The Delaware Illuminati, Part 1: Jeb Bush Inspires Rodel
Delaware IlluminatiPersonalized Learning, as a concept, has been around since the 1960’s. It is an effort to personalize learning so a student doesn’t always learn at the same pace as other students. The term has been bastardized by corporate education reformers over the past five years. Their idea is to launch a technology boom in the classroom where investors and ed-tech companies will get tons of money. To do this, they had to use education “think-tanks” and foundations to sway the conversation towards this lucrative gold-mine. No one has been a bigger supporter of personalized learning in Delaware than the Rodel Foundation. They began talking about this new and exciting education reform movement as early as November, 2011. A company called Digital Learning Now! released their 2011 report card on different states ability to transform into a digital learning environment and Delaware scored poorly on their report. According to this Rodel article on the report written by Brett Turner (the link to the report card doesn’t exist anymore), Turner wrote:
…the initial results are not promising, demonstrating that we have significant work ahead of us before the necessary policies are in place to ensure our students benefit from high-quality next generation learning opportunities.
Digital Learning Now! was an initiative of the Foundation for Excellence in Education. Other digital “experts” the company thanks in their 2012 report include the Alliance for Excellent Education, the Data Quality Campaign, iNACOL, SETDA, Chiefs for Change, Getting Smart, and the Innosight Institute. The Foundation for Excellence in Education was founded by Jeb Bush in 2008, just as Common Core was in its formation stages. In the Rodel article, Turner talks about how Delaware needs to adapt to this environment so our students can succeed.
Over the next two and a half years, as Race to the Top became more of a nightmare than a promise of better education, Rodel began to take steps to have Delaware become a part of this next big thing. They formed the Rodel Teacher Council to recruit well-intentioned teachers to join their personalized learning team. I don’t see these teachers as evil. I see them as unwitting pawns of Rodel. Rodel didn’t write much about personalized learning too much during this time, but they did release a Personalized Learning 101 flyer in 2013. At the same time, four Delaware districts formed BRINC: Brandywine, Indian River, New Castle County Vo-Tech, and Colonial. Using funds from Race To the Top and a Delaware DOE “innovation grant”, the districts used Schoology and Modern Teacher to usher Delaware into the digital learning age. Rodel’s blog posts about personalized learning didn’t touch on the concept again until February, 2014 when a Rodel employee by the name of Matthew Korobkin began writing posts about digital learning. More followed by other Rodel employees in the coming months. At this time, Dr. Paul Herdman of Rodel was palling around with an ed-tech company called 2Revolutions and went around Delaware talking to groups about the glory of personalized learning.
In the beginning of June in 2014, Rachel Chan with the Rodel Foundation attended a seminar in Washington D.C. on personalized learning sponsored by iNACOL. She wrote about this extensively on the Rodel website.
Later that month, the United States Department of Education released their state reports on special education in America. Delaware received a rating of “needs intervention”, prompting Governor Jack Markell to set aside funding in the state budget for a special education “Strategic Plan”. What no one knew until recently was this plan consisted of hiring Korobkin away from Rodel and into Secretary of Education Mark Murphy’s office to put this plan together.
Later in the summer of 2014, the Delaware Department of Education, with the Rodel Foundation of Delaware, banded together to form a clandestine group of “stakeholders” to look at competency-based education in a personalized learning environment in Delaware. The biggest hurdle in getting this going in Delaware was the barriers in the state code. Their were many players in this non-public group, including members of the Rodel Teacher Council who were also working on a “Personalized Learning Blueprint” at the same time. This group shaped the future of education in Delaware. But they used people to do so, including some of the members of this group.
The timing for this group couldn’t have come at a better time. There were many distractions happening that allowed them to fly under the radar with no one the wiser. Invitations were sent out to select participants from Theresa Bennett at the Delaware DOE. She was an Education Specialist for English/Language Arts in the Curriculum, Instruction and Professional Development area of the DOE. She was the person who scheduled all the meetings. An introductory webinar, sponsored by Achieve Inc., was held on August 14th, 2014.
