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Aligning classes in three, rather than
four, tiers moved a step closer in the Brandywine School district when
one of the groups working to reduce excess capacity decided to recommend
it.
The 'educational best practices'
subcommittee reached a consensus decision to present that to the
parallel 'facilities site' subcommittee as, by far, its first choice
among four options. The break between elementary and middle school would
occur after fifth grade. The other group is charged to determine if the
options can be cost-effectively accommodated while cutting overcapacity
at least in half by closing one or more schools. The second-choice
option would be a two-tier system splitting after eighth grade.
Runners-up would be keeping the present alignment, and dividing
elementary and middle schools after sixth grade.
At a meeting on Oct. 30 the 'best
practices' subcommittee also established as overall priorities when
making any changes: retaining 'socioeconomic diversity' among students;
keeping the three four-year high schools intact; aligning attendance
zones in a way which permits all groups of students to move together
from kindergarten through high school; and 'optimizing' the number of
students in each grade level with a minimum of three classes per grade
in elementary schools and an unspecified smaller number of students per
grade in middle schools. (CLICK
HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)
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STILL A
WAYS OFF: Rehabilitation of the final segment of the major
sewer line along Governor Printz Boulevard will
be put out for bids in August, 2008, with completion of the project
about two years after that, Jon Husband, a Department of Special
Services manager, told a public meeting on the status of the
overhaul of the sanitary-sewer network in Brandywine Hundred. That means
it will be at least 2010 before sewer capacity will be available for any
major new development project in northernmost New Castle County.
Existing capacity, however, will allow the phased development of
Renaissance Village to proceed, he said.
Assistant county engineer David Hofer
told the sparsely-attended meeting on Oct. 29 that between 20% and 25%
of the network upgrade is either completed, being worked on or designed,
but he said he was unable to be specific about how much of the work is
actually finished. Biggest problem, he said, is catching up with about
4,000 of the approximately 24,000 houses in the hundred that have
connections which put stormwater into sanitary sewers. He said a belief
common in some quarters that existing ones have been 'grandfathered' is
untrue. Such hook-ups "have never been legal" in the county, he said.
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LOTS OF READING GOING ON:
There are nearly
287,000 active card-carrying patrons of the county library system who
made 2.8 million visits to the libraries and borrowed more than 6
million books and other material in the fiscal year ended June 30. That,
according to Anne Farley, general manager of the Department of Community
Services, is well on the high side of proportionate participation in any
public library system in the nation. There are just over 500,000 county
residents, but cards are also issued, for a fee, to non-residents. The
total does not include cards issued by the Wilmington Institute library.
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Renaissance Village could take as long
as 10 years to construct, but the Commonwealth-Setting joint venture
hopes to cut that to somewhere between five and seven years.
Timing "depends on the market," Robert Ruggio,
executive vice president of the Commonwealth Group, told the Claymont
Design Review Advisory Committee. In his first public report since
County Council gave final approval in June to the plan to put 1,226
residential units and 41,704 square feet of commercial space on the
68-acre site of the former Brookview apartments complex, he said the
project is proceeding on a to-be-expected pace. Environmental
remediation has reached a stage where initial demolition could occur in
mid-November, he said. Actual building of the first townhouses is now
projected to begin in August, 2008.
Ruggio provided a five-phase
'build-out' plan at the committee meeting
on Oct. 24. The first phase will be
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The 'build-out' plan
for Renaissance Village |
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the
stormwater management area along Darley Road which also includes a set
of 'sample' townhouses. He said the fate of the empty water tank
towering over the project has not been determined.. It now holds four
communications relay units. Promising to keep the community informed
through representatives invited to bi-weekly project meetings, he
emphasized that all work will continue to be done without impairing the
health and welfare of children at Claymont Intermediate School and
nearby residents. (CLICK
HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)
"This is a considerably large,
complicated project that is going to go on for a considerable length of
time," County Councilman John Cartier said.
