▼Full Transcript Below

1. Board Presentation & Discussion
   ⏯ 0:12:55 - 0:24:50

   1. • Mark Pruitt, Director of Secondary Schools presents the outline for the Secondary Attendance Zone & Programming Committee; names are chosen for committee members. 

      • Board Members discuss who will serve on the committee 

Mark Pruitt: Good evening, President Matthews, Board Members, and Superintendent Green. I am here to provide a brief update on the Secondary School Attendance Zone, Enrollment, and Programming Committee. When establishing the committee, we followed Board Policy 9004, which outlines that the committee be comprised of three District administrators, three school-level leaders, three teachers, and seven parents/community members, one from each nominating district. Based on interest, experience, and responsibilities, Dr. Green and his team selected the following administrators to serve: Dr. Tawanda Bond, Senior Director of Teaching and Learning; Shawn Snyder, Director of Information Technology; and myself. The selected school leaders are Jason Bastinelli, Principal of HB DuPont; Kendra Todd-Dixon, Principal of Conrad School of Science; and Reggie Worlds, Principal of Thomas McKean High School.

On November 24, the Communications Office, under Ms. Mobley, sent a letter outlining the committee’s goals, expectations, first meeting date, and a link to an interest form. The form generated 107 responses, including 36 staff members and 88 in-district residents. A breakdown by nominating district was also provided. The interest form closed this past Friday. This evening, Ms. Mobley assisted with randomly selecting two names per nominating district: one member and one alternate, should the primary member be unable to serve during the six-month term. The selected members and alternates are as follows: District A: Val Gould (member); Latonya Powell (alternate) District B: Caitlin Merto (member); Mike Brainard (alternate) District C: Eric Sanford (member); Tiffany Shockley (alternate) District D: Madeline Reitemeyer (member); Louis Diaz (alternate) District E: Jennifer Recchiuti (member); Cynthia Dinardo (alternate) District F: Amin Farooqui (member); Chang Quo (alternate) District G: Antonio Gomes (member); Stephanie Schroeder Toomey (alternate) Beth Jefferson from my office has documented the selections, and we will review the audio to ensure accuracy before contacting members prior to winter break.

Now at this point we've selected members of the public which of your nominating districts which could have included teacher staff members. I recognize one name I believe okay and so at this point we will give the rest of the teachers of the RCEA members that are were on this list to RCEA to Mr Fackenthall and we'll give him until January 10th to select two additional two teacher names to serve as the teacher representatives once he's selected his two name Dr. Green and his team will select one additional teacher from the interest list to or round out the committee. Questions?

Jose Matthews: Dr. Pruitt, I do have one question that came from members of the Board. From policy 9004 Participation of our board members, I think we have we're allowed up to three just asking for clarification.

Mark Pruitt: We only went with what's in the policy but historically you have added up to three members and you can make that decision obviously amongst. 

Jose Matthews: We'll make sure that.

Kecia Nesmith: A point of clarification - I just wanted to go back. I guess I don't know the answer, but I know that policy has come up a couple-

Cathy Thompson: I can't hear you

Kecia Nesmith: - that policy has come up a few times and I don't remember if we passed that policy because it it hasn't been changed since 2016 and I just want to -

Jose Matthews: It's the the current.

Kecia Nesmith: Okay. 

Mark Pruitt: Any other questions? Next slide. An anticipated timeline - our first meeting is scheduled for 6 PM in the district office boardroom on January 21st. That will be the first of six meetings between January and June. The committee will make a recommendation to you all at the July school board meeting as you requested. Our hope is that you would take board action on our request at the August meeting. September through June - September 25 through June 26 - would serve as a planning year to hash out the details of such significant changes and then in November of 2026 our families would make Choice selections based on those changes which we will have broadly communicated by that point and in August 2027 students would attend the new attendance Zone schools and programs within our district. Inclusive of that work - of the committee work - shall include a town hall meeting and a community survey to assist us with our work. Questions?

Kecia Nesmith: I move that we decide how to include the Board Members by way of vote at some point if not today instead of volunteerism since it's such important committee. 

Jose Matthews: Yeah, also because our next a second meeting won't give us enough time to be able to prepare for the 21st so I think we probably do have to -

Kecia Nesmith: I need a second. 

Cathy Thompson: It's really hard to hear people. I would appreciate it if people would speak directly into the microphone.

