Hispanic, STEM charters approved; Montessori proposal denied Written by JAMES FISHER The News Journal
Academia Antonia Alonso, for students in kindergarten through fifth grade in Wilmington. The school would focus on Hispanic English-language learners. The founding board is a partnership between Innovative Schools, a Wilmington nonprofit that aids districts and charter schools, and the Latin American Community Center, a nonprofit in Wilmington.
More on the demise Red Clay’s Lewis schools dual-language program Posted on January 22, 2012 by kilroysdelaware
Red Clay’s Lewis dual-language program gets trumped by new charter school Posted on January 21, 2012 by kilroysdelaware
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The state board only approved Innovative Schools’ partners? Really? Who’d a thunk it.
I wonder if there was one sintilla of discussion yesterday about how the Lewis School will most certainly be negatively effected.
There is legislation coming to address the lack of focus on district schools in this charter authorization process. Too bad it wasn’t before this travesty occured.
“The school’s planners don’t yet have a location secured for the school, and they have said it may share a campus with a private Montessori school.”
Looks like some kind of backwards private school deal. That would be like Charter School of Wilmington sharing space with Friends School. But Montessori didn’t have the back in of Innovative Schools aka the charter school Good Housekeeping seal for charters
Kilroy,
We know from experience we should be doing almost the exact opposite of the State Board.
Montessori should have been approved, the other two rejected.
John Young,
On what grounds would you have rejected AAA Charter? Did you see something in the application that looked amiss?
Why would parents chose sending there children to Academia Antonia Alonso instead of Lewis?
Well, Jack, that a very good question -
Why AAA over Lewis? AAA is new without a record or perception of failing. So there’s hope there that will not make the same mistakes as Lewis. Many Lewis parents believe that the school did not implement the dual language model that Red Clay chose with fidelity. And once the school was chosen as a PZ school, the de-stabilization began – three principals in two years, changing the dual language intensity mid-way through the school year, leaving parents out of the planning process, and targeting the children of those parents who have spoken out against the way the PZ planning has occurred. In fact, the school leadership informed parents in December of January that the school would no longer be a dual language school next year. The parents pushed back and were given assurances by DOE Dan that it would be. But, the evidence to date appears to show the school is heading in another direction and that the parents are still being treated as red-headed step children.
Jack,
Will it only be parents from Lewis, or will Academia Antonia Alonso be drawing from a wider area? The LACC has a pre-school program already, so they will probably be a feeder for AAA.
I don’t work at Lewis or have a kid there, but it looks like it’s not doing very well. They are also dialing back their language instruction, and there seems to be a cohort of parents who are upset by the reorganization plan. It’s possible that AAA Charter will be a better choice for some families.
Brian,
Just a generalized sense that the DOE is a messed up as a soup sandwich.
@Sturgis Your comment about “three principals in two years,” clearly is a major reason for many problems, rapid changes in principal would create problems in almost every school, and that school would be very rare. The question that must be asked and answered is, “Why did this happen?”
Interesting facts considering value of principals.
A small number of teachers in Delaware took part in a survey done by Primary Sources, 73% of these teachers stated supportive leadership is absolutely essential in retaining good teachers. {68% nationally}
I agree with the teachers and wonder why the first course of action when trying to improve a school, is not to hire an outstanding principal, rather than making a lot of changes.
{In the military when a unit fails to perform, they change the commander, they don’t change some of the officers and NCO, they expect the new commander to make the changes he deems appropriate.}
I just don’t understanding nor support the current process.
So, why not give kudos for questioning the direct connection to a private school, sounds like they were looking at the details if the discussion got to that level. Can’t say I see any reason for not approving the Early College program though, John – did you see flaws or problems with that program – certainly doesn’t seem like there is anything like it in Kent County already.
MHS,
Because the questioning, particularly of Mr. Heffernan in this case is arbitrary. Not wrong, just no rhyme, nor reason.
“Because of the school’s location, Academia Antonia Alonso believes that many of the students will come from the Red Clay and Christina School District city schools, which are within reasonable transportation distance of the school’s proposed location.”
see page 73 http://www.doe.k12.de.us/infosuites/schools/charterschools/files/LACCAppl2012.pdf
from page 74:
Demand for a dual-language program could not be quantified, but can be established anecdotally. Lewis Elementary School in Red Clay was previously the only dual-language program in Delaware; with its inclusion in the Partnership Zone, its school leaders have made it known that they are strongly considering eliminating this aspect of their school. Lewis has 270 K-2 students, many of whom were enrolled in the school by the parents because of the quality of their ELL program and the fact that it was a dual-language program. Because of the imminent changes that Lewis faces and because of its poor academic performance, it is likely that many parents will opt instead to send their children to Academia Antonia Alonso. Given the demand and waiting lists for similar charter elementary schools with strong language programs, such as Las Americas Aspira Academy (101% enrollment) and Odyssey Charter (114% enrollment), it is likely that Academia Antonia Alonso will enjoy similar enrollment success.
Good to know though, that the DOE approval standards are so exacting as to accept a new charter admitting their demand is based on anecdotes.
I heard once a kid wanted to grow up and be a foul line chalk technician at baseball parks. I bet other kids want this too, since I heard it is now an anecdote.
I bet there is sufficient demand to start a school for this. I will call Innovative Schools in the AM for assistance on which model to use.
