May 12, 2014

Local News

The News Journal
School board elections on Tuesday
Voters will select who will fill 21 seats on school boards across the state on Tuesday. Every district in the state has a seat up for grabs, but seven – a third – will be filled without an election because there is only one candidate running. All but five races include an incumbent.

Hunger does not take a summer vacation
An op-ed by Patricia Beebe, President and CEO of the Food Bank of Delaware, and Chip Rossi, Delaware Market President of Bank of America
Summer vacation is right around the corner. While for some children the season marks the beginning of trips to the beach and pool, for too many of Delaware’s children, summer marks the end of access to free and reduced-price school meals. With more than half of the state’s schoolchildren depending on these meals for much-needed nourishment, it is a concern to the Food Bank of Delaware, Bank of America and other anti-hunger advocates that less than 20 percent of eligible Delaware children participate in summer meal programs.

The Delaware judge who changed America
An op-ed by William Quillen, a former Delaware Supreme Court Justice and Secretary of State
I remember Collins Seitz as an unpretentious, modestly mannered, totally open human being with a passion for social justice and a cutting ability to distinguish right from wrong. His candor was disarming, but never mean spirited. To his judicial colleagues and contemporaries, he was “Collins” and he treated the most recent admittee to the Bar, or a teenager serving legal papers, just as he treated a United States Supreme Court Justice.

Thurgood Marshall, the man with the winning strategy
An op-ed by Leland Ware, the Louis L. Redding Professor at the University of Delaware
Thurgood Marshall was a Civil Rights advocate and Supreme Court justice who had an unparalleled influence on American law. Marshall was born in Baltimore on July 2, 1908. He attended segregated public schools and graduated from high school in 1925. Marshall later enrolled in Lincoln University in Lincoln, Pennsylvania.

Eight Delaware high schools earn spots on national list
Eight Delaware high schools have been named to a national magazine’s list of top American schools. Middletown High School and Appoquinimink High School, both schools in the Appoquininmink School District, earned the “silver” award from U.S. News and World Report’s annual Best High Schools ranking, scoring first and second place respectively in the state. They scored high enough to make it into the national rankings, taking home number 820 and number 1,595.

Girl Scouts target math, science gender gap
A 3D printer is one of many pieces of equipment installed recently that have turned the Camp Country Center in Hockessin, run by the Girl Scouts of the Chesapeake Bay, into a high-tech science and engineering education wonderland. It’s one more push in Delaware’s campaign to better train technical-ready workers to fill jobs business leaders say they have sitting unfilled because they can’t find applicants with the right skills. It’s also taking aim at a vast gender gap in those jobs.

Wilmington police spark kids’ interest in reading
A group of Wilmington police officers has been blanketing the city in an effort to book kids – and the kids love it. The books, in this case, are in the trunks of police cruisers. Master Cpl. Gary Tabor found children’s literature had been missing in the homes he entered while he was a member of the department’s major crime unit. He discussed it with his wife, Melissa, a school teacher, who told him about the importance of children having reading materials readily available.

From inner-city kid to DSU graduate
Clarence Banks, who earned a bachelor’s degree in finance and banking from DSU, faced a different sort of struggle: the tough inner-city neighborhood where he constantly had to dodge trouble and strive to succeed without his natural father’s presence and a mother who was fighting a losing battle with breast cancer. “I grew up in north Wilmington, on 17th Street,” Banks said. “So all my friends are in jail for doing drugs, things like that. Everyone I knew was doing something they weren’t supposed to.”

Class notes: Principals of the Year named
Mark Pruitt of Conrad Schools of Science has been named Secondary Principal of the Year and Neil Beahn of Southern Delaware School of the Arts has been named Middle Level Principal of the Year, the Delaware Association of School Administrators announced this week.

WHYY
Wilmington residents aren’t buying charter schools
A commentary by Larry Nagengast
Consider it a wake-up call for the charter entrepreneurs. “If you build it, they will come” is not the reality of education in Wilmington. It’s time for charter operators to look at the “big picture” that they’re so fond of touting: No matter how much they think their programs are better than what traditional schools are offering, if they can’t successfully make their case with Wilmington parents, their promise will be stillborn.

