Atnre Alleyne, a former employee of the Delaware Department of Education and the current head of DelawareCAN, filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the DOE back in March. He was not satisfied with their response and filed a FOIA complaint with the Delaware Department of Justice. The Delaware DOJ issued their opinion on the complaint on May 4th and found the Delaware DOE did violate FOIA.
Stubbs
Christina School District & Delaware DOE Reach Agreement On Priority Schools
Christina School District, Delaware DOEIt was revealed yesterday that the Christina School District and the Delaware Department of Education finally reached a signed agreement over the eighteen month priority school battle. As shown below, Delaware Secretary of Education Dr. Steven Godowsky formally wrote a letter to the State Board of Education indicating this. As one of their conditional approvals for the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission redistricting plan, the State Board can no longer complain about this in their meetings.
Christina School District citizens face a referendum in 13 days. I really like a lot of what I’m seeing from the district in terms of what they have planned for the money raised from the referendum. Brian Stephan wrote an excellent article on Delaware Liberal earlier this morning about what the district will allocate the funds for and I like a lot of their ideas.
In the meantime, see the letter that ends the long DOE-State Board-Christina battle over three schools. Is this the same agreement from a year ago?
Breaking News: Priority Schools in Christina Will Convert To Red Clay in 2016
Red Clay Wilmington Schools TakeoverAccording to a VERY anonymous source in the Delaware Department of Education, this is the plan with the three priority schools in the Christina School District: Next year, Stubbs, Bancroft and Bayard will remain in Christina as they currently are but they will be given to Red Clay Consolidated School District in the 2016-2017 academic year. Apparently a very small team from the Christina School Board came to the DOE for a meeting. This meeting was hinted at in the 2/27 deadline letter in regards to the WEAC recommendations.
After everything, Christina still loses the three schools, but under their own terms. It is unknown at this point if the schools will still have priority status by then because no one knows what will happen with the reauthorization of ESEA. In my opinion, Christina successfully thwarted the DOE at nearly every level. They never outright caved in to the demands inflicted upon them and said “okay, take our schools.” This is usually what happens to priority schools in other states. Red Clay signed their memorandum of understanding last year.
Teachers will not be forced to reapply for their jobs and the principals will get to stay. At least or the 2015-2016 year, according to my DOE source. What many people don’t see is how very powerful Red Clay Consolidated School District will become as a result of this. They will become the biggest school district in the state. While they have not authorized any charter schools in the last six years because of their own moratorium, do not forget they are indeed a charter school authorizer. The only other entity in the state for this is the DOE.
Recent events on Red Clay’s own board suggest a power play is in the offing. There has been a jockeying of power going on, and the attempted coup d’état Kilroy spoke of yesterday is just the beginning. The charter players in Wilmington want in on the Red Clay board because they are an authorizer. These schools would have become Red Clay schools anyways due to the upcoming legislative push to implement the recommendations of the Wilmington Education Advisory Committee. The status quo in Delaware has always been charter boards on one side and traditional boards on the other. The moratorium on charter schools in Wilmington is a smokescreen to let the dust settle. I predict many more charters in Red Clay Consolidated in the next few years.
Was the priority schools initiative a smoke and mirrors power play brought on by Governor Markell and the Wilmington power brokers? Given the events brought on by the announcement and what came immediately after would give weight to this theory. Many answers for this can be found here: https://exceptionaldelaware.wordpress.com/2014/12/27/the-priority-schools-foias-part-2-kilroysdelaware-ed_in_de-rceaprez-apl_jax-ecpaige-nannyfat-roof_o-delawarebats-netde-edude-delaware-edchat/
The pieces have been in play for years, and Red Clay could become a charter-wide district in the next few years. But would it be individual charters as they operate now, or could we see a large charter chain such as KIPP swoop in and slowly wrest control from the original charter operators? I’ve touched on this topic before. The recent takeover of Family Foundations Academy from the East Side Charter School gives weight to this theory. The Charter Collaborative in Wilmington, which includes East Side, Kuumba, Thomas Edison and Prestige gives even more weight. Alignments such as these, on their own, do not amount to much. But when looking down on the entire Wilmington landscape and the events that have been allowed to happen, everything has a purpose. And even though they have been very quiet lately, do not count out Rodel. They may appear to be out of the picture, but make no mistake, they framed it.