After an explanation of competency-based education and personalized learning from some folks at Achieve Inc., they opened the webinar up for questions. At the 30:07 mark on the video, Appoquinimink Superintendent Matt Burrows explained his district already began the process for personalized learning. He mentioned several hurdles, especially the teachers’ union. Next came Judi Coffield, the former Head of School at Early College High School, a charter school run through Delaware State University. Coffield asked how Carniege units and high school grades would come into play with this. Bennett explained what role the DOE played in this and how she and Rachel Chan from the Rodel Foundation were going to run the group. Bennett went on to explain that select allies were invited to participate in this group. She also talked about a meeting with Achieve Inc. in Washington D.C. in May of 2014 to pave a path forward.
Bennett did a roll call of who was participating in the webinar. Jose Aviles, the director of admissions at the University of Delaware, was not on the call. Bennett explains how Aviles accompanied her to the Achieve Inc. meeting. “Is there a representative from Delaware PTA on the call?” No response. “Is Donna Johnson on the call?” Silence. “Kim Joyce from Del-Tech?” Nothing. “Pat Michle from Developmental Disabilities Council?” Empty air. She added Laurie Rowe and Stanley Spoor with Howard High School of Technology would be joining them. Susan Haberstroh with the Delaware DOE joined later in the Webinar.
Rodel and Markell knew they needed to stage a distraction to further this personalized learning agenda away from prying eyes while at the same time steering the conversation towards their end goals by using the distraction. They knew one of these distractions would automatically happen based on federal mandates from the US DOE, but the other would need careful planning and coordination. The first drove the need for the second.
A few weeks later, Governor Markell and then Secretary of Education Mark Murphy announced the six priority schools in Wilmington. The DOE picked the six “lowest-performing” schools in Wilmington, DE and announced the two school districts involved, Red Clay and Christina, would have to sign a “memorandum of understanding” and submit to the demands of the Delaware DOE. This put the entire city into an educational tailspin. Teachers in the affected schools felt outrage at the Governor and the DOE. Parents didn’t know what this meant. Politicians scrambled to make sense of it all as primaries and general elections faced them while constituents furiously called them. Teachers in Delaware were still reeling from the upcoming Smarter Balanced Assessment and the scores tied into their evaluations. Meanwhile, the secret meetings of the Delaware Department of Education Competency-Based Learning Guiding Coalition began without any public notice as an email went out from Bennett…
Thank you for your interest in the Competency-Based Learning Guiding Coalition. If you were unable to attend the informational webinar, please use this link to access the recording: http://www.achieve.org/DelawareCBLwebinar
The Guiding Coalition will be charged with laying the foundation for competency-based learning in Delaware. This will include creating a working definition of competency-based learning and what it could look like in Delaware, understanding current barriers to implementing CBL in Delaware, and establishing support for CBL initiatives to take root in the state. Once we have a common understanding of CBL, we will surface key ideas and develop recommended strategies for helping CBL take shape in the state.
The time commitment for the Advisory Group of the Guiding Coalition will be attending approximately two or three 2-hour meetings during the coming school year, with 30-60 minutes of pre-work for each meeting. There will also be opportunities to engage further through optional readings, school visits, webinars, and other convenings if your schedule/level of interest allows.
We are excited to share that an expert facilitator will be guiding each of our meetings; we would like to collect information to inform our meeting agendas. Please complete the following survey by September 10th: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DECompetency-BasedLearning.
