I see this with charter schools quite a bit but postponing a regular board meeting for a school district? That is highly unusual! Today, the Christina School District postponed their regular January Board of Education meeting scheduled for tonight at Bayard Middle School. Is this a fluke or is there a specific reason the meeting was postponed?
Many Delaware charter schools failed a recent inspection on financial, organizational, and governance transparency. No charter school received a perfect score on this inspection. The ones who failed did so miserably.
Delaware law is very clear about what charter schools are required to do. Other public meeting laws in Delaware, which have been supported through legal opinions on FOIA complaints, are very clear as well. Last night, I went through every single charter school website to look for eight things: Their monthly financial information was up to date (July 2016), they posted their last annual audit (2015), they posted their IRS 990 Tax Form (as a non-profit), they posted their board agenda for their most recent meeting, they posted their board minutes (based on when they had their last meeting and were able to approve those minutes), they put an agenda up for their Citizens Budget Oversight Committee, they put up the minutes for their CBOC meetings, and a Delaware Department of Education representative was present at those CBOC meetings.
Most of the Delaware charter schools failed this inspection. One of them (considered to be a very successful charter school) didn’t pass any category. Some charter schools feel as though they don’t have to meet during the summer and prepare for the new school year. There was no charter school that received a perfect score. I understand things slow down in the summer, but not meeting is inexcusable in my book. Some charters need to do a lot of work on their websites. Hunting and pecking to find information is not in the vein of transparency.
The most disturbing aspect is the apparent lack of oversight coming from the Delaware Department of Education. More specifically, the Charter School Office. They may monitor the charters, and I’m glad a DOE representative is attending most of their CBOC meetings, but where is the public transparency of that monitoring? Jennifer Nagourney worked very hard to get this aspect turned around with charters. I would hate to see her hard work disappear.
The way CBOC laws are written, quarterly meetings are okay. But some charters meet monthly. I’m not going to dink you if you don’t meet every single month. I think districts and charters should have monthly CBOC meetings. A quick note about IRS 990 tax filings: these can vary on the tax year. If a school had their 2014 return on there, I counted them as being in compliance. If it was older or they didn’t have any tax filings on their website, they got hit. This is required by law. Only one charter school in Delaware is not required to file a 990: Newark Charter School. I don’t agree with it.
*This article has been updated to include Great Oaks Wilmington which was inadvertently left out of the original article.
Academia Antonia Alonso
Financials: June 2016
Yearly Audit: FY2015
990: FY2012
Board Agenda: 7/27/16
Board Minutes: June 2016
CBOC Agenda: June 2016
CBOC Minutes: June 2016
DOE Rep: Yes
Academy of Dover
Financials: June 2016
Yearly Audit: FY2015
990: FY2014
Board Agenda: 8/25/16
Board Minutes: June 2016
CBOC Agenda: 8/25/16
CBOC Minutes: June 2016
DOE Rep: Yes
Campus Community School
Financials: June 2016
Yearly Audit: FY2015
990: None (searched, said “access denied”)
Board Agenda: 8/30/16
Board Minutes: June 2016
CBOC Agenda: 8/30/2016
CBOC Minutes: 5/5/2016
DOE Rep: Yes
Charter School of Wilmington
Financials: July 2016
Yearly Audit: FY2015
990: None
Board Agenda: 8/16/16
Board Minutes: June 2016 (no meeting in July)
CBOC Agenda: 5/18/16
CBOC Minutes: 5/18/16
DOE Rep: Yes
Delaware Academy of Public Safety & Security
Financials: June 2016
Yearly Audit: FY2015