Delaware DOE To Christina: You lose your priority schools, close them or hand them over!
Delaware Priority Schools TakeoverThe News Journal has just announced the Delaware Department of Education has given an ultimatum: close your three priority schools, convert them to a charter, or hand them over to a management company. They have until February 27th to comply.
Matthew Albright’s article is not shocking. I’ve expected this response for quite a while. Now the fun begins! There’s this little thing called the Christina Educators Association. This is called union-busting, and Governor Markell will not gain any new friends over this. I think it’s time the Christina Board of Education deployed their “nuclear option”.
The Christina School Board must choose by Feb. 27 whether to close its three Priority Schools or hand them over to charter schools or other education management organizations, the Department of Education has said in a letter to district staff sent Tuesday.
The decision comes after a contentious, months-long back and forth between the state and the Christina School Board.
Announced in September, Priority Schools is the state’s effort to improve six inner-city Wilmington schools in the Christina and Red Clay school districts with some of the state’s lowest test scores. State officials want to get elite school leaders in place, free them from most district rules and split about $2.8 million among the schools to fund innovative changes.
Christina’s three Priority Schools are Stubbs and Bancroft elementary schools and Bayard Middle School.
The plans have encountered outrage and stiff resistance, especially in Christina. Many educators feel the state is blaming them for low test scores when they say the real problems are systemic poverty and violence.
Last week, Christina School Board voted not to approve turnaround plans for the schools. Board members said they wanted more clarity on how teachers would be selected to staff the schools, saying they were convinced current school staff were the best people to lead improvements. They said they did not want to approve plans that could make it easier for teachers to be fired or transferred.
For more reaction from local officials and educators, keep watching DelawareOnline.com and read tomorrow’s edition of The News Journal.
Transparent Christina has an actual copy of the letter posted here: https://transparentchristina.wordpress.com/2015/02/10/showdown-2-0-let-the-union-busting-begin/
Live, Via Twitter, It’s Mike Matthews At The Christina Board of Education Meeting!!!
Christina School DistrictGonna try and live tweet the @ChristinaK12 board meeting. @ecpaige @ED_IN_DE @Apl_Jax — Mike Matthews (@RCEAPrez) January 14, 2015
Public comment starting @ChristinaK12 meeting.— Mike Matthews (@RCEAPrez) January 14, 2015
Staff member asks for @ED_IN_DE‘s autograph!! Wowsa, big guy! :-)— Mike Matthews (@RCEAPrez) January 14, 2015
Two public comments so far @ChristinaK12 board meeting related to School for the Deaf and other needs to hearing-impaired students.
— Mike Matthews (@RCEAPrez) January 14, 2015
Oh my. Looking at agenda @ChristinaK12 meeting — already a resolution to TABLE the MOUs! pic.twitter.com/LUG0papEcS
— Mike Matthews (@RCEAPrez) January 14, 2015
CEA president Mike Kempski says he appreciated process to negotiate first MOU and is hopeful future negotiations are as positive. — Mike Matthews (@RCEAPrez) January 14, 2015
Christina Educators Association Priority Schools Press Conference 1/7/15
Christina Educators AssociationState Rep John Kowalko and Kevin Ohlandt Statements To The Christina School Board At Their Meeting Tonight
Delaware Priority Schools Takeover, UncategorizedThe following is State Representative John Kowalko’s public comment, given tonight at the Christina School District Board of Education meeting.