Please complete a Doodle to help us best schedule the meetings for this group. We hope to begin late September/early October, with meetings held in Dover. Responses to the Doodle poll will help us find the best day/time for the first meeting. Please use this link: http://doodle.com/mts6ncf74v77mnf
Best,
Theresa
Theresa Bennett
Education Associate, ELA
Curriculum, Instruction, and Professional Development
Delaware Department of Education
401 Federal Street, Suite #2
Dover, DE 19901-3639
To be continued…in part 2…coming soon…
To read the prologue to this series, link to The Delaware Illuminati, Prologue
Howard High School of Technology Protecting Group of Students Who Jumped A Student At Freire Charter School
Howard High School of TechnologyA few weeks before the violent assault at Howard High School of Technology, a group of Howard students jumped and beat up a student at Freire Charter School, in the mid-town Brandywine section of Wilmington. How come we haven’t heard about this? Because even though the Wilmington Police Department wants to act, they can’t. Apparently there is a memorandum of understanding between Howard High School of Technology and the Wilmington Police Department. There is a video of the incident but Howard refuses to name the students from their school. And they don’t have to because of the agreement with Wilmington P.D.
I searched high and low for this agreement, and the only reference to it came from the New Castle County Vo-Tech District’s Student Handbook:
While I doubt this is the real Memorandum of Agreement with Wilmington Police Department, I am hard pressed to find any justification for Howard’s administration to withhold the names of their students that assaulted another school’s student off their premises.
So what exactly is going on with this school and why is the district downplaying everything? They say their school is safe, but the things coming out indicate otherwise. As well, Howard’s school psychologist resigned February 5th of this year according to their February board minutes:
While it is not known if Howard hired a new psychologist since they haven’t updated their board minutes since, Randolph is still listed on the Staff Directory of Howard’s website. The school has a Principal, three Assistant Principals, and three Guidance Counselors.
I have to know: What kind of world are we living in when the police can’t act because a school is protecting students? Something is seriously wrong with this school and I am afraid more students are going to get hurt. What happened to Amy Francis-Joyner was an unspeakable tragedy, but no one else is tackling the problems with the administration at this school. How many more students will be hurt or even die before this district wakes the hell up?
You would think their Board of Education would say something, but they have not issued any press releases or talked to anyone publicly about what happened and continues to happen at Howard. Like the Delaware State Board of Education, vocational district boards in Delaware are appointed by the Governor of Delaware. That’s right. They were appointed by Governor Markell. And our Delaware Secretary of Education… where does he come from? New Castle County Vo-Tech.
I saw a segment on Channel 6 ABC News from Wednesday about the charges filed against the three students involved in Amy’s murder. They interviewed a student who said he is not allowed to talk about it. Excuse me? I knew the district put a gag order on the teachers but now they are doing it with students. So the next time I see Superintendent Dr. Vicki Gehrt at Legislative Hall or some education meeting and she wants to give me one of her indignant looks, know that she is withholding vital information about the safety of one of her schools. You can look like the wounded party, but your school is out of control and you damn well know it. You can choose to ignore the situation and risk the safety of more students or you can actually do something about it. Or the board can replace her. Either way, students’ lives are far more important than the illusion this district is casting.
Just this past Monday, Howard Principal Stanley Spoor rather arrogantly told students and the press to not believe everything you hear and say on social media. Well Mr. Spoor, maybe when the school and the district starts owning up to what is REALLY going on there, then you can start preaching from your pedestal. Until then, please keep your students safe and make sure there is adequate coverage in your school to watch students.
My Thoughts On The Charges Against Amy’s Murderer And The Accomplices
Amy Joyner-Francis, Murder ChargesAs I’m sure most of America has heard, the Delaware Department of Justice filed charges against three teenagers involved in Amy Joyner-Francis’ murder two and a half weeks ago at Howard High School of Technology. There is absolutely no mention of Amy’s head being slammed into the bathroom sink even though some reports stated that at the onset. Only one girl, Trinity Carr, actually hit Amy. She has been charged with criminally-negligent homicide. The other two helped plan the assault up to twenty hours earlier. But the true shocker was that Amy had a pre-existing heart condition.