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AIRPORT
SUIT: County Council agreed to look into
possible involvement in a suit to
block implementation of the Federal Aviation Administration's plan to
redesign approaches to Philadelphia International Airport, but stopped
well short of what the three Arden municipalities requested. A
substitute version of a resolution sponsored by Councilman John Cartier
was passed by a 12-to-1 vote on Oct. 23 after reference to possibly
making a $50,000 contribution to help finance the suit was dropped. It
simply requested the county law department to "explore the necessary
legalities, policies and procedures" associated with involvement.
Cartier pointed declined to seek
testimony from county attorney Gregg Wilson after Amy Pollock, of
Ardencroft, said county intervention would have to be determined before
a Nov. 5 filing deadline. During an afternoon finance committee meeting
Wilson participated in discussion of Cartier's resolution, but only
after the committee voted to conduct that conversation in executive
session behind closed doors. Before the floor vote Cartier said the
large number of flights adversely affected quality of life and Robert
Weiner said they contribute to the county's air-quality problem. Jea
Street cast the negative vote on the resolution. (CLICK
HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)
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ANSWERS AWAITED: County Councilman
William Bell told Delaforum that he and council president Paul Clark
have questioned Coons administration officials about police force
manpower and expect a response soon in order to "decide what we're going
to do." Specifically, he said, it is still hoped that a police academy
class can begin training before its scheduled March start. In an
apparently unrelated development, Ernest Frazier announced his
resignation as director of public safety after 15 months in that
position. He said he plans to offer consulting services on 'homeland
security' to private and public-agency clients. (CLICK
HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)
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TEACHER
HONORED: Courtney Fox,
who teaches first grade in the 'gifted and talented' program at Mount Pleasant Elementary School, has been
selected as the state 'teacher-of-the-year'. This is the fifth time in
the past 11 years that a Brandywine School District teacher has received
the honor. Brandywine has had more winners than any other district since
the award was inaugurated in 1965, according to the state Department of
Education. Fox has spent her entire
career since graduating from the University of Delaware in 1998 employed
by the
district.
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The
Brandywine school board unanimously approved proposed 'restructuring
strategies' in the event that three schools do not come out from
under federal sanctions this academic year.
Judy Curtis, director of elementary
education and administrative services, told the board that "there is a
different level of commitment" as the staffs at P.S. du Pont
Intermediate, Talley Middle and Brandywine High work to improve test
performance of groups of students who failed to make 'adequate yearly
progress' under the No Child Left Behind law. Included in the effort,
she said, are providing tutoring and extra instruction time. "What we're
doing ... is what we should be doing anyway" even if mandated
restructuring were not looming at the start of the 2008-09 academic
year, she said at the board meeting on Oct. 22.
The approved option, identical for all
three schools, provides for "restructuring of the school's governance
arrangement that makes fundamental reforms ... to improve student
academic achievement in the school and that [have] substantial promise
of enabling the school to make adequate yearly progress." The plans to
be submitted to the state Department of Education include three
more-specific options which the board was not asked to approve:
conversion to a public charter school, replacing all or most of the
'relevant' school staff, and contracting with an outside "entity" to
operate the school. (CLICK
HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)
Also approved by the board were
'corrective action' proposals for Hanby Middle and Mount Pleasant High,
which are under less-severe sanctions.
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REDESIGN
POSSIBLE: Grade configurations in the Brandywine School District
will not have to conform to present use of its buildings nor do they
have to be uniform across the district, Superintendent Jim Scanlon told
the subcommittee charged with recommending them. The primary guiding
principle, he said at a meeting on Oct. 17, will be which combinations
would be deemed best educationally. Cost-benefit analyses would
determine whether the necessary retrofitting could be justified, he
said. For example, "if the best scenario is K-6 (kindergarten through
sixth grade), we could put on an addition," he said.
