Why Should Delaware Care?
In the coming months, the State Board of Education will iron out and then vote on the Redding Consortium’s redistricting plans for the Wilmington area. If the board approves it, the plan will move to the state legislature. But before the board does that, new members must be appointed and they must come from Kent and Sussex Counties.
A state board that in the coming months will be tasked with considering Wilmington schools’ historic redistricting efforts is currently in flux.
Jon Sheehan, a longtime Delaware state official, was confirmed by the State Senate on Thursday as the new president of the Delaware State Board of Education, but two other seats on the six-member board remain vacant.
And to be compliant with state law, the seats on the board must be filled by individuals who live outside of the Wilmington area, in Kent and Sussex counties.
The governor’s office confirmed to Spotlight Delaware that nominations to the board are forthcoming but would not say exactly when they will occur.
When the new board eventually takes shape, it will have to face the state’s biggest education question in decades: Whether to dissolve school district lines in the Wilmington area and replace them with a single unified district.
In December, a state education task force, called the Redding Consortium for Educational Equity, voted to move forward with a recommendation that would consolidate all four districts that currently serve the Wilmington area. Those districts include Brandywine, Christina, Red Clay, and Colonial.
Now, the proposal moves to the state’s board of education – a body that typically is tasked with overseeing statewide education policy. If the state board approves the plan to consolidate Wilmington districts, it will then move to the legislature for a final approval.
And the state school board will begin its consequential review of the plan with several new faces.
On Jan. 15, then-State Board of Education President Shawn Brittingham announced he was stepping down from his position. That same day, Gov. Matt Meyer announced his nomination for a replacement as Sheehan. In the announcement, Meyer touted Sheehan’s previous roles in education, including his experience as a fifth-grade teacher in New York City, and as education policy advisor to former Gov. John Carney.
Days after Sheehan’s nomination, another vacancy appeared on the board after Nisha Lodhavia of Kent County stepped down to run for a seat in the State Senate.
Additionally, the term for yet another board member, Provey Powell of New Castle County, expired in 2025, according to the Delaware Department of Education’s website.
The shakeup of positions on the school board means that Meyer must nominate one new member from Kent County and one from Sussex County, according to state law.
The law requires there to be one member of the board from Sussex County, one from Kent County, one from Wilmington, and two from New Castle County outside of Delaware’s largest city. The president and one other member can be appointed from the state at-large.
The law also mandates that there cannot be more than four members of the same political party on the board, and mandates that at least two members have prior experience serving on a local board of education.
Before his departure, Brittingham was the representative for Sussex County and the only Republican on the board. Lodhavia served as the Kent County representative for the board before her resignation.
Three of the board’s current members, all of whom live in New Castle County, are Democrats.
Sheehan’s confirmation means that there will now be an additional New Castle County representative and Democrat on the board.
Beyond being from Kent and Sussex County, those filling the vacancies on the board should also be registered as a Republican or an independent.
It is unclear how the new representatives from Kent and Sussex County will vote on the Wilmington redistricting proposal that only impacts northern New Castle County.
Senate Majority Whip Elizabeth “Tizzy” Lockman, who is also the co-chair of the Redding Consortium, asked during Sheehan’s confirmation if he could share his understanding of the consortium’s work.
Sheehan said he is encouraged by Redding’s work and its path, and said he is excited to see the final redistricting plan that the group will submit to the State Board of Education. The submitted plan should include details about the implementation and costs involved with redistricting Wilmington’s schools.
“It is long past time,” Sheehan said during his confirmation hearing. “Our children, our educators, our families, deserve a better system.”