According to the News Journal article linked above:
Investigators determined that the fight was a planned confrontation in the girl’s bathroom, but only one girl – 16-year-old Trinity Carr – actually hit Amy that day, according to a statement by the DOJ. The fight was filmed, according to court documents, and shows Carr hitting Amy repeatedly in the head and torso area with “what what appears to be a closed fist.”
The video then shows Carr leave and Amy attempt to stand up from the floor, according to court documents. Amy then appears disoriented, court papers say, and collapses back to the floor. When paramedics found her, she was unresponsive and went into cardiac arrest shortly after.
Knowing what really happened won’t take away the pain and sadness surrounding all this. It won’t bring back Amy who apparently didn’t know this was coming. Just a sweet, innocent teenage girl going to school one day. The question is how many others knew about it. I am still upset no one else in that bathroom intervened. I’m assuming her heart condition was private as that has never been mentioned before. If the intent was there to do bodily harm to Amy, what did Carr think would happen? While they may not have planned actual murder, how is this “criminally negligent”? Our justice systems works in funny ways. Why did it take two and a half weeks when the police had the video the entire time to arrest Carr? At the very least, the evidence clearly shows an assault.
Trinity Carr, Zion Snow, and Chakeira Wright will have to live with what they did every single day for the rest of their life. Carr will most likely spend what should be some of the best years of her life in prison. Snow and Wright will probably be in juvenile detention while their classmates are going to the prom and graduating. But no amount of justice will ever make any of this alright. Amy will never have the opportunity for any of those things. I really hope this is a wake-up call for all of us in Delaware. We need to make sure this never happens again, and that includes the adults.
Tim Furlong with NBC Philadelphia gave a bit more detail about what happened after the fight:
After the fight, Joyner-Francis complained about head and chest pain. A school resource officer called 911 and Joyner-Francis lost consciousness before medics arrived. CPR was performed as she was flown to a nearby children’s hospital. She later died at the hospital.
Where was this school resource officer during the fight? I understand fights can happen fast, but where were any adults during this assault? That is the question no one is asking. I challenged the district about this a couple of weeks ago. It was important to clarify their board meeting change, but in regards to my other concerns, they completely ignored them. Last week I saw the Superintendent of the district for Howard High School, Dr. Gehrt. She knows who I am cause I’ve seen her at many meetings where I gave public comment. I saw her at the assessment inventory meeting at the Delaware DOE. Usually she gives me a smile. At this meeting, she could only scowl at me. I’ll take my lumps where I get them. But at least own up to… something.
Amy’s death affected me immensely, and I didn’t even know the poor girl. She is a memorial to what we need to fix in our schools. We can’t stop what happens outside of school, but we can make sure Amy’s death is a living testament to change. I haven’t heard one word about school climate from those in power. We have seen plenty in social media comments, but once again it is an empty echo chamber from the decision-makers in our state. Our legislators have been strangely quiet on the issue. The Delaware DOE, the State Board of Education, and Governor Markell have been eerily quiet about the situation. Perhaps things will start to happen now that the investigation is over and charges have been filed. All I know is something has to happen. We can’t have another Amy, or all the many living victims of bullying and assault in our schools. It has to stop.
Amy Joyner-Francis Case Handed To Delaware Department Of Justice
Amy Inita Joyner-FrancisThe Wilmington Police Department, according to the News Journal, gave all the information and evidence on the death of Amy Joyner-Francis to the Delaware Department of Justice yesterday.
The DOJ could not provide a timeline for how soon charges will be filed but Kanefsky said Thursday that it will be prompt.
While Wilmington P.D. Chief Bobby Cummings indicated three girls will be charged in the brutal murder of Amy Joyner-Francis at Howard High School of Technology on April 21st, the exact nature of the charges will be determined by the Delaware DOJ:
…state prosecutors are reviewing evidence submitted by Wilmington Police Department to decide what charges can be lodged.
