The WLC is prioritizing the nine elementary schools included in the signed agreement before scaling its programs.

WLC will focus on tasks at hand, not expanding to other schools

Jarek RutzHeadlines, Education

The new head of the Wilmington Learning Collaborative pushed back Tuesday night on suggestions that the new agency expand to include more city elementary schools. “This is a long journey, this is going to take many years to get our schools where they need to be,” said  Laura Burgos, the group’s executive director.  That’s not going to happen by adding …

Christina School District plans on having one or two more town halls this year.

Christina school district holds first town hall in 2 years

Jarek RutzHeadlines, Education

Christina School District held a community town hall Tuesday night to allow parents, district staff and students to ask questions and share concerns with the school board.  This was the first town hall the school board had held in two years. “We want to know the good things that are going on in the district, we want to know the …

The Wilmington Learning Collaborative has finalized a preliminary budget for next year, which includes $10 million in spending.

Learning Collab sets $10 million prelim. budget 

Jarek RutzHeadlines, Education

The Wilmington Learning Collaborative has proposed a way to spend the $10 million it will get from the state next year as the effort to improve educational and societal outcomes for the Wilmington students ramps up. The group’s governing council voted to approve the budget Tuesday night, and it will now head to the Department of Education for approval before …

Dr. Edward Ryans, left, and Dr. Laura Burgos, are the two WLC executive director finalists.

Learning Collab picks 2 finalists for executive director

Jarek RutzHeadlines, Education

The Wilmington Learning Collaborative has narrowed the search for an executive director to two finalists after months of appealing for applications and then sifting through more than 100 candidates. Dr. Laura Burgos and Dr. Edward Ryans are the finalists for the job, said council member Alethea Smith-Tucker during the Thursday night meeting of the collaborative’s governing council meeting.  The Wilmington …

Learning Collab seeks permission to extend planning period

Jarek RutzHeadlines, Education

The council of the Wilmington Learning Collaborative will ask the three participating districts to amend their memorandum of understanding to extend the council’s planning period.  “We’ve got one shot at this,” said councilman Lincoln Hohler, who is Brandywine School District’s superintendent. “We can’t come back to the community with another failed initiative and say we want to reboot, we get …

Wilmington Learning Collaborative officials discussed Friday the next steps for the equity-focused group. (Pexels)

Learning Collab council grapples with leader, meetings

Jarek RutzHeadlines, Education

In Friday’s first public meeting of the Wilmington Learning Collaborative’s board, members focused on ironing out the specifics on how the organization will move forward. Among the issues they tackled were selecting a temporary secretary to handle organization issues; setting meeting times; and forming committees to tackle the three main goals of the board. The collaborative is designed to improve …

The Learning Collab needs to fill out the remaining seats of its governing council and conduct a needs assessment of each school. (Pexels)

Here’s what the Learning Collab will do to get started

Jarek RutzHeadlines, Education

The Wilmington Learning Collaborative already is forming the council that will govern it. Once the council is established, it will order a needs assessment, which will help the council decide where to put or share resources. Those are the starting tasks of the new education group that state, city and district officials hope will help raise learning and test scores …

Christina School District is looking for a new model to evaluate Superintendent Dan Shelton.

Christina board looking for new model to evaluate superintendent

Jarek RutzEducation, Headlines

Christina School District’s school board explored a new model to evaluate its superintendent and other administrators during a board workshop Tuesday night.  Dr. John Marrinuci, executive director of the Delaware School Boards Association, showed a new plan to the board that was created by a different district’s board member as part of her doctoral dissertation.  It’s more in-depth than the …