Merv, CFO, Pati Nash, and Ted A in studio with Rick
Red Clay playing Neighborhood School Act card for justification for new school! But yet no middle or high school Red Clay traditional in the city! is Wilmington not a neighborhood ?
Red Clay says there are new schools in Wilmington called charters ! LAME !
Rick’s drifting of the topic of referendum and now on Race to The Top!
FYI Kilroy’s feeds to Twitter and Facebook!
Kilroy was on hold ! I hung-up because Rick moves conversation to Race to The Top and stuff not related to “capital” referendum.
Like all city charter schools serve Wilmington residences!
Red clay scapegoats on no Red Clay traditional middle and high school in Wilmington! Say there is plenty of charter schools!
Red Clay can’t say what the new feeder patter will be for new school! Rick calls Red Clay out on this and says why wasn’t part of planning! Red Clay pretty much said it takes too long so let’s build the school and will address it.
So the busing of Wilmington Red Clay student to middle and high school continues.
What about traditional middle and high school for city kids Merv! Come Rick use your brain!
What about the news seats open at Lewis once the new dual language charter school opens?
Segregation in Red Clay ! OUCH
Yea lady what about the Wilmington middle and high school kids riding the busing ! Rick give her a cookie and move on!
OK Cab is beautiful! Move on !
Kilroy say F it re: sitting on hold for this bullshit! Yap yap yap !
Bonnie went Elvis
Yvonne is on! Yes Yvonne let’s fix Cab ! I am with you!
What about traditional middle and high schools in Wilmington ? Red Clay doesn’t want to address that need!
Merv plays the Neighborhood Schools Act card! So what about middle and high school neighborhood schools in the city??
Wake up Wilmington! Your Red Clay middle and high school kids are getting screwed !
Rick just drank some Kool-aid !
Lady going to vote no on referendum! Cites recession!
Rick lives in a $56,000.00 shack ! LOL 
Kilroy is on hold!
Mike ? is on concerned about traffic and need to upgrade 4 intersection ! Red Clay says no impact study done! Bullshit Ted!
Come on Ted don’t pull a Brett on us!
Will be on Podcast this afternoon
I think I was pretty fair during my call in ! I support public schools and we must maintain them! But I still take issue with the new school!
Filed under: Uncategorized
Just started listening… Did they really cite city charter schools? Are they really basing district policy on schools outside their control? What’s the plan if those charters close? Oh, I forgot, city schools are under capacity – except they aren’t – or they are? I’m sure you get the idea. Wonder if space would suddenly open up in city schools (again) if a charter wanted to move in.
Will try and call in, but I have to run out – hopefully will get back in time.
Yes! Playing off as there were new schools built in Wilmington!
I was on hold and Rick starts talking about RTTT!
Argh I had to be in a meeting, what else did I miss?!
Not much! No meaningful dialog about Red Clay traditional middle and high school services in Wilmington!
If you get through… what programs were pulled out of Linden Hill, North Star and BSS due to overcrowding? Surely, if city schools stand to lose programs then these schools must have lost programs such as TAG, Tech, etc. Right?
Listening to this I am left with one thought… Red Clay asks for money without doing any research. No idea of feeders for new school. No impact study on traffic. No plan for Lewis when new charter opens.
sorry I was updating and didn’t see you questions
I don’t personally believe that a city district is a good idea, but Red Clay’s “vision” and attitude as far as the needs of city residents is concerned (and apparently their planning abilities across the board) is simply shocking in its disregard. I honestly had no idea.
What are they doing for the 5 K-5 schools they created with over 80% low income children?
Heritage is 1.4 miles from Linden Hill and last year “feeder” enrollment was 286 chilldren under program capacity—yet they jam children into Linden Hill and spend thousands on portable classroom rooms.
Brandywine Springs has 422 choice students—keep jamming more in—we are going to have more high poverty schools and empty classrooms to maintain–and more charter schools.
Why not add 6-7-8 into Dickinson and make BSS K-5?
