Dear Christina, Thank You!

Well, here we are.  X marks the spot.  At midnight I become a private citizen again and you will continue to soldier forward, educating our children, despite a network of leaders who are hellbent on seeing you and your sister districts fail.  I know you won't. But, you have to believe it, too.

Don't listen the reformers.  They try to hide their mission behind soulless rhetoric.  And at even that, they did a lousy job.  We know what they want - your money, but not your children.  Yes, education may be the last of the untapped crude oil, the final get rich quick scheme.  Yes, Race to the Top created the avenues through rich corporate investors were able to wrest funding away from our children under the guise of "consultant" or "data coach."  And, yes, the Gov. may have already sent our children's private and personal data to conglomerates like InBloom Inc. for the purpose of selling it back to us.

But, you, Christina, you are better than that.  You don't need to play games, you need only to do your job with the passion that you first felt when you decided that you wanted to be a part of our children's education.  Easier said than done, yes.  But, we've also been here before, time and again, actually, with every un/under-funded mandate that's been thrown at education, and you've shown your resilience each and every time.

In short order, I will be forgotten to history.  Only my children will revel in the memories of the late nights when mom didn't make it home to tuck them in...  And I will take a few memories away with me, too

1. We saved the Delaware Autism Program residences and in doing so provided the chance that families fractured by autism could potentially be re-united before there is need to render a decision that will send these children to facilities out of state.  We kept them open, functioning as training facilities, for students whose IEPS demanded the services.  And we ended the briefly-enacted practice of co-gendering the residences, which I am certain, despite the wisdom of some experts, is completely inappropriate for children and possibly even adults. 
2. We enacted the first transparency policy in the state that compels the audio recording and online posting of our public monthly meetings.  These actions influenced the state legislature to introduce and pass legislation that requires the State Board of Education record their meetings and make the recordings available online.  
3. We invested in Montessori education, piloting Delaware's first and only public Montessori program, creating locations in  both the Cities of Wilmington and Newark.  Creating Choice where there hasn't been before.
4. We've grown SPA - our nationally recognized credit-recovery last-chance academy for students who've checked out of education.  Countless students have now check back in. (I lie. Dr. Richards, of whom I am awed by her talent and connectedness, can tell you exactly how many children she and her team have saved.)
5. We've re-homed Networks, bringing this best-practice-based, amazing vocational-skill-building program together - every division under one roof - for the first time - to the betterment of the way we deliver on the IEP goals of the students served therein.
6. We created the Christina Early Education Center - centralizing all of our preschool classrooms in Newark into one school that serves children of every need and every ability, providing CSD the opportunity to harness the talent of our pre-school team, administering another nationally recognized model of excellence.
7. We eliminated Zero Tolerance from CSD - a decision that was confirmed to be in the best interest of all of our students by the Office of Civil Rights. Zero Tolerance has been replaced by a jointly therapeutic and punitive code of conduct - and we acknowledge that it will require years of training to fully master. But, it is our springboard to really help our children rather than simply diminish them through disproportionate punishment.  Our funds are far better expended in the school room than in the prison.
8. We implemented a pilot of "therapeutic classrooms" in our quest to create the appropriate environment for each child we serve.  Going into this pilot's second year, our therapeutic classroom program will expand to be available to more students!
9. We listened to our constituents and installed a locally grown and beloved educator as our superintendent rather than engage in an expensive search firm to develop another slate of puddle jumpers who would use our district as stepping stone to the next "big job."
10. We survive the RTTT assault on education.  "Survive" in present tense, not past, b/c it's not over.  RTTT will live on in some ways beyond the grant expiration... And we all wait for the longitudinal data that will declare this devil-in-the-details-mandate the failure that it is.  In the meantime, we take solace in knowing that our non-PZ schools will exit RTTT and some of its many cumbersome mandates one year earlier than our sister districts because we refused to buckle to political pressure.  The disparate treatment extended to our district because we supported our teachers when they told us what they needed to be successful in our most challenging schools was not greater than local might.  We sent the bully back to Dover. 

Well...
In the end,
It's not quite the how I imagined it.
The ceremonious farewell, that final serendipitous right of passage.

Didn't quite happen as we planned.

Thank you for having me.  I am honored to have been of service to you.
             And I shall be a far better person for having known you, loved you, served you.

Carry on.