So long as the following section stays in the draft MOU, the District, Superintendent and Board are abdicating substantial authority that they now legally own. It also is a betrayal of the current school leaders and the districts rights to choose those leaders. Allowing the State, and DOE to name a list of acceptable alternatives by signing this draft keeps intact every ambition that this Governor and DOE have for a takeover of the district’s and board’s responsibilities and lawful authority. Please seriously consider refusing to approve this MOU unless the language giving the State authority to unilaterally submit their approved list is removed entirely.
i. The State and District must agree on the selection of the School Leader
.
If not in agreement, the State will provide specific rationale in writing to the Superintendent and the process will begin again.
II. Final contract approval will be up to the Board of Education
ii. Should the District fail to produce an approved leader the State may provide a list of candidates from which the District may select and submit to the Board of Education for approval.
This section retained in the MOU draft that you will be considering is a total abdication of the Districts legal authority and responsibilities to its employees and usurps the power of the Superintendent to seek out and hire the most qualified leaders for these schools based on their experience and knowledge of these schools, the students, the communities and the teachers. Ceding this authority is tantamount to approval of the Governor and DOE’s bullying and coercive abuse of power that has dominated the entire “priority schools” dialogue.
There are many other serious issues with the entire “priority schools” process and I will highlight a few.
- The artificial time frame unilaterally imposed by Ms. Schwinn and DOE is an obvious attempt to deny an open and honest dialogue with the stakeholders and public involved. This is evident in Ms. Schwinn and DOE’s refusal to attend and join in the numerous meetings that were held to attempt to craft a legitimate plan although DOE was specifically invited. This arrogant attitude has become a hallmark of this Administration, Secretary Murphy and DOE obviously intended to intimidate and coerce you into forfeiting your rights.
- The designation and measurement techniques employed in identifying the six priority schools are irreparably flawed and have no standing of merit. A cursory reading of the emails that I received under FOIA and forwarded to you reveals a nefarious collusion that ignores and misrepresents facts and portends to evaluate success and failure with absolutely no statistically provable measure. In fact, the DOE and Governors assessment of the success of Eastside Charter used an incomprehensibly flawed measuring cohort to wit:
- Nelia Dolan, on December 27, 2014 at 12:37 pm said: The greatest proficiency gains made in East Side Charter that everyone is touting was carried by a single cohort of students that went from 62 students in the third grade (2010/2011) to 29 students in the 5th grade (2012/2013).
Unless you can look at the gains of each individual student, then the possibility that the students who left the school were ones that did not perform well enough to meet standard is too great to ignore.
What difference does it make if the student body engineering is happening on the front end or somewhere in-between? - In addition the FOIA documents also show that there was a concerted effort to deliberately exclude charters from being considered as failing in a desperate attempt to ignore the truth and reality and to isolate the selected six schools and their staffs as beyond redemption under current district leadership and mandating a DOE assigned leadership change that totally ignores the independent findings in the DASL report that showed significant gains while these schools were led by the current principals. These principals, that Ms. Schwinn and DOE are so willing to exile and disparage are depending upon you to defend them and protect them from those who would falsely and maliciously distort their records and abilities.
- Finally, I know that there has been discussion about the expense of challenging this abuse of power in court and is it worthwhile. Everything is worthwhile when you are defending the rights of children against an intrusion of power brokers who see them as a product or marketing device. Everything is worthwhile when you are defending the rights of dedicated professionals who are more family and friend to these children then these corporatist could ever dream of being. Everything is worthwhile when you are defending the rights, responsibilities and authority granted to you by an electorate that deemed you worthy of caring for their children and their children’s teachers and friends.
- A legal challenge would only be necessary if this Governor decided to fulfill his own ego-driven agenda to wrest power from the duly elected board that you represent. It would be premature to consider legal action at this time but appropriate to refuse to sign this MOU. I urge you to consider all of these things and many more and reject this abuse of power which will irreparably harm the entire Delaware public school system and its children and not approve this MOU as drafted.
