Red Clay and Colonial school districts were the biggest funding beneficiaries of this year's certificate of necessity approvals.

Colonial, Red Clay biggest winners in state funding requests

Jarek Rutz Headlines, Education

The state Department of Education has made some school districts very happy by deeming their requests for state funding necessary to fulfill building projects. For fiscal year 2025, the Department of Education approved 50 certificate of necessity requests, 44 of which involved state funding. They were concentrated in six districts. Districts submit certificates of necessity each year to the department, …

The dashboard should be made public in the spring.

Redding Consortium to launch equity data dashboard in spring

Jarek Rutz Headlines, Education

The Redding Consortium expects its equity data dashboard to be completed and open for use by the public in spring 2024. The dashboard, which has been in the works for months, will include both student and educator data, broken down by several metrics. The Consortium creates and recommends policies and practices to the governor and General Assembly that will help …

reading

Indian River to spend $2.8M on science of reading curriculum

Jarek Rutz Education, Headlines

Indian River School District will spend $2.8 million on a  new science of reading curriculum expected to improve literacy rates and test scores but its school board took a shot at the state for mandating the move without providing money for it. The Sussex County school district serving 10,799 students will invest in a 5-year contract with Core Knowledge Language …

Delaware schools have a wide array of summer programming.

Revamped summer school lets students get ahead, stay active

Jarek Rutz Headlines, Education

Summer school once summoned images of unhappy students who had failed a class trudging off to classes to make them up while their friends played in pools. Not anymore. Schools now offer extensive summer programming for all ages meant to support the whole student academically, emotionally and socially while catching up or accelerating their learning to get ahead of the …

Superintendents testified to the House Education Committee Wednesday. (Pexels)

Superintendents get their way with days-off bill amendment

Jarek Rutz Headlines, Education

Seven of the state’s 19 school district superintendents testified in opposition to a bill that would allow teachers to take personal days without approval.  Senate Bill 61, sponsored by Laura Sturgeon, D-Hockessin and the education committee chair, would allow teachers and other school employees to use five sick days each year to take off for personal reasons, an increase from …

A Redding Consortium work group agreed to explore services for middle and high schools. (Unsplash)

Redding Consortium: Need to add middle, high school services

Jarek Rutz Headlines, Education

The Redding Consortium for Educational Equity wants to add the same kind of support and wraparound services that elementary schools get to middle and high schools that need them. Those services include before- and after- school programs, summer programs, interventions, tutoring, wellness centers, child care and other social services. The topic took up about a half-hour of the consortium’s Social …

William Penn High School will close for the rest of the week. (William Penn High Facebook)

William Penn cancels classes to investigate Tuesday shooting

Jarek Rutz Headlines, Education

William Penn High School will close the rest of the week to allow the Delaware State Police to investigate an incident Tuesday in which a gun was fired. Friday, Jan. 13th is a professional development day, so students were already scheduled to have the day off.  Classes won’t be held virtually Wednesday or Thursday, and the Colonial School District has …

Reading score discovery at Colonial

2022 Rewind: Colonial Reading scores higher after COVID

Betsy Price Education, Headlines

This story was originally published in November 2022. Colonial School District Superintendent Jeffrey D. Menzer unearthed a surprising fact while he was devising a method to track the effectiveness of a new focus on student reading skills and scores. The 2022 eighth graders who had been at Colonial schools since second grade scored higher on reading proficiency tests than those in eighth …

Red Clay had six schools identified for having dangerous levels of lead in their water supply. (Unsplash)

Red Clay to independently test for lead in school water

Jarek Rutz Headlines, Education

A Red Clay Consolidated School District committee will hire an independent group to test for lead in water at district schools. The Lead in Water Action Committee will work with Batta, an environmental lab company that conducts tests for lead in water. “At this time we are working with our community experts, our facilities and maintenance department, and Batta to …

Wilmington's Riverfront Market will host districts and schools for Saturday's DE connectED event. (Riverfront Wilmington)

DE connectED to host schools, community event at Riverfront

Jarek Rutz Headlines, Education

A new education group will hold a multi-level event in Wilmington Saturday, Dec. 10, to help people find jobs in schools, register students for school and learn about public school options they may not know about. The ultimate goal for DE connectED – the name of the group and the Saturday event at Wilmington’s Riverfront Market – is to make …