Charter schools expand in Delaware
Four new charter schools are coming to Delaware, including one with roots in Philadelphia. According to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, enrollment in Delaware’s charter schools has grown by over 76 percent since the 2004-05 school year. In fact, Department of Education Secretary Mark Murphy said there’s more than 10,000 Delaware students currently enrolled in charter schools statewide and that the numbers continues to grow.

Report: Delaware’s children are increasingly diverse
The latest Kids Count Fact Book highlights the demographic shifts of Delaware’s young people. In 2000, 64 percent of Delawareans under the age of 18 were classified as white, non-Hispanic. At that time, African-American and other non-Hispanic children made up 29 percent of the population under 18, while Hispanic children accounted for just 7 percent.

Sussex Countian
Meet the Candidates: Three vie for Indian River’s District 5 seats
Voters living in the fifth district of the Indian River School District will hit the polls on Tuesday, May 13 to elect two people to the open seats on the Board of Education. On the ballot this year are incumbents Scott Collins and Doug Hudson, who are being challenged by newcomer Bobbi Barends.

Dover Post
Two vie for seat on Caesar Rodney Board of Education
Voters in the Caesar Rodney School District will visit the polls on Tuesday, May 13 to determine who will fill a seat on the district’s school board. The at-large seat is being vacated by current board member Kathleen Haynes. Two candidates have filed to run for the open seat, which comes with a five-year term.

Caesar Rodney makes security upgrades
The Caesar Rodney School District a few weeks ago completed a series of security upgrades that level the playing field for district security standards. Previously each school in the district had slightly different security outfits. While some buildings utilized card readers that staff could use to access the school, others didn’t. Some schools had more hardware on their doors than others. An effort to ensure that all schools within the district are fitted with standard security measures is now complete.

Cape Gazette
Cape schools select top teachers
Among this year’s Teacher of the Year nominees, some always knew they wanted to teach, while others chose an education path later in life. Still, all demonstrate the high standards Cape Henlopen School District sets for its teachers, the superintendent says. “Each of the building Teachers of the Year proudly represent the great teachers that work in all of our schools throughout the district,” said Cape Henlopen Superintendent Robert Fulton. We are fortunate to have such remarkable individuals working with our students each and every day.”

Sussex Academy responds to article, letters
A letter to the editor by Adam Marsh, president, Sussex Academy Executive Board
In recent weeks, a news article and two subsequent letters to the editor have included statements and inferences about Sussex Academy, our county’s only charter school, that were largely untrue. The purpose of this letter is to help set the record straight.

Delaware Department of Education
Engineering & technology students apply spirit of innovation to excel at state conference
A press release
More than 670 students and advisors from 33 chapters across the state recently attended the 2014 Delaware Technology Student Association State Conference, many bringing home honors. This year’s conference had a record registration with more than 1,508 entries in all of the competitive events that were focused on topics in Technology, Innovation, Design and Engineering.

National News

Boston.com
Massachusetts colleges adopt policy
The Massachusetts Board of Higher Education has adopted a policy to make civics a key component of every undergraduate student’s education at all state universities and community colleges. The board said the policy is the first of its kind in the nation.

The Times-Picayune
Louisiana again rejects repeal bill
The Louisiana Senate Education Committee voted to kill a bill that would have repealed the Common Core academic standards, the latest in a string of failed attempts at rolling back the nationally recognized education benchmarks.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pennsylvania governor pushes for more funding
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett is making a pitch for more state money for early childhood education. His proposed budget calls for an additional $25.5 million for early education.

The Associated Press
Illinois data fuel reform debate
Newly released figures that show downstate school districts gaining at the expense of suburban ones have fueled a debate among lawmakers about a proposed overhaul of the complicated school funding formula that Illinois has used for almost two decades.

Wyoming is first state to reject standards
Wyoming, the nation’s top coal-producing state, is the first to reject new K-12 science standards proposed by national education groups mainly because of global warming components.