Kecia Nesmith: Okay, I will. Okay, so I move - I'm making a motion - I move that we create a process to elect the three Board Members to this particular committee that Dr. Pruitt has discussed. 

Jose Matthews: Is there a second?

Cathy Thompson: We usually just see who's interested.

Kecia Nesmith: I just made a motion. Is there a second?

Jose Matthews: Second for the motion? Motion fails. So in terms of just - I think we can just have maybe some open discussion and maybe it may be best to kind of just have an open forum of who would be interested in serving? I know first and foremost I would certainly be interested in participating.

Cathy Thompson: Can you speak into the mic? It might be my hearing. I don't know but trouble hearing

Jose Matthews: No worries. I know sometimes it could be placement in terms of where you're placed in the room.

Cathy Thompson: There's some noise back here too.

Jose Matthews: There is, yeah. You're like right behind a fan or something. 

Vic Leonard: I am interested.

Kecia Nesmith: We all are. That's why I said we should - 

Jose Matthews: Everyone - maybe I can start with: Is there anyone on the Board who is not interested?

Kathy Thompson: I will not serve on it. I'm on everything else. 

Aje English: I won't be serving either. 

Jose Matthews: You will not be serving either? So that leave five of us. 

Dorrell Green: That leaves four of you at least. You said you will be not be, so three of you. So that's four members who want to serve. You can serve up to three, so is there a Board Member who wants to recuse themselves and allow the three that expressed interest or you have to go through the process as you generally would during the first business meeting of the year and do nominations and vote.

Martin Wilson: I'll excuse myself.

Jose Matthews: Okay, you'll excuse yourself as well. Ms. Sander?

Susan Sander: No, I was just willing to sacrifice myself.

Jose Matthews: Okay, so that would leave Mr. Leonard, Dr. Nesmith and myself.  Would that be suitable for the Board in terms of proceeding with those?

Kathy Thompson: Yeah, but I would like, honestly, I mean there are a couple of people that file written reports and I would ask that you all provide written reports at the Board meetings because I think it's really important and everyone is interested. 

Dorrell Green: So I think with something this large in the end there's three members that are representing on the committee but indirectly all of the Board Members obviously would be involved because we will give you regular Updates. This is a broad community effort. So I think for the purpose of time and understanding we have three Board Members that have will serve on it. That's Mr.  Leonard, Dr. Nesmith and President Matthews. We'll make sure the Board gets regular updates as we progress. Ms. Jefferson and Mr. Pruitt, you have those names and we'll make sure that those Board Members get the communication as it goes out. Obviously I give the Board Members weekly updates and we'll make sure not only through weekly updates but also through process of Board meetings along the way and timeline that you get relevant information. 

🎙️Secondary Attendance Zone & Programming Board Presentation December 18, 2024 

🌐Secondary Attendance Zone & Programming Committee Webpage

📄Policy 9004- Committees to the Board

Related materials

📰Spotlight Delaware AI duPont High decline December 2024

▼Full Transcript Below

1. Public Comment
   ⏯ 0:12:50 – 1:01:07

   1. • Elliot Warburton (Friends of AI): Urged the Board to honor the founding vision of Alexis I. duPont High School by taking action to ensure its survival 

      • Devon Hynson (AI parent/Board candidate/Friends of AI) Called for transparency and encouraged proactive recruitment strategies to increase enrollment.

      • Yvonne Johnson (National PTA President) Raised concerns regarding redistricting, capacity, and transportation equity.

      • Jared Obstfeld (Friends of AI):  Linked AI’s enrollment decline to policy decisions like the removal of choice busing 

      • Charles Lockerman (Friends of AI): advocated for reinstating choice busing and advancing the zoning committee to restore enrollment.

      • Jennifer Bisicchia (Friends of AI): Shared a personal testimony of AI’s transformative impact and urged the Board to restore its excellence

      • Talia Morris (Friends of AI): Expressed shock at AI’s decline, offered alumni support for fundraising and advocacy

      • Alexus Moore (Friends of AI):Reflected on the legacy of Paul L. Perets and the importance of preserving AI's culture.

      • Greg Wilson (Friends of AI): Argued that Board policy decisions contributed to AI’s enrollment drop and urged a corrective measure.