990: None
Board Agenda: none (has standard agenda)
Board Minutes: June 2016 (no meetings in July or August)
CBOC Agenda: May 2016
CBOC Minutes: April 2016
DOE Rep: Yes
Delaware Design-Lab High School
Financials: May 2016
Yearly Audit: n/a
990: n/a
Board Agenda: 8/22/16
Board Minutes: 5/26/16
CBOC Agenda: None
CBOC Meeting: 4/25/16
DOE Rep: Yes
Delaware Military Academy
Financials: 6/30/16
Yearly Audit: FY2015
990: None (no search button on website)
Board Agenda: 6/27/16
Board Minutes: 5/23/16 (states no meetings in July or August)
CBOC Agenda: None (has standing agenda)
CBOC Minutes: June 2016
DOE Rep: No
Early College High School
Financials: June 2016
Yearly Audit: FY2015
990: FY2014
Board Agenda: 8/25/16
Board Minutes: 4/28/16
CBOC Agenda: 7/21/16
CBOC Minutes: 4/28/16 (states no quorum at May & June Mtgs)
DOE Rep: Yes
EastSide Charter School
Financials: June 2016
Yearly Audit: FY2015
990: None
Board Agenda: 8/17/16
Board Minutes: 6/16/16
CBOC Agenda: 7/26/16
CBOC Minutes: 7/26/16
DOE Rep: Yes
Family Foundations Academy
Financials: June 2016
Yearly Audit: FY2015
990: FY2012
Board Agenda: 7/27/16
Board Minutes: 6/16/16
CBOC Agenda: 7/25/16
CBOC Minutes: 4/26/16
DOE Rep: Yes
First State Military Academy
Financials: June 2016
Yearly Audit: n/a
990: n/a
Board Agenda: 8/23/16
Board Minutes: 7/26/16
CBOC Agenda: 6/24/16
CBOC Minutes: 6/24/16
DOE Rep: Yes
First State Montessori Academy
Financials: 2/29/16
Yearly Audit: None
990: None
Board Agenda: 9/1/16
Board Minutes: 5/26/16
CBOC Agenda: None (Standard Agenda)
CBOC Minutes: 5/19/16
DOE Rep: Yes
Freire Charter School of Wilmington
Financials: June 2016
Yearly Audit: n/a
990: n/a
Board Agenda: 8/17/16
Board Minutes: 6/16/16
CBOC Agenda: 6/20/16 (noted August mtg canceled)
CBOC Minutes: 6/20/16
DOE Rep: Yes
Gateway Lab School
Financials: July 2016
Yearly Audit: FY2014
990: None
Board Agenda: 8/16/16
Board Minutes: 5/24/16
CBOC Agenda: 7/19/16
CBOC Minutes: 2/16/16
DOE Rep: Yes
Great Oaks Wilmington
Financials: July 2016
Yearly Audit: n/a
990: n/a
Board Agenda: 7/27/16 (schedule shows 8/22 board meeting, no agenda)
Board Minutes: 7/27/16
CBOC Agenda: None (shows area for this but none listed)
CBOC Minutes: None (shows area for this but no minutes listed)
DOE Rep: None
Kuumba Academy
Financials: June 2016
Yearly Audit: FY2014
990: None
Board Agenda: 5/12/16
Board Minutes: 5/12/16 (states no meeting held in June)
CBOC Agenda: 7/12/16
CBOC Minutes: 7/12/16
DOE Rep: Yes
Las Americas Aspiras Academy
Financials: July 2016
Yearly Audit: FY2015
990: FY2014
Board Agenda: 8/25/16
Board Minutes: 5/26/16
CBOC Agenda: 8/22/16
CBOC Minutes: 6/20/16
DOE Rep: Yes
MOT Charter School
Financials: None
Yearly Audit: None
990: None
Board Agenda: 6/14/16
Board Minutes: 5/25/16 (June Mtg. Canceled)
CBOC Agenda: None
CBOC Minutes: None
DOE Rep: None
*website states for further information to call the business office
Newark Charter School
Financials: July 2016
Yearly Audit: FY2015
990: not required
Board Agenda: 8/16/16
Board Minutes: 7/19/16
CBOC Agenda: 5/17/16
CBOC Minutes: 5/17/16
DOE Rep: Yes
Odyssey Charter School
Financials: June 2016
Yearly Audit: FY2015
990: FY2011
Board Agenda: 8/17/16
Board Minutes: 6/21/16
CBOC Agenda: 7/20/16
CBOC Minutes: 6/26/16
DOE Rep: Yes
Positive Outcomes
Financials: July 2016
Yearly Audit: FY2015
990: FY2014
Board Agenda: 7/20/16
Board Minutes: 5/18/16 (no meeting in June)
CBOC Agenda: 7/20/16
CBOC Minutes: 7/20/16
DOE Rep: Yes
Prestige Academy
Financials: July 2016
Yearly Audit: FY2015
990: None
Board Agenda: 8/16/16
Board Minutes: 7/19/16
CBOC Agenda: 8/16/16
CBOC Minutes: 2/16/16
DOE Rep: None
Providence Creek Academy
Financials: July 2016
Yearly Audit: FY2015
990: None
Board Agenda: 8/23/16
Board Minutes: 7/26/16
CBOC Agenda: 8/18/2016
CBOC Minutes: 8/18/2016
DOE Rep: Yes
Sussex Academy
Financials: June 2016
Yearly Audit: FY2015
990: FY2014
Board Agenda: 7/27/16
Board Minutes: 6/15/16 (no August meeting)
CBOC Agenda: 5/17/16