Committee member Scott Van Bramen
advocated exploring the possibility of grouping kindergarten through
eighth grade in one of the larger buildings. Michael Stetteer suggested
that the once-common system of elementary and secondary schools
divided at the sixth- or seventh-grade level might work well given that
the P.S. du Pont, Mount Pleasant and Claymont originally housed
junior-senior high schools. Also under study by the subcommittee are
retaining the present four-tier configuration or going to three tiers
with the split between elementary and middle schools coming after either
the fourth, fifth or sixth grade. (CLICK
HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)
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PLANES SUIT DOWNPLAYED: Under the
best-case scenario, the federal appeals court in Philadelphia could
order the Federal Aviation Agency back to the drawing boards to come up
with a new plan for redesigning New York-New Jersey-Philadelphia air
space, according to county attorney Gregg Wilson. "It's not a case where
a judge is going to move airplanes from one place to another," he said.
While stopping short of recommending against joining in a suit aimed at
blocking the present plan, he said county government will have "ample
opportunity" to get involved if the court does not simply approve the
present plan.
Councilman John Cartier said he intends
to introduce a resolution requesting that the law department "explore"
the ramifications of helping to finance a suit by the three Arden
municipalities. Stephen Donato, a resident of Brandywine Hundred who has
been active in the long-running campaign to reduce Philadelphia
International Airport traffic over the area, asked for $50,000 of county
money at a meeting of Council's land use committee on Oct. 16.
Councilman Joseph Reda said the problem in Brandywine Hundred is no
worse than what is caused by Air National Guard and business aviation
flights at the county airport.
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County
Council, with minimal discussion, enacted the
controversial ordinance reducing
the residential property tax exclusion for seniors and disabled persons
by an eight-to-five vote.
"This does not go anywhere near where I
think we have to go" to deal with what county officials have said is a
pending fiscal crisis, Councilman George Smiley, who sponsored the
measure, said at a finance committee meeting. But, he added, "there are
no multi-million dollar ways to reduce our deficit or increase our
budget." At Council's plenary session later in the day Council president
Paul Clark said by far the larger property-tax burden affecting seniors
is "the overwhelming cost of supporting schools." Although county
government bills for school tax, it is levied by the school boards.
County Council has no control over the rate.
Voting with Smiley and Clark on Oct. 9 in
support of the measure were John Cartier, Penrose Hollins, Stephanie
McClellan, Joseph Reda, Jea Street and William Tansey. Casting
opposing votes were William Bell, William Powers, Timothy Sheldon, David
Tackett and Robert Weiner. In a separate action, Council unanimously
approved an ordinance sponsored by Hollins which makes an otherwise
qualified homeowner who is in arrears on tax and sewer fee payments but
is paying off the debts in installments under an agreement with the
county eligible for an exemption. (CLICK
HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)
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HOMETOWN STATUS GRANTED: County
Council unanimously approved measures conferring hometown zoning on an
area along Kennett Pike in Centreville. James Smith, of the Department
of Land Use, said owners of every affected property in the 59-acre
'overlay' area were invited to participate in an extensive planning
process under the auspices of the Centreville Civic Association. Before
Council voted, a provision in the accompanying 'village plan' to
'encourage' preservation of the interior designs of historic structures
was deleted on the grounds it might be a deterrent to preservation of
the structure itself.
Smith said no existing property rights
would be affected and basic zoning of the properties would be unchanged.
John Theilacker, of the Brandywine Conservancy, said hometown status
will enable Centreville to "maintain and enhance its village character."
In a separate action on Oct. 9, Council approved, also unanimously,
historic zoning of eight-tenths of an acre on Center Meeting Road
abutting the southeastern corner of the hometown zone. Mario Gangemi
told Council that a building on that site will be modified for 'adaptive
reuse' as attorneys' offices. (CLICK
HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)
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NATIONAL
RECOGNITION: Lancashire Elementary
was one of three schools in the state and 287 in the nation designated
to receive the U.S. Department of Education's 2007 'No Child Left Behind
Blue Ribbon' award. McVey and Wilson Elementary in the Christina
district were the other Delaware schools honored.
One of the most prestigious education awards
in the country, it recognizes public and nonpublic schools where
students achieve at high levels in standardized testing while making
significant progress in closing the 'achievement gap' for children from
'disadvantaged backgrounds'.