      • Jordyn Pusey (Friends of AI): Criticized delays in implementing task force recommendations and demanded immediate action 

      • Brenda Steffon (Friends of AI): Connected AI's decline to the elimination of choice busing 

      • Tony Brown (Friends of AI): Questioned root cause of AI's decline and its lack of support compared to other schools

      • Dylan McDowell (Friends of AI): Emphasized declining programs; urged forward movement on task force recommendations

2. Board Presentation, Discussion & Vote
   ⏯ 1:33:52 - 2:13:15 

   1. • Mark Pruitt, Director of Secondary Schools presented a comprehensive proposal to create a Board-level Secondary Attendance Zone, Enrollment, and Programming Committee to evaluate high school sustainability and equity

      • The Board voted to accelerate the timeline, requiring final recommendations by July 2025 implementation beginning in FY27.

Elliott Warburton: My name is Elliot Warburton. I am with the Friends of AI tonight. Now, there are a few other members who are going to be speaking tonight and I identify with all of their calls but choose to spend this time on the podium to not necessarily speak of these but for another particular reason. I do believe that the Alexis I duPont High School is a school that is deserving of all necessary attention it needs to survive. This school, a literal gem of Delaware's public education system, is most certainly the most deserving of the Board's attention, for it is my earnest opinion that ever since the school's opening that all progress achieved by Delaware schools have been reactionary to the standard set by Alexis I. Now, I understand that this concept might be slightly difficult to perceive across time but it is true and tonight to help reinforce the duty that both the Board and community have been gifted in caring for this school, I take to the podium to not just voice my and my fellow friends' opinions but the words of one man - the man whom we all strive to embody in respect. This man is the school's spiritual founder, Francis Gurney duPont who in his speech before the Brandy public on the evening of January 19th, 1894 said the following words on his vision for the school: "Let me assure you that there are many troubles that may come and do come to our School Board and we who serve you must ask for your forbearance and also your hearty cooperation that the school might become as perfect in its regimen as in its material proportions. The accomplishment of this end will not be an easy task and will require on the part of you all time, while patience will be necessary as well. Let us all take up the work bravely and hope that future Generations will take pride in upholding the school we have open today. We now enjoy having shared the effort which is secured to our community that boon of the American citizen: a good District school." Now as before us today we the community are ready to uphold our role in in honoring Francis's wishes I call upon the Board to do so as well. For this is a community effort and we all need to work together for I do believe that if procrastination is not tolerated in the classroom it should not be tolerated in District office as well. Thank you.

Devon Hynson Good evening. Alright, so I think it's important to highlight the fact that I do stand with the friends of AI High School. My name is Devon Hynson. I'm a Red Clay parent, a community organizer and a 20-year+ student advocate. I'm currently a candidate for District B for the Red Clay School Board. I have four children that graduated from AI High school: Devon Jr., Aaliyah, Dion, and Dianna. I also have one daughter that graduated from John Dickinson High School her name is Jamia and presently Dominic attends Marbrook Elementary School. Years ago as a parent liaison I had the awesome responsibility of helping the district build trust with the community through equitable solutions, transparency and most importantly accountability. After conducting a limited research about this AI situation it honestly appears to be some levels of distrust that's really at the root of the issue. So what I wanted to propose was two things: I have two simple solutions I think that could help contribute to being able to address the challenges that we're seeing at AI High School. I think we all want better for all schools and all the relevant variables should be reasonably calculated with considering solutions for struggling schools - but establishing committees specifically to address the concerns of specific high schools - but placing administrators from competing high schools on that committee then giving them an equal voice to share possible unintended consequences or adverse effects is giving "All Lives Matters" to me. It's not that McKean or Dickinson are not important high schools, it's just that the two are not abysmally failing when it comes to enrollment. I believe, number two, I believe that there are opportunities to recruit from neighboring district high schools, especially those underperforming, through attractive and relevant course offerin and non-traditional but intentional marketing strategies. And I can see where there could be some concerns that it may further disadvantage other school districts' underperforming schools, but the increased access to quality education outweighs consistent mediocrity. It could actually serve as a motivator to neighboring districts, raising a bar for all. I was there so I know that there are plethora of root causes and tough conversations that need to be had when it comes to thinking about why AI High School does not meet capacity. Right, like about white flight, excessive discipline, prematurely closing of choice, and the transportation decisions that were made up to this point. But if for every solution we find a problem or a possible unintended consequence that could adversely affect some child somewhere we are probably being disingenuous at some point. The only way to move forward in the talk is not at each other but for all parties to be available transparent and accountable. Thank you.