CBOC Minutes: 5/17/16 (says next meeting won’t be until October)
DOE Rep: None
Thomas Edison Charter School
Financials: July 2016
Yearly Audit: FY2015
990: None
Board Agenda: 8/15/16
Board Minutes: 7/18/16
CBOC Agenda: 9/14/16
CBOC Minutes: 3/2/16
DOE Rep: Yes
Charter schools are public schools. You set some autonomy based on how the laws are written. But you still have to adhere to the law. You don’t live in a separate bubble in Delaware. On one hand, charters beg to be treated the same, and on the other, they beg to be treated different because of that “autonomy”. I don’t buy the excuse that any single charter school in this state doesn’t know about these requirements. If you open a bank, you better believe that bank looks into all of the operating laws they have to adhere to.
These inspections didn’t even get into the meat of your board minutes. A lot of you feel you don’t really have to give any detail. Some of your CBOC meetings don’t list which members are community representatives. I gave many of you bad scores if you haven’t had a CBOC meeting in over three months. Even if you don’t have a quorum, you still have to post minutes. And MOT… really? Call the business office to get more information? Just because you do great on Smarter Balanced doesn’t mean you are immune from transparency. Last year, the Charter School Accountability Committee found nothing wrong in MOT’s charter renewal process. They were approved unanimously for renewal without this subject EVER coming up.
I could file a ton of FOIA complaints today. I’m not going to. I’m going to give you until September 30th to correct these things. If I don’t see any improvement or very little, I start filing.
There were five charter schools who I felt, even though they got hit on one thing, have made a sincere effort to be transparent: Academy of Dover, Campus Community School, First State Military Academy, Las Americas Aspiras, and Providence Creek Academy. Honorary mentions go to Newark Charter School, Positive Outcomes, Sussex Academy, and Thomas Edison. But the rest of you need a lot of work. Sadly, some of you haven’t come far when I did this two years ago and a Valentines Day blitz inspection in 2015 and then another inspection in July 2015. Some actually did worse. Out of all the charters that did well on these inspections, they included most of the Kent and Sussex County charters but only two New Castle County charters. That I don’t get. I beat up on charters a lot. But I am getting around to beating up on districts more as well. I will give all of you a very fair warning: record your meetings and put the recordings up in seven business days. Kilroy may be quiet now, but he didn’t fight for the “all boards must record” legislation for kicks. He will monitor if you are doing this, and if you aren’t… watch out!
Perhaps Kendall Massett with the Delaware Charter Schools Network will agree or not agree with me on these transparency issues. But I believe, as a non-profit that supports charter schools, this should be their fight as well. Charter schools are at a crossroads right now. Many states are issuing moratoriums on charter schools. Delaware did this a year and a half ago. They can either operate as public schools or face the wrath of public perception. I don’t believe ALL charters are like the ones depicted on the John Oliver Show last weekend. But we all know Delaware could have easily been portrayed on that episode with some things that have happened here. Some of the charter schools in this inspection: don’t be lulled into a false sense of security because of this article. Know that I know things and you are on my radar.
The State Board of Education audio recordings from their very long meeting yesterday are now up on the State Board website. The Wilmington Education Improvement Commission portions of the meeting take up a collective two hours and twenty minutes of the meeting. Not included are the breaks, legal or illegal, during the meeting with respect to the WEIC discussion.
