Why Should Delaware Care?
Since 2019, Dorrell Green has served as the superintendent of one of Delaware’s largest school districts. He has also served in multiple state task forces with the goal of improving Delaware education. On Monday, it was announced he will be leaving his school district for one in Pennsylvania, marking a leadership gap for the Red Clay Consolidated School District.
One of Delaware’s most prominent education leaders is leaving the state.
On Monday, Dorrell Green, superintendent of the Red Clay Consolidated School District and the reigning Delaware Superintendent of the Year, announced that he accepted a parallel position in Norristown, Pa.
“They say sometimes when content, you should be content with what you have, but when complacency sets in, you need to change,” Green said during his announcement Monday at a Norristown Area School District board meeting.
Green’s five-year contract with the Norristown Area School District will take effect on July 20, with an initial annual salary of $270,000.
His imminent departure from Red Clay is likely to create a leadership void in Delaware’s largest school district, which hosted more than 14,000 students last year in the greater Wilmington area, just as state leaders consider how to reform district boundaries in the county.
In a statement to Spotlight Delaware, Red Clay school board president Victor Leonard said board members have “a huge task in the next few weeks in finding a leader that will guide our district through some troubling times.”
He said the most pressing issues include declining enrollment, low student proficiency rates, and a “looming” school district consolidation plan.
Proposed last year by the state’s Reading Consortium – on which Green served as a member – the consolidation plan calls for Delaware’s four northernmost school districts to combine into one.
The districts include Brandywine, Christina, Colonial, and Red Clay Consolidated.
The plan also would presumably eliminate three of the districts’ four superintendent positions.
Beyond his work as superintendent, Green has also served on multiple Delaware education committees.
In December, he was part of a presentation to lawmakers by school district leaders across the state that argued that a recent property reassessment, which was spurred by inequities in public education funding, ultimately left poorer districts in the lurch.
He also currently serves as the president of the Delaware Chief School Officers Association, according to the Delaware Association of School Administrators website.
Green’s departure goes viral
There was no mention of Green’s resignation during a Red Clay school board meeting last week, even as it occurred just four days before Norristown Area School District officials announced him as their next superintendent.
The announcement quickly went viral on social media. Multiple Red Clay employees wrote that they had not received any notification that Green would be leaving the district.
Among those was Leonard, who indicated that he felt blindsided by the decision. In his statement, he called the announcement of Green’s new job “a leaked social media posting from the Norristown School District.”
Green also noted the virality of the announcement of his new position, stating it had been “a rough 24 hours.”
“I’ve been bombarded, didn’t realize that it was going to go as viral as quickly as it did,” Green said.
He also noted that he had received multiple messages from former students who he said were “reassuring me that I’m living out my purpose.”
“My character is the only thing that I can stand on, and I’m bringing that here,” Green told families during the Norristown Area School District Board of Education meeting.