Yvonne Johnson Good evening, Dr Green and School Board. I'm Yvonne Johnson. I am a parent of two children who went to Red Clay schools. I am also the National PTA President, but tonight I'm here as a community member and I want to talk about the Secondary Attendance Zone Enrollment Program Committee. I know this Board promised to get that committee going. I'm on my tiptoes because I can't reach. I just want to make sure that the Board fulfills their promise. I, too, am here to support the friends of AI. I know many of you were at the celebration of Paul Parets life at AI for the football game and the whole ceremony. It was moving beyond belief and it really showed the community of AI coming out together. We can only solve problems by working together, community, School Board, families and alumni. So I hope that this Board takes very seriously that committee and starts to look at at what's happening with attendance zones. On another note, I have another thing I'd like to discuss and that is the school climate survey and the results of the teachers last night. State educate with DSEA presented a training on school climate and culture and DSEA shared some very staggering data about what teachers are facing and I just returned from a Castle, which is a social emotional learning, Exchange convention in Chicago and National PTA received an award for our work on social emotional learning and what one thing that was crystal clear is teachers are really struggling. Discipline issues, oversized classes, not being paid enough and not getting the supports they need. I really was upset to hear the results of the survey of our district and so I hope that the School Board takes that very seriously because we have to really value our teachers. They're low paid and they need to be appreciated and I know that every teacher that touched my children and touches my grandchild, I appreciate everything they do. It's hard out there. We have a teacher shortage so I was very sad to hear the staggering data. So I just hope that the Board pays attention to that. Thank you.

Jared Obstfeld Hi, I am Brenda Steffon. I'm reading on behalf of Jared Obstfeld. Good evening, Members of the Board. My name is Jared, proudly an AI High School class of 1998. I'd like to first thank you for the volunteer time you dedicate to the service to serve the needs of the Red Clay School District. I'm sure it's often a thankless job. I was one of over 200 Tiger marching band alumni who reunited at last month's homecoming game to honor the legacy of Paul Parets. Despite our excitement to be there and to share in our undying Tiger Pride there were things that were hard to go unnoticed that week. The sparse seating, the lack of instruments in the Band Room, the broken scoreboard at the stadium at the high school's own homecoming game, and the football team only having 16 players forcing the kids to play two positions. I spent a lot of time trying to get answers to the questions that arose from that week and after much research it is clear that there has been a string of decisions made by the Board that negatively affected AI enrollment and brought it to its current state. How does a school ranked in the top 100 in the nation known for its superior academics and a world-renowned marching band go to a school now ranked 30th in the state with no PTA and over 40% of students being low-income or homeless. The two glaring facts is the removal of choice busing and the fact that the can keeps getting kicked down the road to analyze and redraw the attendance zones both are crucial to boosting enrollment. Tonight I am asking you all, especially anyone who is on the fence about the Attendance Zone committee and the importance of re-drawing the attendance zones to please do the right thing for the current and future students and faculty of AI duPont High School and push this through. This was a recommendation a while ago from the AI Task Force, a committee you appointed to raise enrollment at the school. There has been no variable reason that it has not been addressed. The data already exists and it just needs to be executed. Can you understand how not doing this seems like purposeful sabotage from an outside perspective and that by not voting for an Attendance Committee you may not be realizing the implications and how that decision will negatively impact the current students and faculty as well as the community in the district you represent. Thank you for your time.

Charles Lockerman, Good evening. I also stay with the Friends of AI, having attended the school myself. AI High School opened January 19th 1894. It's become a legacy in our community and I'm here to help ensure it's a public school institution of education for another 130 years. Paul Parets was a leader of the AI band and in doing so he created a community of alumni around the world. A community he led all over the world from the Parade of Roses for the Rose Bowl in California to New York to Ireland to London and to Vatican City, and also every Thanksgiving Day Parade in Philadelphia. The long blue line represented the state of Delaware proudly on every global stage with distinction and honor. Recently in continuing that legacy over 200 alumni band members played at the AI Homecoming and a few hundred more attended the game where we had over 1300 spectators. This is the AI we know as alumni and it's the one we want the current students to experience but we can't do that without the Board's help. The Task Force that you appointed to study was to help come up with solutions and I implore you to put the zoning committee vote back on the agenda and I also ask you to bring back choice busing, as it already has funding support in Dover among an elected officials. It's just awaiting your approval to begin the process. AI lost 33% of its School population when the choice busing was ended and I firmly believe it will make an immediate impact to increase attendance. The alumni you see here before you are an asset to AI and the community. We will be here to help support our school and to assure that as a team with your commitment and blessing the upward trend will continue for years to come. Please help save AI by putting the plan of the task force into action immediately. Thank you for your time and consideration tonight. Can't hide that AI Pride.

