The Redding Consortium for Educational Equity continues its discussions on redistricting Northern New Castle County schools at a virtual town hall Monday.
Consortium leaders updated the community on its progress and collected comments. The final draft of the plan is due in December.
Part of the plan would redistrict school districts in New Castle County, which includes removing at least two of the four school districts from Wilmington.
Christina School District is already set to be removed in the approved interim plan because it is the sole non-contiguous district in the city.
State Rep. Nnamdi Chukwuocha is the co-chair of the Redding Consortium’s Redistricting Effort.
“And it really just shows and emphasizes the need for us to really come together and have a more unified city for governing our children, providing the governance and education for our children,” Chukwuocha said.
Earlier efforts to redistrict Wilmington failed, including one in 2016.
Chukwuocha said his team’s goal has been to work on an aggressive timeline even though none of its predecessors made it to the finish line.
“Many haven't even received any legislative action,” Chukwuocha said. “So we're glad to continue our work with Redding pushing forward.”
The General Assembly created the Consortium in 2019 and mandated it develop a redistricting proposal in Senate Bill 148 and House Bills 222 and 229.
Its mission is to give students the opportunity to excel in school by expanding access to academic resources, according to Consortium vice-chair and State Sen. Tizzy Lockman.
“I think our challenge for ourselves on the Redding Consortium… is to do what we tell our kids to do, to learn from the past, to keep our eye on the prize that it's all about a brighter future for the kids, for the great city of Wilmington, and for Delaware,” Lockman said.
Lockman added that the plan addresses more than just redistricting.
“We've also floated the idea of supplementing premium pay to teachers working in schools that we see as higher needs,” Lockman said. “We've already done this a bit in the Christina-Wilmington footprint. And then also we talked about wraparound, more programming before school, after school, summer programs, ensuring that there's resources to support those things.”
The Consortium is also considering adding specialized magnet programs to elementary schools in new districts and expanding access to early learning programs. These would all be state investments that may or may not be included in the final plan.
Another town hall is set for May 22.
