Why Should Delaware Care?
Government works best when its citizens are knowledgeable and engaged. Delaware’s government has scores of commissions, working groups, agencies and legislative committees. All must hold meetings that are open to the public. Below we highlight a few of those meetings that are happening this week.
UPDATE: The state budget hearing scheduled for Wednesday with the Delaware Department of Education has been cancelled.
Below are some of the most important or interesting public meetings happening around the state this week.
- State board to discuss probe of the Bryan Allen Stevenson charter school
- Delaware budget hearings to include presentation about the Redding Consortium
- Fisheries council to discuss endangered species
- Wilmington to vote on a smoke shop moratorium and on a Columbus statue
- New Castle County to remake its police accountability board
Committee investigating charter school to hold final meeting
Delaware’s Charter School Accountability Committee will hold its final public meeting Tuesday to discuss an investigation into the Bryan Allen Stevenson School of Excellence – a Georgetown charter school that has struggled with low enrollment since its inaugural year in 2024.
The meeting comes about two months after Delaware Education Secretary Cindy Marten placed the school under a formal review in response to a recent drop in enrollment that raised concerns about finances and day-to-day operations.
The state describes the formal review process as a “lawful investigation of a charter school” that could include on-site visits, records inspections and interviews of parents, and staff.
Marten is expected to release a decision about the charter school’s future next month. She could take no action against the school. She could place it onto a form of probation. Or she could close the school.
Named after the prominent civil rights attorney who was born in nearby Milton, the Bryan Allen Stevenson School of Excellence was co-founded by Delaware lawmaker Rep. Alonna Berry (D-Milton).
During Tuesday’s meeting, school officials will have the opportunity to share details about improvements they have taken, or plan to take, for the school, according to the meeting agenda.
During a previous meeting last month, the new head of school Raushann Austin said that reduced enrollment had hurt the school’s ability to maintain a full staff.
“Staff members have taken on multiple roles, and the administrative team has limited administrative and clerical support,” Austin said then.
📍 The Charter School Accountability Committee will meet publicly at 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Townsend Building, located at 401 Federal St. in Dover. For more details, including information about virtual attendance, click here.
Budget hearings to include DNREC, Wilmington redistricting committee
The Delaware legislature’s budget hearings are continuing this week with testimony from environmental regulators, court administrators, and education officials, among others.
As part of the education hearing, lawmakers will hear a presentation that is, in part, about the Redding Consortium, which in December recommended that Delaware merge Wilmington’s four school districts into one.
If ultimately approved by the legislature, the redistricting proposal would represent a seismic shift in Delaware’s public education.
While the hearings this week are ostensibly about next year’s state budget, it is possible for lawmakers on the powerful Joint Finance Committee to discuss their feelings about the Redding Consortium’s redistricting recommendation.
The full legislature is expected to weigh in on the landmark redistricting proposal later in the year.
Two state lawmakers — Rep. Nnamdi Chukwuocha (D-Wilmington) and State Sen. Eric Buckson (R-Dover) — sit on both the Joint Finance Committee and the Redding Consortium.
Aside from Redding and the education department, lawmakers on the Joint Finance Committee may also share opinions during the hearings about how DNREC, the state’s environmental office, had undergone what Gov. Matt Meyer called a “sea change,” including to its air and water permitting.
📍 The Joint Finance Committee will meet 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at Legislative Hall, located at 411 Legislative Ave. in Dover.
Tuesday’s hearing will include testimony from the Delaware National Guard, the Department of Agriculture in the morning, and then DNREC in the afternoon.
Wednesday morning’s hearing will feature a presentation from the Department of Education that includes details about the Redding Consortium and the Wilmington Learning Collaborative. Wednesday afternoon will feature discussion about education more broadly.
Thursday’s hearing will feature testimony from the judiciary in the morning, and then from specific legal offices, such as the Office of Defense Services, in the afternoon.
For information about virtual attendance for the Tuesday meeting, click here. For the Wednesday meeting, click here. And for the Thursday meeting, click here.
A fish hatchery on the Brandywine?
A little-known Delaware committee, called the Advisory Council on Tidal Finfisheries, will meet this week to discuss a handful of curious topics, including the state’s response to a lawsuit over an endangered sturgeon, and a proposal to build a fish hatchery on the Brandywine River.
The lawsuit, at issue, involves regulations imposed by Delaware, New Jersey and New York regarding the bycatch of Atlantic sturgeon by commercial fishers within the Delaware and Hudson rivers.
Filed in 2024 by the Delaware RiverKeeper Network and another environmental group, the lawsuit claims those states have not sufficiently monitored the incidental catch of those endangered fish.
The case has been paused since November to allow the sides to negotiate a potential settlement.
Also during the meeting this week, the fisheries council will discuss the possibility of a fish hatchery being built for American shad along the Brandywine River.
The proposal follows years of efforts by the state to restore habitat for the fish species that nearly disappeared from the Wilmington waterway. Chiefly among those efforts was the removal of area dams.
The Cape Gazette reported last fall that a separate Delaware council discussed the proposed hatchery during a meeting that revealed that state officials “hope to raise at least 500,000” juvenile shad on the Brandywine each year.
A similar shad hatchery already exists in Sussex County along the Nanticoke River.
📍 The Delaware Advisory Council on Tidal Finfisheries will meet at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Little Creek Hunter Education Training Center, located at 3018 Bayside Drive in Dover. The meeting is specifically characterized as a hybrid gathering and those wishing to attend virtually can find login information here.
Should Wilmington enact a smoke shop moratorium?
Up for consideration this week by the Wilmington City Council is an ordinance to place a moratorium on smoke shops in the city, and a resolution to oppose installing a Christopher Columbus statue in Little Italy, among other proposals.
The smoke shop moratorium, introduced by Councilman Chris Johnson, is scheduled for its third and final reading, meaning the City Council is likely to hold a final vote on the measure.
Advocates of the proposal say that such a moratorium would give local officials time to assess the health and safety impacts of smoke shops – which typically sell cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and, more recently, hemp-derived THC products.
The ordinance’s introduction followed at least two arrests in Wilmington over the previous three months involving the alleged selling of marijuana within smoke shops that were not licensed cannabis retailers.
Also scheduled to be heard this week are several City Council resolutions, including one that calls for the legislative body to formally oppose a proposal to reinstall a Christopher Columbus statue at Father Tucker Park.
Until 2020, the statue stood alongside Pennsylvania Avenue in the city, near North Franklin Street.
Introduced by Councilwoman Shané Darby, the resolution states that reinstalling the statue at the city park “runs counter to our City’s commitment to ensuring that our public spaces reflect, truth, accountability and shared humanity.”
📍The Wilmington City Council will meet at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Louis L. Redding City County Building, located at 800 N. French St. in Wilmington. For more information about virtual attendance, click here and scroll all of the way to the bottom of the page.
NCCo to change the makeup of its police board
Earlier this month, the New Castle County Council passed an ordinance that took authority over appointments to the county’s Police Accountability Board away from community groups and gave it to County Executive Marcus Henry.
The move – which has been criticized by advocates for police reform – also removes mandated representation on the board from a civil rights group and a faith-based leader; mandates board members complete 20 hours of police training; and reduces the number annual board meetings from 10 to six.
On Tuesday, the County Council will consider a slate of new nominees to the board. Among those is former New Castle County Councilman Kenneth R. Woods.
📍 The New Castle County Council’s Boards & Commissions Subcommittee will meet at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Louis L. Redding City County Building, located at 800 N. French St. in Wilmington. For more information, including about virtual attendance, click here.