I agree a citywide school district might be questionable but certainly we can study reducing 4 district down to 2 within Wilmington. I just feel bad that city middle and high school kids are being bused by force of feeder-patterns. Are they not deserving neighborhood schools? Red Clay’s analogy there are new schools in Wilmington (charters) is BS and doesn’t answer the question about “Red Clay” middle school services! Red Clay is building a Camelot school system for the kids in the suburbs and are fearful to touching Wilmington that might raise segregation flag! Honestly change has to come from Wilmington’s parents! What do they want and how to get it! I could be wrong and perhaps Wilmington parents are happy with the middle and high school busing out ! But I know, I wouldn’t be happy. So, hopeful the Title 1 event on March 3 might yield some questions
“Why not add 6-7-8 into Dickinson and make BSS K-5?”
Nice call Jack! Conrad has 6-12 why not Dickinson!
Well, we’re feedered for AIMS and AIHS, see the Wilmington campus as a possible option, and don’t consider any of those to be busing out, particularly…
I would not be averse to options being provided more in town, especially if they are able to achieve socioeconomically viable populations at those schools. We all know this makes a difference in what opportunities a school can provide, and always will on some level no matter what band-aid high-needs resources are thrown at isolated populations…I can’t imagine I will be changing my mind about that and our current, wasteful and shady “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” approach anytime soon.
As for wanting a neighborhood school…like everyone else, I think, great leadership, teaching and atmosphere are the most important things to me in a school, more important than to use school down the block (I could send my kid to Ursuline if my top concern was “nearby”). I’d love to find these things reasonably within my community, go to school with people I view as my neighbors, and ultimately did well in what we got for elementary, thank God – but by the skin of my teeth and apparently in spite of the district’s work.
I’m only just discovering how city parents have been painted into a corner and flung to the wind for quite a few years now. With any luck the referendum debacle will bring some of us, and other allies, together. Who knows?
Here are the Red Clay feeder patterns
http://www.redclay.k12.de.us/attendancezones/schools/AIMS.pdf
http://www.redclay.k12.de.us/attendancezones/schools/HBMS.pdf
http://www.redclay.k12.de.us/attendancezones/schools/Skyline.pdf
http://www.redclay.k12.de.us/attendancezones/schools/Stanton.pdf
http://www.redclay.k12.de.us/attendancezones/schools/AIHS.pdf
http://www.redclay.k12.de.us/attendancezones/schools/Dickinson.pdf
http://www.redclay.k12.de.us/attendancezones/schools/Mckean.pdf
At best I think it’s time for “Wilmington” residence to review the services Red Clay provide and the transportation issues / feeder patterns. Also it would be good to know how many Wilmington students did get first school choice, into Cab ,into Charter school of Wilmington and other charter schools. The big question is, is there someone who can motivate Wilmington parents to assets these issue for the sake of Wilmington. You know that old saying, you snooze you lose! The economy is changing and do we want another generation of Wilmington kids not being the best they can be and getting their due!
I know in my heart a day will come for a new civil rights movement for “all” people! “Change” is in the air but it’s not free!
I guess the first step is establishing voice and being recognized by the district as a neighborhood with the same needs as those in Hockessin. Stating that Wilmington has new schools in the form of charters as a reason for Red Clay not to invest in new schools in Wilmington is lame! Is that the plan to let charters consume Wilmington so Red Clay don’t have to deal with Wilmington? Would be cheaper for the Red Clay taxpayers to sell that land to a charter school organization. They never stated where they would get the operating funds to operate the new school re: added utilities and ongoing maintenance. Currently the district is moving into deficit operational spending compounded by Markell’s budget cut. Next year or two odds are they’ll be call for an Operational Referendum!
The problem with city parents uniting is the fact that we are fighting four school Districts. Our voice isn’t heard when put up against bigger communities. If you split any other area in Red Clay up their voice would be diminished, as well.
But the real problem is that Red Clay caters to certain communities at the expense of other communities.
