Why Should Delaware Care?
Delaware Secretary of Education Cindy Marten will announce a decision Thursday about the future of the Bryan Allen Stevenson School of Excellence. If she follows a state recommendation to close the school, it would mean that more than a hundred families will have to search for new places to send their kids.
A state decision scheduled for Thursday of whether to force the closure of the Bryan Allen Stevenson School of Excellence highlights the sometimes volatile nature of charter schools in Delaware.
In contrast with traditional public schools, those independently operated, publicly funded entities can be shuttered when state officials determine they haven’t sufficiently served students – or don’t have a sustainable path to do so in the future.
Advocates say the model creates a competitive market that ensures that only the best charter schools survive and thrive.
“If we’re not doing great things for kids, we’ve got to figure out a better way to either do it — or to just stop doing it,” said Charter Schools Network Executive Director Kendall Massett, who advises the nearly two dozen charter schools in Delaware.
But the model has also left some Delaware families scrambling to find new places to send their children following past closures.
Over the previous decades, more than 10 charter schools have closed in Delaware as a result of low enrollment, financial instability, or academic performance concerns. Each one has uprooted students from their daily routines.
Last week, during a meeting of state officials investigating the Bryan Allen Stevenson school, one mom expressed concern that a move back to traditional public education could cause her daughter’s academic performance and confidence to regress.
“Behind every data point is a family or a child like ours,” the mother, Candace Kinsler, said.
In February, Delaware education officials recommended the state close the Georgetown school, commonly referred to as BASSE, at the end of the 2025-26 school year — citing low enrollment.
The recommendation now goes before Delaware Education Secretary Cindy Marten, who will announce a final decision on Thursday. Last week’s hearing marked the final chance for families and school community members to voice their thoughts before the final decision is made.
If Marten does close BASSE, it would mark the first charter closure in the state in seven years – and the first to be closed by Delaware regulators in a decade.
It would also leave Sussex County with just two charter schools, compared to six in Kent County and 15 in New Castle County.
A rocky few decades
Charter schools first began operating in Delaware in the 1990s. Since then, several have thrived. But there also have been waves of closures at others.
In 1996, Delaware approved a school choice program, allowing families to enroll their children in district and charter schools outside of their designated feeder patterns. That same year, the Charter School of Wilmington opened. It has since become among the highest rated high schools in the state.
Delaware’s first charter closure occurred in 2000 when the Richard Milburn Academy – a Wilmington school operated by a national organization — relinquished its charter after a year of operation. It marked the first of several closures to occur in Delaware’s largest city.
Two years later, Georgetown Charter School garnered national attention when state officials shuttered its doors after finding the school was more than $1.5 million in debt, according to reports.
By 2008, the Marian T. Academy in Wilmington closed after the State Board of Education voted not to renew its charter.
As WDEL reported at the time, then-Education Secretary Valerie Woodruff expressed concern about poor student performance, saying the school failed to meet the standards of the Delaware Student Testing Program or the No Child Left Behind Act.
The following decade marked an even more tumultuous time for charters, with nine schools closing between 2013 and 2019.
In 2013, state officials cited low student proficiency rates, and what they described as a lack of recruitment plans and economic viability when they closed the Pencader Business & Finance Charter High School in New Castle, according to a state report.
Low test scores were also concerns at the Maurice J. Moyer Academic Institute in Wilmington when it closed at the end of the 2014-15 school year, as reported by The News Journal.
That same year, it was a federal judge who made the final decision to close the Reach Academy for Girls in Wilmington.
Over the following four years, low enrollment or low test scores continued to plague certain schools, contributing to the closure of six additional charters.
Those were the Delaware College Preparatory Academy in Wilmington; the Delaware MET in Wilmington; Delaware STEM Academy in New Castle; Prestige Academy in Wilmington; the Delaware Academy of Public Safety and Security in New Castle; and Newark’s Design Thinking Academy.
The Delaware Academy of Public Safety and Security closure was particularly jarring for students, as it happened without warning during the school year, as reported by The News Journal.
The school sent a letter to families at the time stating that its board had just learned of “new financial information” that showed a budget deficit to be “far greater than previously believed.”
By contrast, then-Secretary of Education Susan Bunting credited Design Thinking Academy’s early decision to close “recognizing that the low enrollment would inevitably lead to financial challenges that would make it impossible for the school to provide its students with the academic program they deserve.”
Is more oversight an answer?
For some families and staff at BASSE, a potential closure would be premature.
During last week’s meeting, they noted that the school has struggled with enrollment, but said it needs more than two years of classes to become successful. More guardrails from the state could also help the school thrive, they said.
In particular, one teacher said during the meeting that allowing the school to remain open with “clear oversight” would strengthen its accountability by “ensuring progress is measured and transparency is maintained.”
The school’s enrollment has sat at 123 students in recent months, compared with 230 students during the school’s first year in operation in the fall of 2024, according to state records.
State funding at charter schools is determined by the number of students enrolled. The independently operated schools are not eligible to receive taxpayer dollars for facilities and capital projects.
Currently, a sign outside the main school building reads, “Come take your place at BASSE!”
The school is named after the prominent civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson who was born in nearby Milton. Among its founders is State Rep. Alonna Berry (D-Milton).