As I insanely do once in a while, during contentious board meetings, I transcribed part of the WEIC conversations. The three areas I focused on were the FOIA violation I believe the State Board committed by pausing the meeting to convene with legal counsel without calling for an executive session, the Christina priority school plans, and the funding/pause conversation surrounding the words “shall” and “may”. The key players in most of this are State Board President Dr. Teri Quinn Gray and WEIC Chair Tony Allen. Others are State Board members Pat Heffernan, Barbara Rutt, and Executive Director of the State Board of Education Donna Johnson. While I would have loved to get the whole thing transcribed, there isn’t enough time in the day. And as I’ve said before, you can only replay some of these voices so many times without wanting to jump off a bridge. Key parts or words are bolded for emphasis.
The FOIA Violation
There has been well over an hour of conversation at this point about the plan and a lot of back and forth between the State Board and Tony Allen. This occurs at the end of Part 5 in the audio recordings from the meeting yesterday.
Dr. Teri Quinn Gray: So, I just gotta check out the procedural piece of that with the attorney…do you mind? Cause I’m not sure about, uhm, the timing…
Tony Allen: Could I add, offer something, Could you make a motion to approve it with the new caveats, approval contingent upon…
Gray: Yeah, that’s why I need to make sure we get all the right pieces around that. I think I heard a little bit of that. So, let me ask for, uhm, a 15 minute break to consult with counsel and get the options around that. Do you mind?
Allen: No
Gray: Miss Rutt, can she come with me, with you, the attorney? It’s 3:46. We’ll be back at 4.
31 minutes later, beginning of Part 6 of the audio recording…
Gray: It’s 4:17 and we’re back in session. So why we left and the whole purpose of stepping away is we had , uhm, a proposal to table the current motion to approve the plan as presented. But, ugh, we brought forth an amendment motion that actually puts forth a conditional approval based on the conditions of changing the “shall” to “may” in the proposed resolution. And also having a wait for the Christina School District to act on the action item on February 23rd which involves submission of grant applications to the Department of Education for priority schools. And also contingent upon approval of the Department of Education of that plan, of that grant application. Right, so that’s the discussion that has been happening for the past thirty minutes or so and the expectation around that, uhm, if the board accepts that amended motion and vote accordingly, or affirmative in that, that we would ask that we take those two conditions and act accordingly however we see fit, we would be able to close that item before us. There is no need to bring this back to the table or as an agenda item for the board. We would be able to settle that based on those conditions being met.
Pat Heffernan: And if they’re not met?
Gray: And if they’re not met then the approval is, there is no conditional approval and we do not approve it.
Allen: Can I add two things?
Gray: Sure
Allen: I’ve consulted with many of the commissioners here on both the conditions. On condition one, back to Christina and the priority school plans, I think that, I appreciate, making sure that the condition is with respect to the Department of Education approving the plan as opposed to the Christina School Board being made, maybe that’s how I was interpreting it, made to approve their priority schools plan is a better way to get that. I think the Christina School District has every intention to approve the plan but I don’t think they take kindly to the State Board as making them so that’s…
Barbara Rutt: Sure
Allen: The second issue, with respect to “shall” and “may” is, I just want to reiterate, and you will act I know, I want to reiterate that on the board level, the commission level, the word “shall” was about making sure this wasn’t becoming an unfunded mandate. We talked about that at length during our discussion. I think that would be a significant hurdle for us. The district leaders have continued to express that if the resources aren’t provided they could not go forward. And it’s my suspicion is that they will see that change from “shall” to “may” as a potential for an unfunded mandate with a cause of concern for their districts. I will take that back to the commission, but I wanted you to know that as you make your decision, that could be a deal-breaker. While I would not speak for the commission at this moment, I can guarantee you that if it does not happen, you will not see the commission resubmit a plan.
Christina Priority Schools
Heffernan: I just want to add that, you know, the approval of the priority schools plan by Christina is, is it months or years late? So I have very little patience for Christina for semantics on that. They literally refused to approve plans to help the kids and honestly, I think got us to this table where we are today.
Secretary of Education Dr. Steve Godowsky: I just want to make this clear. On January 22nd of 2016, I sent Christina’s Acting Superintendent a letter indicating that either the board or the Acting Superintendent can submit and activate the, uhm, the original application for the priority, or the MOU that they submitted a year ago. Uhm, so that is what you are suggesting. It may not require a vote from the Board but we wanted to make sure which plan they want to move forward and if it was the MOU plan, and I have talked to the Board President. Then that will be acceptable to us going forward.
