Why Should Delaware Care?
In December, a state task force charged with reworking school district boundaries in Wilmington laid out a plan that would impact tens of thousands of families in New Castle County. Although the Redding Consortium aimed to present its final redistricting plan to lawmakers by June, the committee now says more time is needed.
A Delaware education task force predicted last year that lawmakers would be able to address its ambitious proposal to merge all Wilmington-area school districts by June.
But during a legislative budget hearing Tuesday, the co-chair of the task force, called the Redding Consortium, pushed back the timeline to the end of the calendar year. That means that the earliest the consolidation plan could be approved by the necessary parties is 2027.
The delay also means Wilmington families and school officials will face an extended period of uncertainty as the state attempts its most significant restructuring of public education in decades.
The co-chair — State Sen. Elizabeth Lockman (D-Wilmington) – said a consultant needs the rest of the year to put together a detailed plan for how the four school districts with more than 43,000 students could merge their operations. To do that, she also said the Delaware Department of Education will need to extend a contract with the consultancy company, the American Institutes for Research.
After five years of discussions about where Wilmington kids should go to school, the Redding Consortium voted in December to recommend combining the Brandywine, Christina, Colonial, and Red Clay Consolidated school districts into the Northern New Castle County Consolidated District.
An early timeline for how the plan could be finalized and then approved, which was presented to the public in November, did not mention the American Institutes for Research.
Instead, it called for the Redding Consortium’s subcommittees to create the detailed redistricting proposal. Then, the Delaware Board of Education would review the plan for approval.
After that, state lawmakers were expected to consider a final approval before the end of the legislative session on June 30.
Lockman told Spotlight Delaware that conversations among Redding Consortium members about the need to work with a consultant started immediately after the December vote. But they quickly realized there was “no way” to get an adequate plan to the State Board of Education within the six-week timeframe. So they asked the American Institutes for Research to submit a request for proposal to extend its contract, Lockman said.
When the American Institutes for Research submitted its analysis, it gave the Redding Consortium a timeline that extended beyond the June deadline to draft a final redistricting plan.
“More important than a timeline is the thoroughness of the proposal that we’re delivering,” Lockman said.
After the budget hearing Tuesday, the Redding Consortium held its monthly meeting. There, Lockman told members about the change in timeline. None of the members expressed objections.
During the meeting, the Redding Consortium members also voted to create an executive committee to work directly with the American Institutes for Research on the final redistricting plan.
The executive committee will be made up of existing Redding Consortium members who bring “key perspectives,” Lockman said. But that proposal did draw pushback.
During the Tuesday meeting, Brandywine Superintendent Lisa Lawson said “there are some folks serving” on the executive committee who are not directly impacted by the plan to consolidate the four school districts that serve Wilmington students.
Lockman responded by stating that she assumed Lawson was referring to officials from charter and vocational schools.
She then said that while charter schools do not have a geographic footprint – as school districts do – when it comes to the Redding Consortium’s mission, “everyone should be at the table, because everyone should be impacted.”
