Dissecting Longhurst - ACT NOW TO PROTECT DELAWARE'S STUDENTS FROM THE FAILURE OF ADULTS

Comments in Color are Mine:


From: Longhurst Valerie (LegHall)

To:
Sent: Tue, Jun 28, 2011 11:51 am
Subject: RE: Pencader Charter

XXXXX,

Thank you for your email and expressing your concern. I’ve been involved with the Pencader Charter School since the inception. Sen. Longhurst, how frequently do you visit Pencader? Over the years I have received many complaints and followed up on many issues surrounding the school. Have you heard of the many wonderful things that are occuring at Pencader?  How often have you commended the educators at Pencader for going above and beyond, driving educational outcomes for students who were destined, within the traditional public school, to acheive only mediocrity?  Have you looked at Pencader's student body and acknowledged the significant number of students with Autism Spectrum Disorder who are thriving in the small school environment and whose educational future may be damned when they are tossed back into schools that cannot need meet their idividual needs in the way that Pencader has? PENCADER is able to do so because they ARE a Charter School! I feel for the students especially the ones who will be graduating this year. This is a very unfortunate situation that everyone in Legislative Hall has been discussing. We passed a key piece of legislation last week that would protect students from the failures of Charter Schools by moving the date of closure to enable students to find alternative schooling. I know it is too late for the Pencader students but hopefully we can correct this type of situation in the future. "Too Late"?  It's never too late!  This is one of those times when Delawareans need their elected representation to demand that departments of the state are held accountable.  The NACSA report clearly identifies the DOE/CSO's failure regarding charter schools.  The failures at DOE certainly began before this administration, but YOU, Rep. Longhurst, are one of the few who yield the power to demand improvement.  Punishing Pencader's students for the failure of adults is unacceptable.  You MUST demand more of our State's Leaders.  You MUST stand for the children of this state because they are the ones without a collective voice.  They are the whispers.  In your capacity, you and your fellow legislators must ROAR.  You should be angry, not apologetic.  You should be enraged, not complacent.  YOU must act to protect these students and provide Pencader an opportunity to prove their merit.  YOU MUST ACT TO SUPPORT OUR CHILDREN!

As for Pencader, I just started receiving emails in the last two weeks. I’ve discussed the matter with the Governor and Sec. Lowery. This is a very unfortunate situation but Pencader must come up with the financing before and show it still maintains financial support. Pencader has secured the needed funding, contingent upon written assurance that Pencader will be a school in the 2011-2012 school year.  Yet, the state refuses to assure Pencader that its funding will flow.  They have shuttered the Pencader Accounts knowing full well that a loan is contingent upon them!  This behavior is hostile towards childrens, vendors, parents, and community.  This is an issue that I can not help with. You absolutely can help by demanding that the Pencader accounts be re-activated, and ensuring that the DOE reinforces its committment to students by flowing funds to Pencader on July 1.  It's premature, unfair, undemocratic, and unacceptable to freeze the accounts for this school when the decision regarding its future has yet to be made!  Stand Up for Pencader!  Stand Up for Delaware!  Stand Up for your constituents!  They will remember the bullies on election day, even if you do not remember them! I’ve voiced my concern to Sec. Lowery and as had the other Legislators. I will continue to keep the conversation going but can not make any promises. I hope that you can understand that I was asked to get involved too late in the process. Again, please know that I am concerned for the students and this isn’t a matter I take lightly.  Never too late.  Pencader self-reported to the Charter Office their financial difficulties months ago.  The board enacted corrective action immediately.  They moved on this before DOE did.  DOE did not find the financial problems.  DOE has been negligent in monitoring charter schools.  It has been DOE's refusal to share responsibility for the problems at hand that has led to your constituents to need YOU to intervene NOW!

Please stay in touch as I will also.

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Genius! N.Y.C. School Built Around Unorthodox Use of Time

Okay, but what's really Genius is the THE SMALL CLASS SIZES! The mantra of teachers nationwide and right here in Delaware.  And this school has found a way of providing the small classes with more support for students and teachers while not exceeding the 180 day work year in teacher contracts nor raising the cost of educating the students who benefit from this program verses the "typical" high school model.

From Education Week:
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/03/10/24brooklyn_ep.h29.html?tkn=NM[FDZj%2F%2FXlKQLqb1nWVcd6rdaG9PGXcgZSR&cmp=clp-edweek

Check out the whole article for an education strategy that is built on teacher planning time, student interest, and small class sizes:

Teachers here attribute the collegial atmosphere to the public school’s novel way of differentiating teachers’ roles and staggering their schedules. At Brooklyn Generation, teachers instruct only three classes a day, get two hours of common planning with colleagues each afternoon, and have a highly reduced student load—as few as 14 students per class. Yet the restructured scheduling costs no more to operate than a traditional schedule.