Heffernan: One thing that really troubles me about this is if the Christina Board doesn’t fully support these plans then, you know, we’re back to where we always were. And this is, so I, I, we can’t make, we have no authority to make any local boards approve anything, I totally get that, but I’m just very disappointed that this continues to be hard to get them to agree to help the priority schools. That’s all I’m saying.
Godowsky: And the Christina Board did sign off on their plan about a year ago with one day difference so I think they did support that plan. And now that we know that’s the plan on the table then we can move forward, I believe we can do our due diligence and be in a position to review that plan and make modifications.
Heffernan: So they approved this a year ago?
Godowsky: As part of, uhm, the Memorandum of Understanding, between the district and others that negotiated that alternative to the original plan, as I understand it. I was…
Allen: As I understand that, the impasse was between Christina and their approved plans and the former Secretary (Mark Murphy), not that they didn’t approve the priority school plans. That is my understanding.
Heffernan: But the Department didn’t approve the plans?
Allen: Correct
Heffernan: So we’re going to take the same plans that the Department didn’t approve…
Godowsky: No, no. I don’t know the history of why it wasn’t signed off. There were a number of contingencies on that which required the principal, replacing the principal, interviewing, or reapplying teachers for their positions, and management company that, ugh, that, those requirements have changed and we’re not in a position to impose those regulations. So I think that was the stumbling block. I don’t want to speak for Christina, and I don’t have all the history that they were the stumbling block, but later on there was an MOU submitted that never got signed off on at the Department level. I don’t know the reasons in detail. But I just know what I’ve looked at, in terms of the MOU, it’s consistent with much of what we want to do with those three schools, instructionally, which we’ve talked about since October, that I’ve been here. And, given some modifications, I’m ready to move forward.
Gray reiterates much of the conversation of what just went on…
Godowsky: I’m in receipt of those plans. I just needed, in a sense I have those plans.
“Shall” and “May”
Heffernan: I guess I’m trying to understand where the unfunded mandate is coming from. The redistricting portion of the plan is going to be unfunded or…
Allen: Remember, we arranged this for resources for English Language Learners, special education, and high concentrations of poverty. Every outline of current funding, none of that has been allocated yet, say, for the Governor’s commitment for the four to six million, right, so what we’re suggesting is each year, going through these two budget cycles, everything has to show up and if it that money doesn’t show up all the districts have particular issues with having Red Clay taking on these kids, and by the way this is not just a Red Clay issue, all the districts talk about this, taking on these kids with no changes in the funding formula for how they are going to help those kids.
Gray: And we’re committed to that same delivery around, particularly to support low-income and English Language Learners so we are… (note: Gray did not say special education)
Allen: And I agree. The question is about you all interpreting, and again, this might be an (inaudible) on our part, you all interpreting “shall” as required without deliberation.
Gray: That’s right.
Allen: We don’t interpret it that way. It was meant to be deliberation in consultation with the effected districts…
Gray: Right, so let’s just make it the “may”, and if we need to, we’ll do it, right? Because without this level of conversation and intimacy that we have now, whenever this may come forward a few years from now that “shall” is a… (very, very hard to understand what she said here but I did hear the word legal. Whether that was “legal” or “illegal” I was unable to tell)
Allen: I agree, and I do not give this short shrift, if you in fact approve it this way, it will require, I believe, a full-throated (inaudible) analysis that you will give in writing and in person to the commission, so…
Gray: Absolutely. We’re committed to that. The Board is committed to that for sure.
At this point, Dan Rich (another WEIC commissioner) says something to Tony Allen. Tony asks for five minutes, and then Kenny Rivera (President of the Red Clay Consolidated Board of Education and a commissioner on WEIC) says something. I think I heard the word “non-negotiable” but it is very hard to hear. The State Board grants the WEIC folks a five minute break. This is the end of Part 6 of the audio recordings.
The break ends, and the State Board is back in session in Part 7 of the audio recordings.
Gray: So Dr. Allen, did you want to add something before we go forward?
