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State
Representative Wayne Smith, who is leader of the Republican
majority in the lower chamber, stopped short of expressing a
definitive position on what Delaforum has learned is the
apparent tack City Council and Mayor James Baker will take in
shaping a proposal to define the course of public education in
the city.
As
Delaforum previously reported, the city government is preparing
to ask the Assembly to authorize a modified charter school
arrangement with an open-ended transition from the presented
system of having five school districts operating conventional
schools in the city.
Reportedly
drafted by Councilman
Theopalis Gregory, chair of the education committee, the plan,
with likely modifications, is to go before Council for action at
its Mar. 8 business meeting. There is to be a public hearing on
Feb. 28. The law requires Council and the mayor to send a
proposal to Dover by Mar. 15.
The
draft plan refers to the preferred arrangement as a 'consortium' rather than
a new or separate district. But it closely resembles the
district structure envisioned by the Wilmington Neighborhood
Schools Committee in one of its two recommendations.
A major
difference is that the draft proposal calls for starting with
four charter schools -- one at each of the traditional grade
levels and an undefined 'alternative' school -- while the
Brandywine, Christina, Colonial, Red Clay and New Castle County
Vocational-Technical districts continue indefinitely to function
within the city. It implies that those districts would be
expected to eventually cede their city schools to the
consortium, but does not establish a timetable for their doing
so.
The
proposal does, however, identify three schools that would be
transferred initially -- P.S. du Pont and Burnett in the
Brandywine district and Lewis in Red Clay. P.S. would be
converted back to a high school and Burnett, which is now
closed, would again become a middle or junior high school. Lewis
would remain an elementary school. The proposal defines their
new status as 'charter academies', but does not say who would
operate them.
Based on
rated capacities, the traditional schools could accommodate
about 2,300 students. There are about 11,000 public school
students living in the city, but a direct comparison is not
applicable because suburban children would be permitted to --
and, indeed, expected to -- enroll. The 'alternative' school is
listed as having a 200-student capacity. Existing alternative
schools are for children who, for disciplinary and other
reasons, do not function in a traditional classroom.
The most
significant change the Assembly would be requested to make would
be to provide for the state to pick up the entire cost of
renovating school buildings for their new roles. Present law
specifically bars public financing of capital costs related to
conversion of an existing school or constructing a new charter
school. The state finances 60% of major capital costs for
conventional public schools and there is legislation pending in
Dover to increase that to 80%.
There
also is provision for recommending establishment and financing
of a statewide special education advocacy office with branches
in each county in addition to the city. Twenty-one percent of
Wilmington students are in various special education categories,
compared to 11% statewide.
If the
proposal is adopted, it would put Council and the mayor on
record as endorsing the schools committee's more esoteric recommendations
that public policy recognize differences in the needs of urban
children and incorporate measures designed to educate them on a
par with children from more affluent households.
Council
also would strongly second the committee's questioning of the
constitutionality of the Neighborhood Schools Act and, by
implication, whether it was a deliberate effort to isolate
Wilmington schools and illegally resegregate them.
Smith
said that whatever comes forth will be regarded as a proposal.
The Assembly can accept it, modify it, ignore it or decide to do
something entirely different. But he added that a charter school
arrangement which complies with the requirements of the
Neighborhood Schools Act is a proposal likely to pass muster.
"As
a practical matter, the more complexity that is introduced [in
any plan], the greater the difficulty in having it passed,"
he said. A phased transition might provide such hindrance, he
said.
Smith did
take strong issue with references to constitutionality of the
law. That, he said, "flies in the face of [U.S.] Supreme
Court rulings in regard to what numerous other school districts
around the country are doing."
Gregory,
Baker and Theodore Blunt, president of City Council, did not
respond to Delaforum requests for comment. Councilman
Kevin Kelly, who also was a member of the schools committee,
said that he likes the charter-school idea but thinks only the
Brandywine and Red Clay Districts should be linked with
Wilmington even as interim providers of education. That, he
said, would eliminate long bus rides for city children to middle
and high schools in the Christina and Colonial districts.
William
Manning, who was the strongest advocate on the schools committee
of a charter-school arrangement, said he is pleased at the
direction things seem to be taking. "We're part way
there," he said of the city proposal.
He did,
however, express reservation at a time implementation. "If
we start with four schools and do nothing [more] for 20 years, I
wouldn't be very happy," he said. "The [original idea
of a] three-year phase-in might be too fast, but within five to
10 years every school in the city could be included."
Schools
committee chair Raye Avery did not respond to a Delaforum
request for comment.
While
there are strong indications the language in the proposal seeks
to assure school officials and, more to the point, legislators
outside the city of a cooperative attitude, it strongly
addresses what several members of the schools committee
identified as basic principles.
The plan
it puts forth "creates a structure designed to minimize the
risks currently faced by Wilmington's children and maximizes
opportunities for [those] children to achieve academic
success," it states.
It goes
on to say that the plan which is adopted "must provide
opportunities for Wilmington's students to attend quality
neighborhood schools from [kindergarten through 12th grade]
within the city of Wilmington ... [and] must endow Wilmington's
parents and community with meaningful control over the entity
[and] process that govern neighborhood schools."
If
Wilmington is allowed to establish a charter-school consortium
and move toward a district comprised of charter schools, it
would be a pioneer nationally in that regard. The burgeoning
charter school movement is directed almost entirely to overlay
conventional public school districts. There are a few charter
districts, mostly in rural areas, in California and Georgia.
A charter
school is a public school in that it is financed through
tax-supported tuition from districts in which its students
reside. Without having to abide by many of the administrative
and structural regulations and requirements imposed on
conventional public schools, charters are able to function much
like private schools.
The draft
proposal takes note of the resultant competitive factor by a
provision that would allow the conventional districts, if they
desire or agree to respond to a consortium request, to operate
one or more schools within the city.
The
districts would be required to transfer ownership of their
schools within the city to the consortium, which would have to
give a year's notice of a desire to acquire a building. The
dist5ricts would not be paid for the buildings but the state
would assume any debt attached to it.
Existing
charter schools would be exempt from having to become a part of
the consortium, although nothing would prevent their seeking to
do so. Charter School of Wilmington, which is located in the
former Wilmington High School building, is chartered by the Red
Clay district. There are three state-chartered elementary
schools in the East Side.
The
consortium would be governed by a seven-member board of
managers. Four would be appointed by the mayor; two by City Council
and one by the New Castle County executive. Unlike a school
district, the consortium would have no taxing power. Its money
would come from tuitions which accompany students and
"through traditional nonprofit methods" for raising
funds from corporations, foundations and the like.
Students
would be accepted by the city charter schools through
application. Enrollment would be open to anyone, regardless or
residence, but prospective students living in the city would
receive preference.
Having
the five districts continue to operate within the city would
avoid the major disruption of a wholesale reassignment of city
children to a new educational entity, the proposal notes. It
does concede that the districts most likely will come up with
plans for assigning students to schools closest to their homes,
as the state law provides.
The
proposal, however, calls upon the districts to implement the
neighborhood schools committee's priority recommendations for
'education enhancement'. It also advocates establishment of
local or neighborhood school councils, which would have at least
quasiofficial status in dealing with the affairs of individual
schools.
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