Last Sunday, a viewing was held for Amy with a packed church. Delaware citizens, especially those in Wilmington, have been adamant that the guilty parties need to be charged so there can be justice for Amy and her family. No charges or prison time for the guilty will take away the pain and sadness that Amy’s family and friends are feeling. There is no replacement for a life. Please continue to pray for those who loved Amy and miss her dearly.
***UPDATED***Channel 6 ABC Action News Gives Information About Details In Amy Joyner-Francis Case
Amy Inita Joyner-FrancisAccording to Philadelphia’s Channel 6 ABC Action News, charges against three Howard High School of Technology students in Wilmington, DE could come as early as today in the death of Amy Joyner-Francis. While not specifying who gave the information, only giving a description of a law enforcement veteran, Channel 6 wrote:
A law enforcement veteran close to the investigation says Joyner-Francis was thrown to the floor during the altercation, and stabbed repeatedly with pencils. Then the source says one of girls slammed her head into a sink.
Only one will be charged with the actual murder:
Sources tell Action News one of the female students will be charged with the actual killing of Joyner-Francis. The other two will be charged as accomplices.
Earlier reports surrounding the use of knives in the assault appear to be false based on this information. Someone explained to me that if there are stab wounds they cannot administer CPR to a patient. Which made me wonder about the validity of that information once I heard that. Once the official information is released from the Wilmington Police Department, we will know what is real and what isn’t.
Updated, 5:41pm: Amy Cherry with WDEL announced earlier this afternoon a statement from Wilmington Police Dept. Chief Bobby Cummings. No charges will be filed this week, and despite the information Channel 6 ABC news gave last night, they reiterated there were NO weapons used in the murder. I’m not sure where a Philadelphia station is getting their information, but they may want to double-check that source!
Were Weapons Used In Amy Inita Joyner-Francis’ Death? Please Come Clean On This Wilmington P.D. & Howard High School of Technology
Amy Inita Joyner-Francis, Howard High School of TechnologyOver on Kilroy’s Delaware a commenter named M Ryder wrote a reply about who should have files charged against them in connection with Amy’s death at Howard High School of Technology. Many have felt the administration of the school should have better coverage of student hallways in the beginning of the school day. Since they didn’t, I questioned whether they should be charged with gross negligence. I have always maintained that the parties directly involved in Amy’s death are ultimately responsible for her death. M Ryder definitely agreed with that but added some facts that I haven’t seen involving this story:
So kevin, the school should be charged that two students planned to meet in the bathroom to fight over a boy? The school should be charged because the girl who was losing the fight had girlfriends carrying knives? The school should be charged for the girlfriends who then ganged up on the girl who they stabbed and then forced down striking her head on the way down? The school should be charged? Really???
If this really happened, why did the Wilmington Police Department state there were no weapons involved? I asked M Ryder how he/she came about knowing this information but I have yet to receive a response. If there were stab wounds, those would be seen right away by the police. Superintendent Dr. Gehrt empathized Howard was a safe school just hours after the assault. When are we going to get full details about what happened that day and why am I smelling a cover-up? I thought it was ridiculous when someone mentioned there was talk about installing metal detectors at the school but if there were knives used in this crime, it is completely understandable.
I have no idea who “M Ryder” is, but they are usually accurate with their information they post on Kilroy’s Delaware. I can’t verify if the information M Ryder posted is credible, but given everything that went down that day and the actions of those in authority afterwards, I would not be surprised. As if this tragedy wasn’t already horrifying, this new aspect, if true, takes us further down the path of evil that came out that day.
Public Information Officer For Howard High School Of Technology Clears The Air On Board Meeting & Town Halls
Amy, Howard High School of TechnologyI updated my last post yesterday with information from the New Castle County Vo-Tech District concerning the change of time and venue for their board meeting this month. During my communication with the district, I asked them if they just wanted me to make the change or post their information verbatim. I didn’t hear back from them until late last night but I already made the change earlier. This was their communication to me:
From: Demarest Kathy <kathy.demarest@nccvt.k12.de.us>
To: Kevin Ohlandt <kevino3670@yahoo.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 24, 2016 3:49 PM
Subject: Regarding your post to Exceptional Delaware
Hi, Kevin-
I am writing this email to you instead of using your blog as a forum.