Allen: I consulted with many of the Commissioners here and I think there is general agreement that we could, and we would like you to consider, taking out all the provisions outlined in the resolution that we take back to the commission so that it does not come back to the State Board. But in general, but moving forward, it will be contingent upon sufficient funding. Effectively, that takes you out of the process at the final implementation stage.
Gray: So you’re saying?
Allen: What we’re saying disregard all the remaining “shalls”, make it all contingent upon the necessary and sufficient funding and resources and take it off of the State Board with respect to their responsibility for this board and to future State Boards.
Gray: So is that effectively removing the resolution?
Allen: It’s more changing the resolution but excluding State Board having ongoing responsibility for suspension of the timetable.
Gray: Could I ask the process specialist?
Donna Johnson: With process of approval of the redistricting process in and of itself, and there is the caveat there that the plan would become essentially non-void if necessary and sufficient funding were not available, what safeguards would be in place if those necessary sufficient funding and supports were not at each of the milestones? Where would there be a pause that takes place at that point?
Allen: Do you mean who would authorize that pause?
Johnson: Yes.
Allen: The authorization would come from the commission and the effected districts. So we’d take it out of the State Board’s hands. There is nothing in Senate Bill 122 that prohibits this.
After much back and forth, the State Board voted on the redistricting plan and the addendums as of 2/11/16 with no amendments which failed 3-4. The State Board then voted on the plan with the amendments about the Christina priority schools plan approval and the changing of “shall” to “may” on page 10 of the official plan. The motion passed with a 4-3 vote.
2:38pm…back in session….
Tony Allen takes the stand. Actually, it’s a chair… He will answer questions for the State Board of Education.
Dr. Gray is asking about Question #2: concerning commitments to evidence-based practices for students from now until implementation of redistricting plan…How would these best practices and services be available to all children?
Tony Allen is answering. Said the principals are dedicated to all students of Wilmington.
Dr. Gray is asking about a commitment from the Christina School District. Said due to a weather delay they can’t vote on the commitment until their next meeting on February 23rd. He is now talking about the priority schools in Christina. He said he expects the Christina board to take that action on 2/23.
Dr. Gray is talking about the $1.3 million grant application from Christina School District for their priority schools. Said that doesn’t have a lot to do with this right now.
Gray wants to talk about the graduation rates and student outcomes for the students of Wilmington. Brought up the Delaware School Success Framework (yawn)…
Tony Allen said WEIC is committed to an annual qualitative review of all the Wilmington schools, not just Red Clay. He said the plan will progress every year with these enhanced services.
State Board member Gregory Coverdale is asking about the Colonia back-out from the plan. Tony is explaining they were not willing to commit to sending their students to Red Clay but are committed to the WEIC plan.
Board member Pat Heffernan is talking about teaching and learning. He said what they got is a summary if they didn’t have WEIC. Tony said WEIC may not have happened if it weren’t for the priority schools. Said that was an impasse in all of this. Said he is not an expert on education but there are several members on the commission who are. Tony just announced University of Delaware will be acting as a partner to help the districts, along with the United Way who will be bringing in other non-profits who have relationships with the schools. They are committed to helping students with trauma.
Board member Nina Lou Bunting just said we are the State Board of Education, not the State Board of Redistricting. Said the reason they have asked so many questions because the plan is going to give all this to Red Clay to get best practices and what will be coming into the state. She said she doesn’t know everything about the plan, but is asking if it is a living and ongoing thing…
Bunting is saying “Yearly, we’re going to get a report with what worked.” In her view it is not complete in terms of telling the State Board of Education what educational initiatives are going to be adapted with the redistricting plan. Allen responded that the priority schools were announced by the Governor and the DOE in September, 2014. He said Red Clay did a lot of community outreach in coming up with their plans. He said on the Christina side, they are going through this now. (editor’s note: Christina got a lot of community input at the same time Red Clay did)
Bunting said she is hearing from several districts that they want to know where their piece of the pie is. Said this is going to cost a lot of money and it has to be right. Heffernan said there is a belief that they (the State Board) are adversaries. (why would he ever think that?) Tony said they are not adversaries and this has been an intense debate. Board member Whittaker said he sees this as a five year plan to let other districts copy on the success of the plan. Tony is stressing that it has always been the recommendation of the commission that all areas of intense poverty, ELL, and students with disabilities need support and funding right away. He understands the state doesn’t have enough money for that. He mentioned Dover as one of these areas and not just Wilmington.
