The Redding Consortium will begin constructing its redistricting proposal to the General Assembly after Tuesday’s vote to move forward with the Northern New Castle County Consolidated School District model.
If approved by the General Assembly in the summer, the model will see Red Clay, Christina, Brandywine and Colonial School Districts consolidated to one district.
The American Institute of Research found Wilmington’s current school district lines allow disparities to persist for children born in low-income and predominantly POC neighborhoods.
AIR data finds bettering student outcomes requires Wilmington students to have access to higher tax bases. Similar findings resulted in the General Assembly tasking the Redding Consortium with creating a roadmap for redistricting in 2019.
Redding co-chair and State Sen. Tizzy Lockman voted in favor of the approved plan.
“It's the only option that meaningfully and fully addresses structural fragmentation and also addresses fiscal instability at the heart of the inequity that we've experienced regionally…” Lockman said. “Fragmentation is not neutral. It determines what students have access to in terms of critical resources, and that's what we've been experiencing for too long.”
Consolidated county district pulls through
Public comment lasted about an hour at Tuesday’s Consortium meeting, with many speakers showing disappointment in the decision-making process. The Consortium didn’t have data behind the consolidation options until last week’s AIR report.
The report looked largely at the financial aspect of the three models. Based on cost alone, it recommended splitting the City of Wilmington’s students between Red Clay and Brandywine School Districts.
“Based on our analyses, considerations of cost and the expectation of cost reductions should not be a major factor in the decision of whether to consolidate districts,” the report concluded.
Gov. Matt Meyer kicked off Tuesday’s meeting, addressing the Consortium and attendees. He highlighted proficiency rates for Delaware’s students. Just 42% of students were proficient in English last year, and that dropped to 31% proficiency in math.
“I have a quote on my wall in my office from Nelson Mandela that says, ‘May your choices reflect your hopes and not your fears,’” Meyer said. “Your hopes and not your fears. Whichever option comes out of tonight as the as the most voted upon, I think it can be successful or unsuccessful based on what we do coming from here to make sure that we're getting the resources where they are most needed for our kid.”
Several Consortium members agreed consolidating four districts would be the most difficult to pass in the General Assembly but emphasized the need to support Wilmington’s students.
Wilmington City Councilmembers attended the meeting and participated in public comment. Council President Trippi Congo II said he and many of his colleagues support the Northern New Castle County Consolidated School District model.
“It is time for us to finally address what everybody already knows,” Congo said. “We need to stop beating around the bush and finally push toward a real solution for Wilmington students. We have too many low performing schools in the City of Wilmington… Over the last 50 years, Wilmington has seen an attempt after attempt at education reform, and yet we still have not seen the kind of lasting, fundamental shift in student outcomes that our kids deserve.”
Wilmington City Councilmember Coby Owens concurred, throwing his support behind the Northern New Castle County Consolidated School District model. But he said the Consortium’s investments and plans should go beyond just redistricting.
“This investment includes schools that are fully staffed with culturally competent educators, robust mental health services that recognizes the way of generational trauma, curriculum that affirms identity, history and humanity and wrap-around services that engage families as partners, not obstacles,” Owens said.
Red Clay-Brandywine consolidation plans see some support
While the proposal with Lockman’s approval went through with 19 votes, uncertainties among Consortium members persisted.
Redding Consortium co-chair Matt Denn said any of the three redistricting models he and his colleagues considered exceed the status quo for students, though he would prefer the Red Clay-Brandywine consolidated districts.
“This option accomplishes all the goals that we set out for ourselves 18 months ago, and it also does have the greatest chance of actually being approved by the General Assembly, something that has eluded us for quarter of a century,” Denn said.
Several public commenters concurred, claiming the Red Clay-Brandywine model would be the least disruptive to students. The AIR report released last week found that model would also cost the least, though redistricting in any way would come with steep price tags.
One of the public commenters in line with Denn was Brandywine School District Board of Education President Jason Heller.
Heller, who is not a Consortium member, previously showed support for the Red Clay-Brandywine model, claiming there isn’t data to support more dramatic redistricting proposals will address inequities.
“I believe the only option, if a choice must be made, is the model in which Brandywine and Red Clay retain their individual identities in the existing boundaries sub-option,” Heller said. “It's the lowest risk option for taxpayers, communities and especially students, and it causes the least disruption for our kids in the absence of credible evidence that a higher risk model would produce better outcomes, which we have not seen.”
Racist interruption stops Redding discussions
Members of the public could attend the meeting in person or virtually over Zoom. About two hours into the meeting, a Zoom attendee unmuted and yelled racial slurs in the middle of Consortium deliberations.
Consortium members said the interruption was likely made by a Zoom bot.
Dozens of comments in the chat online decried the epithets.
“I wasn’t surprised,” Wilmington City Council President Congo said. “I wasn't hurt. I wasn't shocked. I think it just, for me, it was confirmation on why we've been here this evening, a confirmation on why we're not talking about a Wilmington School District, confirmation on why there's so much resistance and hesitancy around sending something to Dover to elected officials where they know they won't support Wilmington.”
Other commenters said while this was an explicitly racist moment, they saw more implicit displays of racism at the Consortium meeting at Mount Pleasant Elementary School last week.
Consortium moves forward
“No matter what the outcome of tonight's vote, I'm going to put my head down and I'm going to work with all of you to put together a really thorough plan that can be approved by the legislature, and that's going to help the kids that we want to help,” Redding co-chair Denn promised.
After two hours of discussion from the Consortium and public comment, the facilitator moved to select Northern New Castle County Consolidated School District as Redding’s recommended model.
That passed with 19 votes, though it only needed 13 to move forward.
Consortium members will now work on a presentation for the State Board of Education, which will consider the model and move it forward to the General Assembly to vote on this summer.
