Why Should Delaware Care?
The Christina School District is among the largest in Delaware, and its school board has been the most acrimonious. On Tuesday, the board appointed a new member to fill its Wilmington-based seat. The appointment comes at a time when the district sits at the center of a debate over whether the multiple school districts that serve the state’s largest city should dissolve into one.
In a vote Tuesday, the Christina Board of Education appointed Celita Cherry, a self-empowerment coach, to fill the board’s Wilmington-based seat that was left vacant in December following the resignation of Shannon Troncoso.
Four members of the embattled school board voted in favor of Cherry’s appointment over the other candidate, Joseph Lewis, a former teacher at the Delaware School for the Deaf.
No members voted against Cherry’s appointment, but board member Amy Trauth abstained from the vote.
During the Tuesday meeting, Board President Monica Moriak said Cherry would be the best fit for the appointment because she “represents the lived experiences” of the district’s Wilmington population.
Cherry has a daughter in the Bayard School, and is also the president of Mothers Advocating for School Kids, an advocacy organization.
She will serve the Christina School District until elections occur in the spring.
Last month, Cherry told Spotlight Delaware she decided to apply for the seat because she felt it was time for someone who grew up in Wilmington and attended Christina schools to “serve as a voice directly from the community.”
Cherry also said the person filling the vacant seat should serve as a bridge between the district and the city to better communicate how district policies are made. She said she has worked in recent years with families who want to learn more about district policies, but feel that attending school board meetings “can be a little intimidating.”
Moriak said Cherry has already done that bridge work through her previous community advocacy. Moriak also said it is particularly important to have a school board member who has shared experiences with Wilmington parents, given that city schools could face upheaval through a likely redistricting that would change where kids go to school in the future.
In December, the Redding Consortium, which is charged with drawing plans to redistrict Wilmington schools, voted to move forward with a recommendation to combine Delaware’s four northernmost school districts.
The affected districts would include the Brandywine, Christina, Colonial and Red Clay Consolidated school districts.
“We’re at a moment in the education in Delaware when we’re looking at Wilmington directly with Redding, and redistricting, and funding, and I believe that the voices of Wilmington will be best served with Miss Cherry,” Moriak said during the meeting.
The Wilmington portion of the Christina School District is unique because it sits as a non-contiguous island in the center of the city, separate from the rest of the district that centers around Newark.
Cherry is the second person this school year to be appointed to the Christina Board of Education, which has faced a tumultuous two years that included Troncoso’s resignation in December.
How did Christina get here?
In December, Troncoso cited what she called transparency concerns and discriminatory conduct as reasons for her resignation.
“The chaos and contention surrounding Christina’s board are not new — they are historical,” Troncoso wrote in a press release at the time. “The environment itself makes it incredibly difficult for any board member, past or present, to create meaningful change.”
Troncoso’s resignation came just three days before the board was set to fill another vacancy – one that opened because a previous board member, Naveed Baqir, had been living outside of the country in Pakistan.
Ultimately, only one candidate ended up seeking and securing that seat – the president of Delaware’s union of teachers and other educators, Stephanie Ingram.
Controversies in the district erupted last year when reports emerged that Baqir had been living in Pakistan and attending school board meetings remotely.
During one contentious meeting in the summer of 2024, Doug Manley argued that Baqir’s votes on the board should not be counted because of doubts about residency. At the time, Baqir was a part of a four-member bloc on the board that typically voted together.
During the same summer meeting, Baqir had voted in favor of placing then-Superintendent Dan Shelton on an indefinite administrative leave.
One month after that acrimonious meeting, WHYY reported that a private religious school in Newark that Baqir co-founded was the subject of a grand jury investigation into nearly $11 million in federal dollars it received for COVID-era school meal program.
In March, the controversy drew another critic in Rep. Madinah Wilson-Anton (D-Bear), who introduced two pieces of legislation – House Bill 82 and House Bill 83 – that each targeted the questions surrounding Baqir’s residency.
House Bill 82 ultimately passed, and Gov. Matt Meyer signed it into law on June 30, 2025.