Gray is saying they didn’t get an educational prong in the plan. She said the measures and impacts are going to be what’s important. She said the redistricting isn’t as difficult. It is sweat equity to get it done. She said district’s accountability or level of blame and accountability needs to start at day one. She said they shouldn’t be having a conversation at a special board meeting to make this work. We should be doing it anyways. Gray is getting huffy again… She said the odds on this are 50-50.
Tony is saying you can’t find a more dedicated coalition of educators as the ones involved in this initiative. He never said this is the final plan and he never said this will fix everything. He said this is building and not an end result.
Board member Barbara Rutt is asking if there is sufficient funding but no change in academics, what happens then? Tony said they don’t want an unfunded mandate. Rutt is asking if it could be rephrased. Tony said sure, but the resolution is more about a set of safeguards (missed part of this, will update based on the audio recording when it’s released). Rutt doesn’t feel it is appropriate to tie the hands of the future board (State Board).
Rutt said the letters of commitment from the districts could be tough in the future. Allen said this is a citizen led group. He said the results will be at the discretion of the schools. They (WEIC) don’t have the authority to enforce this.
Gray said their initial reaction was of great concern. She wanted to make sure they have the funding. She wants to know what “transition supports” are in the funding. Tony gave an example of United Way as a partner in this which gives them the ability to be an “engine” to move this forward.
Gray keeps going on about student outcomes (based on the very faulty Smarter Balanced Assessment… when is this unelected State Board going to get it? Sorry, had to go there!). She is saying something about July of 2017, and that is when they will see a lot of activity around the parent collaboration and engagement. Tony agreed, as well as meeting the needs of students in poverty.
Gray is saying they won’t see a lot of convergence until that date. Not to be disrespectful to the huge effort that has already taken place. All the things will start to go at the same time. Tony said right.
Quiet moment.
Heffernan wants to switch gears. Bringing up funding. Talking about the Governor’s budget. Asking about local funds being collected without a referendum. Tony is saying the General Assembly will be coming out with recommendations around this. What they have heard from the districts is these would be operating funds, not capital funds. He said those recommendations could render this moot, but their intention is to have the Education Funding Task Force make necessary recommendations to make this work. Gray is concerned about distribution of funds between Red Clay and Christina. Red Clay will get the bulk of those dollars in the initial years. Tony is indicating this would be expanded to all of Christina in the second year and all the city kids in the third year. Tony said all low-income kids will get these funds. Rutt wants to know more about transition administrative funds. Tony said the Governor put in $2 million in the budget for this purpose but it could be held in the Office of Management and Budget. $7.5 million is needed for this, but $3 million would be transition funds. Planning year first year, transition second year and implementation third year. Tony said they are trying to get spec ed funding statewide before this.
Bunting is saying she wants all these programs to be going on right now while they transition. Tony agrees. Brought up CEO Hope and the Wilmington Education Strategic Think Tank.
Heffernan is very much in alignment with everything they have talked about. But he is concerned about question #1 in the State Board’s questions: how will shifting district boundary lines change student outcomes? He can’t wrap his head around it and doesn’t understand why district lines need to change. Tony said students vacillate between Christina and Red Clay every year, around 20-30%. What he is saying is students need district stability. A student shouldn’t move in with his grandmother across the street and all of a sudden be in a different district. They need to be in the same construct.
Rutt isn’t satisfied with this answer. Said she was naïve in thinking she would get answers based on the questions the State Board asked of WEIC. She gets the part about students and stability but said it isn’t as big a number of students as they thought. Tony and Heffernan states these issues keep them up at night.
Conversation going back and forth but difficult to hear. Board member Jorge Melendez said this is the first step in a long journey. He said that everyone who is here cares. If the State Board passes this they need to take this back to their community and be in this 100%.
Gray is saying this is a risk. The measures of success for the State Board are less of the redistricting facets and more on the educational outcome. They aren’t expecting graduation rates to go up 3% in a year, but does want to see progress. They all want to serve the students in Wilmington. She is stating they can’t have full district support without the Christina commitment.