Opened in 2007, Brooklyn Generation now serves about 230 students in grades 9-11, most of whom are black and qualify for federal school-nutrition programs. The school will add a 12th grade next fall and expand to the middle grades over the course of the next few years.

The school’s schedule is both dynamic and flexible. Each morning, one group of educators teaches foundations courses in mathematics and the humanities. In the afternoons, those same teachers take on one studio course—science, the arts, and electives. They are also given daily breaks at the same time as their “instructional team” —colleagues in the same grade and content area—allowing them two hours of common planning time.

Twice a year, these dual-role teachers receive a monthlong reprieve consisting of three weeks of vacation followed by a week of professional development with their instructional teams. A second coterie of educators steps in to teach monthlong “intensives,” focused on aspects of college and career readiness, from internships through the college-entrance process and financial-aid applications.

Class sizes for the foundations and intensive courses are small—around 15 students—and expand to about 25 for studio classes. The staggered schedules mean that students receive 20 additional instructional days, but no teacher actually works longer than the 180 days set in the New York City teachers’ contract.

With the smaller class sizes and more support, the school’s leaders expect teachers to engage each student in the school’s college- and career-bound culture.

Such class sizes, 9th grade math-foundation teacher Dianne Crewe-Shaw says, help her better monitor her students, who tend to have the most challenges with algebra. “The small class size was like heaven,” she said. “With weaker students, I have to dig deeper for activities that will engage them.”

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The State of Education in Delaware -- My Perspective

It's been eight months since I assumed the role of board member to finish the term of another before me.  Four years once seemed liked eons. Now three years seems to be not nearly enough time (though the jury is still out on whether I will run again) to empower the changes to education that both Christina and Delaware need.

Education in Delaware is facing uprecedented challenges to which Christina will not be immune.  National and Global economic failings have left their mark on Delaware.  Though stimulus funds staved off the impact for this current year, the future is a much different monster.  It's time for some honest and frank discussion of what lies in the future.

The State of Delaware is facing a near $50 million education funding deficit, the impact of which boils down to a funding cut of  appoximately $500 per student, your student and mine.  It will come across all districts, all programs, and all schools.  For Christina the much debated 25% rolling decrease in state transportation funding will add an average of $40 to every school tax bill, if a referendum can be successfully run.  The jury is out on whether the match tax portion of the tuition bill will stand -- meaning that districts may not be able to levy that portion of the tuition bill next year as indicated by the Department of Education's budget presentation in Dover.  At the time of this writing, Christina has not entered into discussions with its board as to any intentions of going to referendum.  And most homeowners will tell you, this is not the time to ask the public for more tax money.  Where does that leave us?  Where does that leave Christina?  And where does that leave our children?

I'm staring at the FY 2011 Operating Budget Briefing dispersed to legislators by the Department of Education.  Within the organization structure (who holds what position) the vital role of Associate Secretary of Teaching and Learning is vacant while the positions of Assoc. Sec. of College and Workforce Readiness and Assoc. Sec./Chief Financial Officer are filled.  I see before me an unbalanced scale, weighted heavily against the Department's mission of Teaching and Learning, a Branch without an advocate and a Budget that reflects that lost voice.

I am alarmed by page 10 of the briefing which reflects the Federal Stimulus Funding for Education Stabilization.  In Fiscal year 10, the Technology Block Grant, the Student Success Block Grant, the Academic Excellence, Limited English Proficiency and Division II Allocations were removed from the General Fund and replaced by Stimulus Funds.  Essentially, Delaware abdicated funding these categories, drawing the needed monies from one-time stimulus funds.  Those allocations have not been returned to the General Fund.  What does it mean:

• In 2008, the State funded the associated positions.
• In 2009/10, One-time Stimulus Funds were used to fund these programs for a total of $33,891,000.
• In the 2010/11 Budget, the proposed funding for these programs decreases to $13,121,100. 
• That's MORE THAN $20 MILLION Cut from Education Spending.
• There is no plan to draw additional monies from the State's General Fund to support these programs and teachers.
• If DOE does not fund these needed positions and programs that directly affect our children, and if local districts are unable to find replacement funding, these positions will GO AWAY.

While it's true that the proposed budget we see before us today may look very different come June/July when our legislators ratify it, it's important that we begin the conversation now.  And that conversation must be centered around the desire of stakeholders to inform the legislature that cutting education funding is not an acceptable solution to Delaware's budget dilemma and that we as constituents expect our legislators to generate new sources of revenue for the state, and particularly education.

While the topic will certainly be debated by the Statewide PTA, the Delaware State Education Association, and the Delaware Schools Chiefs Association, locally-elected school boards must engage not just with their constituents but as constituents of those in Dover.  Delaware's School Boards cannot fail to lead today.  We cannot be idle and are obligated by our oath to lead the seach for solutions.

Education is in need of solutions and we must come together to find them!

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