On behalf of the NCC Vo-Tech school district, it is disappointing that you presumed that we decided to change the school board meeting time and location in order to prevent access to the public. Nothing could be further from the truth.
As you can imagine, or perhaps you cannot, the first two days were spent doing everything that could be done to support Amy’s family, to provide supports for our Howard students and staff, and to communicate with students, parents, and the greater community the details as we knew them, while this horrible tragedy was evolving.
We scheduled a Saturday morning conference call so we could schedule and plan Howard parent meetings as soon as possible. We knew we already had a regular monthly Board of Education meeting scheduled for Monday evening, and were already considering changing it so that Monday could be a parent meeting option.
We were informed late Friday by an elected city official that a Town Hall meeting for Howard parents and community had been scheduled for Monday night at Stubbs Elementary School. As we were unaware of that plan, and in order to accommodate that meeting, our Board of Education determined to move up their meeting Monday from 7 p.m. to 4 p.m., and to hold it at District Office.
We have scheduled to hold the Howard parent meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, both meetings beginning at 7 p.m., and both in the Howard auditorium. We had to schedule two meetings in order to accommodate as many parents who may wish to attend. Howard has a student body of over 900.
The Tuesday meeting is for parents of 10th and 11th grade students; Wednesday is for parents of students in grades 9 and 12.
It was certainly disheartening to see your post, when all are trying to make the best decisions possible during this unspeakable and evolving personal crisis for the Joyner-Francis family, and a school-wide crisis for the Howard community. Perhaps you should have asked before you presumed the worst.
Please keep Amy’s family and friends in your thoughts and prayers. This will be a most difficult week for all.
Kathy K. Demarest
Public Information Officer
NCC Vo-Tech School District
I responded with the following:
From: Kevin Ohlandt
Reply-To: Kevin Ohlandt
Date: Sunday, April 24, 2016 at 6:47 PM
To: Demarest Kathy
Subject: Re: Regarding your post to Exceptional Delaware
Kathy,
I do appreciate you reaching out to me. I apologize about not reaching out. I used to reach out, many times, and I am usually ignored. So I stopped doing so a while ago. I get information from a lot of people, and while you were disheartened with my article, that was the impression many folks had prior to my writing it. As well, many people, including staff in the district, were extremely upset that Dr. Gehrt referred to Howard as a safe school when an innocent girl was killed there. There was a whole other part to that article you didn’t address. I understand this is a very tough situation, but parents and community members are counting on all of you to change the environment there. The bottom line is Howard is not safe. It hasn’t been, and I know many of our schools aren’t either. Sadly, we learned what happens when things are sugar-coated and we hyper obsess over student outcomes.
I write what I do, not to be heartless, but to draw attention to what is really going on out there. I know that underneath the shiny veneer so many of our schools coat themselves with, that there are children suffering. I also know a lot of that suffering is due to events from outside our schools, but a lot of it does take place in schools. Let me be the first to tell you: I hate writing so much about our schools and DOE in Delaware. I truly do. There is no benefit to myself, and it takes a huge amount of time.
I will happily change the article with the information you provided to me. I can do so verbatim or just paraphrase. I will leave that up to you.
I know this is a horrifying time for the district, but as a parent myself, I would want to attend this board meeting if I were a Howard parent. Town Halls in this situation are absolutely necessary, but board meetings are too. I know many people don’t take advantage of them, but that is where things happen with our districts. I do apologize the way I wrote the article, and like I said, I am more than happy to change it.
Thank you,
Kevin Ohlandt
I received the following response late last night:
From: Demarest Kathy
To: Kevin Ohlandt
Sent: Sunday, April 24, 2016 10:27 PM
Subject: Re: Regarding your post to Exceptional Delaware
Hi Kevin,
Thank you for your apology and for the offer to post. I’d prefer you post my email in its entirety.