Motion on the table is to approve with addendum to take out “shall” in terms of ??. Rutt put a motion out to table it again. Gray said the first motion is to approve the plan and it has been seconded. Rutt is saying it is important to have the Christina action. Gray is asking the legal counsel. She is asking for a fifteen minute break to convene with counsel.
One of the WEIC members stated anyone who came down on the WEIC bus has to leave now because the bus will be coming in fifteen minutes.
Many folks in the room are talking about how the State Board can’t do this outside of public session. Many feel this is a violation of FOIA law.
State Board is still on break consulting with their legal counsel. Meanwhile, some of us have figured out the Christina thing. Thanks to Avi Wolfman-Arent with Newsworks who pointed out an action item on Christina’s board meeting on 2/23. Basically it is the district’s approval of the grant application for their priority schools. The “shall” item is in regards to the funding for WEIC. Red Clay is insisting it “shall” be given, not “may”, and that isn’t optional.
Okay, Tony Allen just came out of a door with Secretary Godowsky and the State Board. Lowered and angry faces. WEIC left the room for a quick meeting. Gray is explaining what I just wrote about the “shall” thing and the Christina action item on 2/23.
The State Board is going to vote based on those two conditions having been met. If the conditions aren’t met their vote doesn’t mean anything. Tony Allen is saying the Commission leadership met just now. He said there is a better way of doing this. He said he expects Christina to pass their plans. He said the “shall” thing is a significant curve for them. He said that change from “shall” has the capability of an unfunded mandate.
Gray is saying the commitment here cannot have the State Board’s hands tied. The State Board shares the concern about an unfunded mandate. Tony is saying there is a concern with WEIC for the State Board to mandate Christina approve the priority school plan. Heffernan said Christina refused to approve plans (last year) and that is what got us to this point in time.
Secretary Godowsky said he submitted a letter to Acting Christina Superintendent Robert Andrzejewski on January 21st indicating if Christina submitted the Memorandum of Understanding plan that would be acceptable. Godowsky said they aren’t changing the rules midstream. He said if the Acting Superintendent submits the grant application and the Department approves it. Heffernan said if Christina doesn’t approve their plans they are back where they started from. Godowsky said they don’t authority over a local board. Godowsky said if they submit their plans they can do their due diligence and move forward. Godowsky is referring to the MOU alternative plan passed in March. Godowsky said he doesn’t know the full history but it was around replacing principals and a potential management company. He doesn’t want to speak for Christina and say they were the stumbling block. He doesn’t know the details around the alternative MOU. He said much of what WEIC wants to do is what they want to do for the Christina priority schools.
And of course my battery is going to run out and I’m not near a plug…
Secretary Godowsky said he is in receipt of those plans. Tony Allen said it is a formal response to the commitment from Christina (the letter Christina Board President Harrie Ellen Minnehan wrote WITHOUT board approval in the WEIC addendum to the State Board questions). How can Godowsky be in receipt of plans that weren’t voted on by the Christina Board of Education?
Red Clay Board President Kenny Rivera is talking about the unfunded mandate. WEIC is asking for a five minute consultation.
There was talk from WEIC about removing the State Board’s role in this until July of 2018 pending passage of the redistricting plan by the State Board. This was not an acceptable proposal to the State Board of Education.
Okay, got plugged in. About twenty minutes ago, the State Board of Education voted on a motion to approve the WEIC plan without any addendums. It did not pass. Roll Call- Yes: Dr. Teri Quinn Gray, Dr. Whittaker, Jorge Melendez, Nay: Pat Heffernan, Nina Lou Bunting, Barbara Rutt, Gregory Coverdale. Then they made a motion to approve the WEIC plan based on DOE approval of the submitted Christina priority school plans and the changing of “shall” to “may” in regards to the funding. Roll Call- Yes: Dr. Teri Quinn Gray, Barbara Rutt, Jorge Melendez, Dr. Whittaker, Nay: Pat Heffernan, Nina Lou Bunting, Gregory Coverdale. The plan passed the State Board with the amendments. But this is a deal breaker because the Red Clay Consolidated Board of Education voted in November that if the funding was not guaranteed, they would not move forward. So the WEIC redistricting plan appears to be dead. But this is Delaware.
The Season Of Myths 