The Wilmington Learning Collaborative unveiled its primary objectives for next school year at a workshop Wednesday night. Those objectives are Students First, Connected Schools, and Purposeful Partnerships.
The workshop gave elected officials, educators, parents, and students a chance to weigh in on the WLC’s plans to improve student outcomes in K-to-8 schools across three school districts in Wilmington
The collaborative’s Executive Director Laura Burgos says that meant using the workshop to ask critical questions about the WLC’s priorities.
“You know, what does it mean to put students first? What will we have to do differently? What will we have to do more of? When we say purposeful partnerships what does that mean in terms of how we engage with the larger Wilmington community in pursuit of advancing student outcomes?”
Community members were split into different groups to answer questions. Answers were recorded and shared with all attendees.
One group said a big piece that came up was the responsibilities adults in the community had to children in terms of sacrifice.
“And that’s going to be a shared sacrifice and it needs to be equitable. Despite what zip code you live in you have a responsibility to kids who live in all the zip codes,” a spokesperson from that group explained.
Another group answered a question that related to one of WLC’s commitments under the umbrella of Connected Schools. That commitment is to “authentically engage with the broader Wilmington community, removing existing barriers, to sustain the work of the WLC.”
Their group leader identified a cause of separation as mistrust.
“So there was a question around how we can get our community, our schools, and our government to a point of trusting one another. And a couple of team members said you have to step up and you have to be accountable,” they said.
Another group identified similar reasons as a barrier to the WLC’s Students First approach.
“There was a question around ‘everyone knows children should come first, so what’s the problem?’ And some of the responses were politics, shifts in power, divisiveness, always divided, unable to come together, and a house divided can’t stand.”
Wilmington Learning Collaborative Executive Director Laura Burgos says all of the responses will be reflected in a detailed plan for the 2024-2025 school year.
“Next year is going to be the year where we really ramp up, boots on the ground, and WLC will become a driving force as we strive to fill the gaps in everything. From educator vacancies to making sure we’re equipping and supporting all of our teachers, leaders, and all of our adults in the building.”
The WLC plans to hold community meetings on a quarterly basis to ensure it gets continuous stakeholder feedback.