As far as Lewis which is currently at 73.6% capacity ( I said 67% on-air my bad), the new charter school within blocks of Lewis will have up to 600 students. It offers dual-language just like Lewis.Sure Lewis could dump it’s dual language program but it would need to fill the void.
It’s unbelievable that Red Clay doesn’t know what the feeder pattern will be and my God they don’t know the cost associated with highway impact study which none was not performed! Red Clay said, they’ll address that once the referendum passes!
Jack Wells had a great idea ! Put Brandwine Springs back to K-5 and make Dickinson 6-12 like Cab and Conrad ! Dickinson has the room
“Is that the plan to let charters consume Wilmington so Red Clay don’t have to deal with Wilmington?”
That’s sure what it feels like!
I understand the purpose and benefits of charters and magnets but I want full systemic change for all and I can’t really get over the feeling that charters are band-aid fixes – a too easy way to buy off motivated parents and squeaky wheels so the status quo can be continued at schools from which all potential advocates have been siphoned off.
A great assessment was done in 2001, I am reading it now – a committee presented pretty comprehensively on what they felt was was needed for Wilmington schools to flourish. This committee was a coalition of a dozen+ people representing a range of neighborhoods, city departments – a very nice cross section of recognizable community leaders. No one seems to have heeded their well documented concerns and recommendations; or at least they were undermined by other policy. But! An update *would* be nice…
Metropolitan Model
http://www.christina.k12.de.us/archive/neighborhood/Avery_PPT.pdf
The legislators deferred the decision to the state board of education which ended up allowing each district to submit their own Neighborhood School Plans
http://www.doe.k12.de.us/infosuites/ddoe/sbe/neigborhood.shtml
[...] Kilroy live-blogged the show. Go over to his place and read the whole thing! [...]
A 6-12 school is a horrible idea. Do you want 11-12 year old children in schools with 18-20 year old adults? No way.
And the admin doesn’t care about city parents because city parents can’t mobilize. If you’re lucky you may get 20 city parents to come together and mobilize and pull together a little juice ( and really do you want some city council members backing your cause?)
But get some more affluent suburbs panties in a bunch and they will get hundreds involved. They will have state legislators on their side, county reps, and depending where they live u.s. senators breathing down the admins backs.
but Conrad and Cab are 6-12!
Sad to say but somethings I think Wilmington is a wart on Red Clay’s ass!
Which is why maybe there needs to be better governance of city schools across districts and including charters – a group equipped to oversee that function in a way the admin/board clearly currently is not, a group that doesn’t feel the need to choose being beholden to one set of needs over another. I believe that’s used elsewhere and is called a Local School Council? A single large district can have several…
Just throwing that out there.
I like that idea, Coolspringer. If we had a Local School Council advocating for all city schools our numbers and voice would grow.
Yes I agree and before any consideration of district consolidation in Wilmington or a Wilmington school district there needs to be a sense of ownership and empowerment by Wilmington residence over their “neighborhood” schools. Red Clay says you have new schools called charters! Go take control of them and leave us alone!
The conversation has to shift from Red Clay tell Wilmington what they are going to do for Wilmington to Wilmington tell Red Clay this is what we need and this is our expectations of what we want you to do. The “public” in pubic school means just that! Red Clay is an organization and the first rule of economics is “organizations exist to serve people” not themselves.
The local school council should exclude those who have $$ contracts with the school districts. And 75% should be those who have children in school.
I totally “borrowed” the concept from the 2001 era Wilmington Neighborhood Schools Committee document, suggesting that as part of a proposed Red Clay/Brandywine/Wilmington metropolitan school district/tax base – still adhering to neighborhood school requirements.
Totally agree on the $$ contracts/conflict of interest thing.
I want some more kool aid.
back to your cage Kavips
Just began building it…. lol..
http://kavips.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/kavips-takes-on-education/
[...] finally, as recounted by Kilroy, there is the February 12 radio show in which Red Clay Superintendent Merv Daugherty was asked [...]