Regards,
Kathy
UPDATED WITH VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION!!! Parents Concerned About Murder At Howard High School Should Go To District Board Meeting Monday Night
Howard High School of TechnologyUpdated, 8:32am: I have just heard from a few sources that the district has changed their meeting to their district office at 4pm. And the meeting will be held in a conference room that holds a maximum of 15 people. Apparently there is a Town Hall at Stubbs Elementary School tomorrow night which is being led by Wilmington Councilman Darius Brown, which precipitated the time change for the board meeting. The district did reach out to advise me this is the reason for the board meeting change. Several folks were upset about this, and I did suggest to the district they might want to change the board meeting to another night when parents and members of the community are more easily able to attend. There is another Town Hall this week for parents to talk about the situation. I will update that information when I know when and where. One thing I would remind everyone to do is think of Amy and her family and friends. And please continue praying for all of them.
Howard High School of Technology belongs to the New Castle County Vocational-Technical School District. The district has a board meeting Monday night, 4/25, at St. George’s Technical High School in their Media Center at 7pm. Howard was the high school where Amy died last Thursday. I believe the district has a lot to answer for. While I don’t believe the district is directly responsible for what happened to Amy, there were circumstances that allowed the situation to happen in the first place.
Why are students allowed to enter the school at 7:15am in the morning to gather and do what they please. I’m hearing hall monitors are sparse, when they do come, and when they arrive on time. I’ve heard many who want to blame the teachers for what happened. Nope. They are in district mandated professional development during some of these mornings. To accommodate this, the district changed the start time for the first classes a couple days a week. Let’s make one thing clear right off the get-go: teachers hate professional development. I don’t care how many surveys the Delaware Dept. of Education dredges out. The abuse of Delaware teachers doesn’t begin and end with their evaluations.
Our school districts have become so enamored with the Delaware Way, that horrible situation where all tables must come to the table and compromise while the more powerful of the parties ends up getting their way (in most cases the state DOE/Rodel Foundation for education).
Could Amy’s death have been prevented? I would like to think it could have. One thing is crystal clear. The discipline and fighting figures we see are not honest. There may be a few out there, but I think a lot is going unreported. There are things our schools are trying to hide which is making problems worse, not better. In many of our schools, students hit teachers all the time. They curse and roam the halls in some schools. Some students are expelled or sent to alternative schools in the hopes they will become better students. But the class sizes in these schools now make it impossible for a teacher there to get anything done. There is also this absurd culture where students have no authoritative role models anymore. Some of them don’t get it at home or school. A school should not be the Band-Aid to cure what ails so many of our students. But this seems to be what our state and the corporate education reform companies want.
Don’t get me wrong: students should not encourage fighting, nor should they build a blockade so teachers or other adults can’t stop what is going on. The students involved should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. In my opinion, those who stood and watched while filming the tragedy should be held accountable as well. They are just as guilty. But the schools, districts and administrators who stand back and let these things happen time and time again need to realize how serious these things can get. A student died in one of our schools in Delaware. She was murdered. We can’t forget that and it would dishonor Amy’s life to think otherwise.
The parents of students at Howard High School of Technology have every right to voice their concerns. I strongly encourage all of them to attend the board meeting Monday night in Middletown. If they are unable to get there, other parents should offer a ride or perhaps the district should arrange busing for them so they can make their voices heard. This meeting could get very real and the district may be forced to hear things they would rather not hear. But I’m sure Amy’s parents heard something they never wanted to hear the day she died.