Representative John Kowalko
And next up is public comment from Kevin Ohlandt, some blogger from Dover. Since I was unable to make it up to Wilmington tonight, Mike Kempski, President of the Christina Education Association was gracious enough to read this in my absence:
Esteemed members of the Christina School District Board of Education,
My name is Kevin Ohlandt. I spoke at another of your board meetings almost three months to the day. Since then, the bullying and intimidation on the part of the Delaware DOE has increased dramatically. As well, our own Governor used a Vision conference as his bully pulpit in regards to the priority schools. While it is okay to feel fear, it is not always okay to act on it. In this situation, the DOE and Governor Markell are using fear as their biggest weapon. This is the time to be strong, and tell them no. This is the time to tell Governor Markell the Christina School District will not sit back and watch him take over their schools. Whether you sign a draft MOU or let Markell take them over, either way you are giving them what they want: surrender. They will use this as precedence and make you do the same in the future. They will use you and every single student, teacher, administrator and parent to get what they want. The priority schools initiative has never been about the betterment of student’s education. This is corporate education reform in it’s filthiest, dirtiest form. The truth will come out about what has been going on behind the scenes. Bits and pieces have already been exposed. The state wanted these six specific schools. They have manipulated data and used race, income status, and special needs as the impetus for their decision. This is not good for Wilmington. This is not good for Delaware. And it is certainly not good for Christina School District. Be stronger than the fear they want you to have. You have more people in your corner than you realize, and we will continue to fight for all of you. Thank you!
.@GovernorMarkell Happy Holidays Mr. Enigma, Here’s Your Present @KilroysDelaware @ed_in_de @RCEAPrez @Apl_Jax @ecpaige @nannyfat @Roof_O @DelawareBats @Avi_WA @TNJ_malbright @RodelDE @DeDeptofEd @DEStateBoardEd #netde #eduDE #Delaware #edchat
Governor MarkellI can’t figure you out Jack Markell. Especially after seeing that video Kilroy put up last weekend from 2008 when you talked about all the segregation going on at the charter schools. Flash forward to the present when you are holding six public schools hostage to the charter school agenda. When did you change Jack? Or were you just trying to please potential voters when you ran in 2008? Personally, I think it’s the latter, given that you and Rodel did your blueprint for education back in 2005. But here’s some presents for you to view and think about before you make a big decision in the coming weeks.
As your governorship draws to a close in the next couple of years, Delaware will remember your legacy. Will you be a Bailey or a Potter? Cause right now, most of us in this state see you as a Potter. This clip from It’s A Wonderful Life is the best comparison to the priority schools initiative. Dangle some money at them, make a big spectacle and flashy presentation, entice them, and draw them in. That’s what happened on September 4th. Like Potter, I’m sure you thought they would jump at the chance. But there are too many Bailey’s in Delaware that know better. That what you were offering comes at a very steep price. Too many lives are affected by this decision.
If this is the future of education in Delaware, threats and dangling carrots, then I think Delaware has become a very awful place to raise our children. Are you a Rodel man or a Delaware man? Cause guess what Jack, you can’t be both. I would rather pay more in state taxes than kiss the feds ass when it comes to education. Take their measly 10% in education funding and send it back to D.C. Because at the end of the day, it’s not about the money. It’s about the students, who shine in the darkness, who try to overcome adversity to become more than what society says they are. The problems in Wilmington won’t go away, not any time soon. What happens when all these kids are in charter schools and start dropping out? All you are doing is repeating the cycle, over and over again. These children are more than test scores. All the students in Delaware are more than test scores. Stop treating them like data, and see them as unique and individual creations of God.
