Solutions for Delaware Schools, Volume 1: Redistricting in the City of Wilmington and New Castle County: A Transition, Resource, and Implementation Plan

This book is the first volume in the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission’s series, Solutions for Delaware Schools. It will be followed by reports that focus on key areas of the Commission’s mandate: meeting the needs of students in poverty, improving charter and district collaboration, and strengthening parent, educator, and community engagement in support of Delaware’s public schools. The Commission also will submit an annual report to the people of Delaware, the Governor, General Assembly, and State Board of Education (State Board) that tracks progress against the milestones set out in this Plan and that also informs our citizens and leaders on actions needed to address the challenges facing public education throughout our state. In front of us now—for the first time since Brown v Board (1954)—is the opportunity to equitably provide funding for low-income students, English language learners and other students with special needs statewide and to significantly reduce the variability and fragmentation, which is particularly acute in the City of Wilmington. There have been many attempts to get this right in our state’s history and unfortunately, inertia has always won the day. This time must be different. On August 4, 2015, Governor Markell signed two pieces of legislation passed with overwhelming support by the Delaware General Assembly: Senate Bill (SB) 122 and House Bill (HB) 148. These two pieces of legislation created the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission and gave it the opportunity to build an expansive coalition to transform Delaware schools. The Commission has done exactly that and produced the Plan published in this book as the first key step for the systematic improvement of Delaware public education to better serve all students. The Commission was established with a broad statewide mandate, extending until June 30, 2021, to advise the Governor and General Assembly on improving the availability of high-quality public education, meeting the needs of all Delaware schools with high concentrations of low-income students, English language learners and other students at risk, and recommending policies to promote the continuous improvement of public education