During the first three years that nonprofit First State Educate has been at work in Delaware, it focused on finding school board candidates and supporting them in campaigns as a means to improve state education. While it remains the only state nonprofit to focus on building the capacity of school boards, the agency has begun to branch out. Now it: …
Julia Keleher, a Pennsylvania educational leader who once was sent to prision on fraud charges, has been named the new executive director of First State Educate and First State Action Fund, two linked nonprofits devoted to improving education in the Delaware. She succeeds Laurisa Schutt, who helped found the organiztions. Schutt will remain on the boards but is pursuing other …
With the 2023 General Assembly session ending in June, educational advocates are cheering the legislature’s action on early education, mental health support and transparency relating to school boards. One leader, though, would like to see bills that focus on letting parents know clearly and precisely what’s happening in the classroom, starting with easy to find proficiency ratings. About 60 bills …
Although last week’s school board elections had extremely low voter turnout, one education group points out this year’s numbers rose in many prominent districts. It has been consistently said that only about 10% of eligible voters hit the polls in school board elections. Of the 11 school districts that had races this year, just one, Delmar, hit that mark, with …
Today’s the day: after nine weeks of campaigning, 40 Delawareans will compete for 23 school board seats in Tuesday’s school board elections. “Over the last couple of months, our campaign has had the opportunity to connect with thousands of voters who’ve shared their stories, hopes, and aspiration for Red Clay and its future,” said Jose Matthews, an incumbent board member …
Five of Delaware’s 19 school districts no longer livestream their board meetings. Caesar Rodney, Delmar, Laurel, Smyrna and Woodbridge school districts removed the virtual option this years as students and faculty return to an in-person environment with pandemic restrictions diminishing. John Marinucci, the executive director of the Delaware School Boards Association, said the organization pushed for legislation that allowed, but …
A bill that would eliminate delays to school board candidates’ names appearing on Delaware’s Department of Elections website was passed by the Delaware House Tuesday. House Bill 88, sponsored by Rep. Paul Baumbach, D-Newark, would require the state to publicly list school board candidates who are waiting for their background checks to be completed as a “provisional candidate.” Due to …
The deadline for people to file to run for the May 9 school board elections has passed, but it may take weeks until the final list of candidates is published. The problem: A 2021 law that requires school board candidates to complete a criminal background check and a child registry check. These must be completed before candidates’ names can be …
Candidates have 19 days left to file to run in the May 9 school board elections, and education advocates hope to encourage more people to run in those three weeks. “There’s a lot more community members than there are elected people, so if you don’t like the direction that your community is going in, run,” said Laurisa Schutt, executive director …
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 …