In a press statement issued by the
Brandywine district, Lancashire principal
Peter Barry said, "The teachers and staff here are totally committed to
creating an atmosphere of warmth and love, while having high
expectations for every student.” He said
test
scores were improved "through a combination of a positive school climate
based on mutual respect for all, with highly effective instruction
designed to meet each student’s needs." Lancashire was one of nine
Brandywine schools rated 'superior' this year under the federal law's
criteria and ranked in the top three Brandywine elementary schools in
state assessment testing scores. (CLICK
HERE
to read previous Delaforum article.)
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A series
of sure-to-be-controversial
ordinances to implement some of the significant changes in county
land-use policy envisioned by the recently enacted comprehensive plan
are being prepared.
"There are going to be more proposals to
change land-use laws in the next six months than ever before. ... We're
going to try to move things as much as we can," chief administrative
officer Jeffrey Bullock told a meeting of 'umbrella' civic association
officers. Charles Baker, general manager of the Department of Land Use,
said the department is finishing work on a proposed 'inclusionary
housing' ordinance which Councilman Penrose Hollins intends to
introduce. It will "force or provide incentives for developers to
provide a broader range of housing prices," Baker said at the meeting on
Oct. 4.
Meanwhile, Councilwoman Stephanie
McClellan has formed a committee to look at various 'smart-growth'
options. At a recent by-invitation meeting a consultant hired by the
land use department presented a draft of a 50-page ordinance providing
for establishing such things as 'villages' and 'hamlets'. Also meeting,
under the auspices of Councilman William Powers, is a committee
exploring how to provide for transfer of development rights. Less
further along are measures providing for small-business growth and other
economic development that will fall under the purview of Councilman
Robert Weiner. (CLICK
HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)
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ENROLLMENT DROPS: Brandywine School
District's 'official' enrollment is about 10,215, down 2% from 10,406
last year, but well above the 10,095 estimated when the school board
adopted a preliminary fiscal 2008 budget. Superintendent Jim Scanlon
said the count at the end of September, by which the teacher
authorization and other state financing is determined, may change
slightly as the status of a few students is determined. He added,
however, that the count is in line with long-term University of Delaware
projections being used as the rationale for closing schools to reduce
districtwide overcapacity.
At a meeting of the Space Consolidation
Committee on Oct. 2, Scanlon read, without commenting, a letter from a
district resident recommending that the district follow the precedent
set when districts were merged under the 1978 desegregation order and
target Spring Middle and Lancashire Elementary as the most likely
closure candidates. Their locations on major roads makes them
susceptible to commercial use as taxable and job-generating properties,
he wrote. Delaforum informally counted seven former schools in what is
now the Brandywine district that were sold for commercial or residential
development. (CLICK
HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)
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GOING ON
LINE: Contractors who'll be required to obtain
county licenses to do business after Jan.
1 will be able to file an application, pay the fee by credit card and
print out the license under a first-of-its-kind system being set up by
the Department of Land Use. Charles Baker, general manager of the
department, told a County Council committee on Oct. 2 that it is
anticipated that computer contact will become the norm for permitting
and other administrative functions. The department already has an
extensive website where it publishes an array of information which
previously required an office visit to obtain.
Baker said that the department is
expanding its inspector force to enforce the new licensing law which
applies to an estimated 23,000 firms and individuals involved in
any construction-related activity. The only work not within its purview,
he said, will be that done by do-it-yourselfers of friends helping out
without pay. While most of the enforcement will be complaint-driven,
code enforcement officers will stop by jobs they observe to verify that
contractors and subcontractors are all licensed, Baker said. The
county-license requirement is in addition to the sate business-license
requirement, he added. (CLICK
HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)
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When the yard waste
dumping ban goes into effect in January, anyone who trims overhang
from an adjoining property may pile the stuff on the neighbor's
property. County Councilman George Smiley said the attorney general has
ruled that would be legally returning property to its original owner.
Last
updated on October 31, 2007
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