The Redding Consortium voted on its budget for fiscal year 2025 Monday night.
A New Castle County education agency plans to put $5.7 million into in-school health services and outside time service $3.7 million into pre-K in 2025.
Those are the biggest items in the Redding Consortium for Educational Equity’s $14.6 million budget, which began July 1.
The consortium also will put $1.6 million into planning for redistricting Christina School District and removing it completely from the city of Wilmington.
The consortium was created in 2019 to suggest policies and practices to the governor and legislators to improve education equity and outcomes in the city of Wilmington and Northern New Castle County.
“There’s a lot of money that’s going out, I trust that the money is going to be managed properly, that’s not the concern,” said Sen. Eric Buckson, R-Dover, in the group’s meeting this week. “What I’m looking for is a return on the investment, a better understanding of where the money is being spent and what is the return on that.”
Sen. Elizabeth “Tizzy” Lockman, D-Wilmington and consortium co-chair, said she’s excited to represent the group and its financial goals in front of the Joint Finance Committee to explain how the work is going.
The JFC is responsible for making the state budget and allocating the millions of dollars that Redding receives each year.
Here’s the consortium’s budget for fiscal year 2025:
1. Redding pre-k slots: $3.7 million
These funds support the Consortium’s recommendation that the state support full-day pre-K slots for children in feeder patterns for high-poverty elementary schools in the city of Wilmington, with enhanced reimbursements for front-line staff to allow for improved
recruitment and retention of Pre-K workers.
2. Outside school time services and in-school health services: $5.7 million
This funding is required to maintain the three-year commitment made to the schools that successfully responded to the state’s Request For Proposal, and who just completed the first year of their programming.
3. Scholarships: $730,371
These funds pay for scholarships for faculty and staff at high- poverty schools to enhance their skills and professional credentials. This is about double the amount recommended last year, to reflect the popularity of the program.
4. Whole school professional development: $785,000, all in carryover funds.
The consortium delegates to the co-chairs of the Education Working Group, Tika Hartsock and Karen Eller, the authority to recommend to the consortium how these one-time funds should be spent on professional development in city of Wilmington schools.
5. Support for Redistricting Planning: $1.598 million, all in carryover funds
The consortium’s co-chairs will make recommendations to the group on how to spend these funds, with the exception of awarding a grant based on competing proposals from vendors pre-approved by the Delaware Department of Education for preparation of the initial “landscape” analysis.
The landscape analysis grant will be awarded, based on competing proposals, by consortium members Sen. Tizzy Lockman, Red Clay Superintendent Dorrell Green and Raye Jones Avery.
RELATED: State moves to take Christina School District out of city
6. Racial equity data dashboard: $1,204,525, all in carryover funds
This reflects one-time costs that will be incurred by the Department of Education for the construction of the data dashboard, which was one of the consortium’s formal recommendations.
7. Middle school/high school OST Programming (“Boost” Program): $640,000 in carryover funds.
This would provide the second of two years of state funding for the existing Boost program to continue at its current level of operation.
The program is a commitment from city high schools to work together to help rising seniors from the city of Wilmington graduate and achieve their post-high school goals.
RELATED: Boost ’22 Collab Results In 88% Of City Students Graduating
8. UD/DSU Staff Support for the Redding Consortium: $240,000
This money funds the partnerships Redding has with UD and DSU staff members, who provide staff support to the consortium and work groups related to data, research, administration and planning.
One example is Shelley Rouser, who is chair of DSU’s Department of Education.
Raised in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Jarek earned a B.A. in journalism and a B.A. in political science from Temple University in 2021. After running CNN’s Michael Smerconish’s YouTube channel, Jarek became a reporter for the Bucks County Herald before joining Delaware LIVE News.
Jarek can be reached by email at [email protected] or by phone at (215) 450-9982. Follow him on Twitter @jarekrutz
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