Governor Markell Gives $400,000 To 21 Delaware Schools On Common Core Tour
Common Core, Governor MarkellAs Delaware Governor Markell went on his “common core” tour today at W. Reilly Brown Elementary School in the Caesar Rodney School District, he announced $400,000 in competitive grants going to 21 Delaware schools. The goal of these grants are professional development for teachers to further implement Common Core to increase student outcomes. And God wept…
Why is Jack Markell, with nine months left in his reign as Governor, doing this Common Core tour? Which company is paying him for this? What disgusts me is the way the Governor and the DOE lure teachers in by making it look like it is for them. How much professional development do teachers need? Let’s not forget the two purposes of this tour: to thank teachers for implementing Common Core and to “debunk” the myths surrounding it. You may fool some of our teachers and administrators Jack, but this is corporate tomfoolerty at its best. Far too many Delaware parents know better and you may have fooled us once, but not twice. As the state looks for funding, our districts will take any money they can get regardless of the cost to students. I will ask again Governor Markell: where are the funds for basic special education for students in Kindergarten to 3rd grade? Answer the question Jack!
This is, in my opinion, a strong push towards the blended/personalized learning the Rodel Foundation has pushed on Delaware the past couple years. The press release doesn’t even mention this, but events from last night suggest otherwise. Last night at the Capital Board meeting, their board unanimously voted to apply to BRINC, the blended learning consortium that already includes the Brandywine, Indian River, New Castle County Vo-Tech, Colonial, Red Clay, Appoquinimink and Caesar Rodney School Districts. Despite my public comment about the very obvious data privacy loopholes in existing law.
While student identifiable information doesn’t go out, it all filters through the Delaware DOE who simply gives education “research” companies the student’s identification number. When that information comes back, the DOE has all that data attached to a student’s identification number. As well, Schoology uses a cloud system called IMS that would allow any aggregate information through the Schoology application to be shared with their members. The Capital board seemed a little too eager to get this passed. At one point, Superintendent Dr. Dan Shelton didn’t know how much it would cost the district and it took him over fifteen minutes to find the information. The board discussed how it would be good professional development for teachers without talking about what it means for students or their personal data. Their CFO, Sean Sokolowski, said it would be paid for through Federal Consolidated Grants. Are these the same grants Markell announced today or are they separate? I would assume they are separate, but I’ve found many grants tend to have strings attached to them, just like the federal waiver scheme the US DOE abused under Race To The Top. As we rush headfirst into this personalized learning/competency-based education/career pathway future for our students, those in the power to question things are going along to get along. I can’t understand, for the life of me, why teachers are jumping on this bandwagon. This will eventually cause their job functions, as instructors, to diminish in the future. To the point where they will become “facilitators” instead of “instructors”. Does anyone think it is a coincidence paraprofessional salaries will eventually start at the same point as a first-year teacher in Delaware? Don’t believe me? Check out Governor Markell’s proposed FY2017 budget. Go to page 202 on the pdf, section 286. While many feel, and rightfully so, that paras in our schools are underpaid, should they be paid the same as a first-year teacher? If they performed the same job function…
I have not been too impressed with Caesar Rodney Superintendent Kevin Fitzgerald in the past year. He seems to have been sucked into the DOE/Markell/Rodel whirlpool of corporate education reform. You can read more on his role in today’s announcement below.
Just today, the National Education Policy Center issued a damning report on the success of blended and personalized learning schools and pointed out they are less successful than schools who don’t use these services. So if it is all about proficiency and increasing standardized test scores and growth, why are we pushing, as a state, a system that just isn’t working? Could it have anything to do with the billions of dollars companies are making off this smoke and mirrors? And how many of these companies are incorporated out of Wilmington, DE? As per the IMS article I linked to above, they are incorporated out of Delaware.
It is my opinion the Governor’s time could have been better spent heading to Wilmington to do more than issue a statement on the tragic and pointless death of a student at Howard High School today. His visit to W. Reilly Brown was at 11am, well after this hit the media today. As a state tries to understand the absolute horror that went on in that school today, our Governor is off playing corporate lap-dog for his education buddies. I will never understand that man.
Here is the DOE press release on these “grants”:
21 schools win professional learning grants
The Season Of Myths 