“Restructure the dual language program at W.C. Lewis Elementary School to align with evidence-based practices” 4-18-2012 .http://www.boarddocs.com/de/rccsd/Board.nsf/Public
Academia Antonia Alonso application comments weren’t based on Red Clay board decisions, just opinions. I don’t see anything in Lewis’s PZ plan suggesting Dual Language was going to be dropped
http://www.boarddocs.com/de/rccsd/Board.nsf/Public
Date of Alonso’s application is 12/31/2011
First of all you have to know what is going on behind the scenes is CHOKING all rhyme or reason. LACC’s ED is a political animal – this is politics in the Markell-Rodel-Business Roundtable-Longwood FNDN-Delaware Community FNDN world-viewreflected by Innovative Schools, Delaware Leadership, ad nauseum.
With Paul Harrell and his band of merry followers in DDOE now led by Vision NLNS Mark Murphy, there is not a shot in hell that the Markell-appointed state board or its committees will not follow like little lambs this uber agenda (only secret for those unable to read between the lines). Look at who is on the board of East Side Charter and then trace the connections to all of the above, for instance.
What I am proposing here it the likelihood that as RTTT advanced and chozen PZ schools rejected the new charter reform model and accepted the mandate transformation model of immediate removal of school leaders and teachers, the uber agenda was advanced to persuade Lewis to step out of the way of plans for AAA.
Who knows, if things weren’t so corrupt around here, the uber agenda people might have brought this conversation into the light and maybe even convinced the rest of us of the righteousness of their path.
Would the AAA be better situated in the new Longwood downtown highrise? Are THEY AFRAID TO COMPETE WITH LEWIS or what? Is Lewis being dismantled by the insiders with the charter agenda?
If the political animals behind the scenes weren’t so hell bent on fostering privatization of our education dollars we’d be a whole lot further along by this point.
Also, Cape Gazette had a story Wednesday about the Cape SD teachers union refusing to amend a certain sunset provision in the RTTT and so no longer obligating them to the weekly 90 minute PLC meetings. OOPS.
And just like CSD’s decision –based ON the RTTT supporting
MOA on teacher due process– that led to threats of loss of millions in RTTT funding, the Cape District is now likely to lose RTTT funding.
The teachers union said they didn’t realize that all of the 1.8 million in RTTT for the district would be lost under their decision.
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Outsourcing in education employment was officially declared in the latest issue of El Tiempo – Hispano. The Spanish language weekly newspaper announced that starting in late August a group of teachers from Spain will replace veteran dual language teachers at William C. Lewis Elementary School.The editor Gabriel Piloneta Blanco disclosed in Friday’s May 25 edition that Red Clay Consolidated School District administration officials had difficulty finding qualified bilingual teachers who could teach sciences, art, and mathematics in Spanish and decided to go to Spain to find teachers with ” passion.”This unprecedented move will certainly open the flood gates for public school districts throughout the nation to hire foreign nationals,bypass the established certification process, and kindle a firestorm in upcoming labor negotiation settlements.In addition, reciprocity agreements between Delaware, surrounding states and the Commonwealth of PR. will be out the window and viewed as dated and unnecessary.Under this new standard, don’t be surprised if there will be an accelerated effort to recruit teachers from England,Ireland, India, South Africa, or Australia to teach English in inner cities where the English Department has failed.
What the article did not disclose was that has early as April an administrator from Red Clay has been asking Lewis teachers to provide housing accommodations and assistance for the new invading teachers from Spain. This is clearly illegal.On Friday afternoon, a group of dual language teachers who have been retained to work in Lewis for the academic year 2012-13 questioned why they were they being asked again for housing assistance when they had said no the first time around.The article also failed to disclose that several hispanic candidates had been interviewed for the VP position by a committee composed of parents and teachers and that the position was finally awarded to a veteran Lewis teacher who was not interviewed by the panel group in April. Community tax paying residents also don’t believe the allegation that VP candidates did not want to move to another state or that the position of VP or Principal was ever advertised in community weeklies or Red Clay’s own webpage. One parent said, ” I always read the want ads.”It is folly to think that you could not find any qualified candidates from a pool of recent graduates or veteran professionals from Pennsylvania,Puerto Rico, New Jersey in view of the recent wave of school layoffs.In retrospect, the last hispanic principal that worked at Lewis was never given the luxury of two deans to help out as the current predecessor enjoyed. Furthermore,
why was the position of principal never posted as has been the past practice.Plus if credentials,and experience matter why would the district abandon protocol?
Finally, the professional atmosphere at Lewis has been poisoned to the point where teacher’s rights of expression and assembly have been squashed. New teachers have been told to disassociate themselves from certain veteran outspoken teachers, a non teacher has been posting hostile messages on public boards, and teachers are divided into two camps( the new and the old )whenever there are Partnership Zone meetings. In the past 50 years a lot of changes have taken place at the former Cool Springs School.Meanwhile, Lewis parents are still waiting for Beau Biden, the Attorney General to respond to their April public letter.It’s a mistake to ignore the power of the voters.In November exercise your rights.
You can fool some of the people, but no all the people all the time.
In Red Clay’s case it is clear that they love to engage in a web of lies, half truths, and misinformation. The district has tried to convince k-5th grade parents that the last three VP candidates did not want to move to Delaware.The truth is that one candidate lives in New Castle, the other in Bear, and the third just 27 miles away in Philadelphia.The relocation issue is a smokescreen.Two out of three candidates did not have to move at all.
Another falsehood management is reporting to parents in community meetings is that Lewis teachers do not want to return to teach at 920 Van Buren street in the fall. Over time community residents know their teachers and know their devoted commitment to their children. They are not buying the snake oil management is selling.