The teachers in the priority schools ARE doing the right thing. They are teaching these students, going the extra mile for them. They have a passion for helping these kids. They could go somewhere else, but they choose to stay. What does that tell you? Why would you ever want teachers on a fast track degree with very little experience educating these most vulnerable of students? And nobody cares more about these students than the principals at these schools. They are given a very heavy task, and while they may not be perfect, they are irreplaceable. It makes no sense, unless there is a financial payoff down the road. As my second gift for you Jack, I proudly present the students of the priority schools.
Remember this Governor Markell, if you take these schools away from their rightful districts, you will ALWAYS be remembered as a Potter.
Two of Christina’s Priority Schools Get Excellent Reviews In Review By DOE & University of Delaware @KilroysDelaware @ed_in_de @Apl_Jax @RCEAPrez @ecpaige @nannyfat @Roof_O @TNJ_malbright @GovernorMarkell @DeDeptofEd @DeStateBoardEd @WBOC @WDEL @DelawareBats #netde #eduDE #Delaware #edchat #prioritizethat
Delaware Priority Schools TakeoverThere is absolutely no reason for Governor Markell to take over these schools. It would be a rather foolish move on his part based on this study!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 3, 2014
CONTACT
Wendy Lapham, Public Information Officer, Christina School District, 302-552-2610
Two “Priority” Schools Receive High Scores on Comprehensive Reviews Conducted by Delaware Department of Education and University of Delaware
Wilmington, DE – Two Comprehensive Success Reviews conducted in November by the Delaware Department of Education, the University of Delaware, and the Delaware Academy of School Leadership gave an overall high rating to two “Priority’ Schools in Christina: Bancroft Elementary School and Stubbs Elementary School. The reports highlight the many areas of strength being demonstrated at both schools.
The evaluations were conducted using a rubric score on a scale of 1-4, with 1 being the lowest rating and 4 being the highest rating.
Out of a total of 37 categories, Bancroft scored the highest score of “4” in 15 categories, and earned a score of “3” in 17 categories. The school received a rating of “2” in only 4 categories, and received only one rating of “1,” in the area of parent and community involvement in the review of the School Success Plan and parent awareness of the School Success Plan. In the two other areas of parent communication and involvement measured, Bancroft scored a “3” in both categories.
Out of a total of 37 categories, Stubbs scored the highest rating of “4” in 16 categories, and earned a score of “3” in 14 categories. Stubbs received a rating of “2” in only five categories, and received no scores of“1.” Two categories were not applicable.
Both schools received the highest rating of “4” in the categories of Policies, Procedures, and Structures, School Leadership Decisions, Time Management, Curriculum and Instruction, Strategies for Students Who Are at Risk or Do Not Master Standards, Access to Instructional Materials, and Scientifically Researched-Based Instructional Strategies.
Christina’s third “Priority” school, Bayard Middle School, underwent a Comprehensive Success Review (CSR) in April, 2014. That review indicated some of the areas that needed improvement, but since the time of the review, a new school leader was named and the school has undergone other changes based in part on the results of the report.
The results of the CSRs for Bancroft and Stubbs are significant because they suggest that the two schools are achieving in multiple areas, and that they have demonstrated significant progress since the last reviews were conducted in 2012. This is in direct contrast to the state’s announcement on September 4 that the schools are among the lowest-performing in the state. Bancroft, Stubbs, and Bayard Middle School must develop comprehensive plans to be approved by the Delaware Department of Education by January 7, or the District could face possible closure of the three “Priority” schools, and/or takeover by outside operators.
“We are excited about the very positive results of the Comprehensive Success Reviews, but not necessarily surprised by them,” said Christina Superintendent Dr. Freeman Williams. “For the past two years, we have been working towards the exact results that are now evident in the reviews. We will continue to focus on those areas that need improvement, while maintaining our effort in the overwhelming number of areas where those results show we are already demonstrating success.”
# # #
Wendy Lapham
Manager of Communications/Public Information Officer
Christina School District
600 N. Lombard Street
Wilmington, DE 19801
(302) 552-2610
The Season Of Myths 