Jennifer Bisicchia, My name is Jennifer Bisicchia, representing the friends of AI. I graduated AI in 2000 with three varsity letters in volleyball, basketball, lacrosse and I was one of 300 members of the Tiger marching band. I have recently became privvy to the condition of the school when the alumni joined to honor the late band director Mr. Paul Parets. I was, and am shocked, to just know how bad it has gotten. How and why has this school been overlooked for so long? This is a school where legends were made. I'm going to jump back and share the impact AI had on my life. I attended Ursuline Academy from kindergarten to 8th grade. I was delicately asked not to return because of personal home matters that affected my capabilities to perform well scholastically. So my mother drove me to AI to speak to the team of guidance counselors. Compassionately, they accepted me in as a freshman and I was officially a Tiger. This school wasn't about making children fit a specific mold that best suited the school. This school helped create a mold for each and every child that walked through the door. There was a place to fit in no matter the culture, race, religion and social status. It was beautiful. AI was a safe, welcoming, no judgment zone for the children to thrive and we did. I went to college on a full athletic scholarship. I independently purchased my home at 25 years old. I am a leader in my industry as a hairstylist with over 2000 clients and growing. My work has graced the covers of Vogue, Marie Claire magazines to name a few. I am a business owner and was recently awarded best Salon in Philly. I am a productive member of society and with social responsibility as evidenced by my presence here tonight, these accolades are in no small part due to the foundation AI provided me during some of the most formidable years of my life. Now let's talk about the band. There was no other school in Delaware - not even a college - that has accomplished what this student-led organization did. For example, we performed in Europe, performed at the inauguration of several presidents and we were named the largest band in Delaware history with 200 of our 300 members Varsity athletes. The band was a huge part of the community whether you went to AI or not. People came to watch us create magic. The adrenaline, the goosebumps, the sound that was heard from miles away and people knew it was us. We made history - we are not history. There is still history to be made. We are all willing, ready and able to make this the best comeback that the Red Clay School District has ever seen. Give us the chance we so rightly deserve.

Talia Morris Forgive the shake in my voice right now. It's a little emotional to hear my pom partner and volleyball teammate, Jen, get emotional. It's also difficult to hear the current state that AI is in. To give a little transparency, you graduate high school. You have this wonderful experience. You're in a band of 300. You perform at the Rose Bowl Parade in California. You perform at the St Patrick's Day Parade in Ireland. My high school team won Flight A Championship twice. My sister was the lead scorer, almost made 2000 points. My best friend also played on the basketball team. So it's really tough to hear the current state of AI come by a shock and surprise after we all attended such pride this October when it was thousands of people from Friends of AI online that supported. There was a thousand alumni that attended the October football game that was actually a sold out crowd. Can you imagine the past two football games were cancelled because we didn't have enough players to play. So to say that this is a shock is really an understatement. So I made notes today but I think I'm just going to steer off of the notes. I feel like most of the alumni - we moved away - we thought AI was in good hands. Then we come back and we're all shocked to the core. Like many of the friends from AI said, we're here to support. If it's fundraising we need, if it's busing we can raise a 100 Grand. If it's teams overnight I huddled the The Poms band front team for 91 members overnight who's willing to fundraise. To do social media campaigns, to volunteer to advocate for AI, anything that we need to do. But I think we need answers on why it happened. What we can do? Is AI just a dying school that you plan to close? We need answers. We're here to support and we came back to the small town and I'm hoping that this is not small town shenanigans that we're coming back to. Small town policies. The same Wilmington I feel like I came home to and it's shocking, it's upsetting. I'm hoping that we can work together to figure it out and again it's just transparency that we're looking for. If it's nothing to be done, let us know. Let us know. Thank you.

Alexus Moore I had so much to say but I would actually like to recite a story that I wrote recently. I am a DelTech Education major but I went to AI and graduated in 2012 so this is the impact that AI had on me. Taking my last three classes at DelTech I have had so many experiences and was given a chance to develop my own thoughts and points of view regarding different topics on teaching. The hardest question I have been asked so far has also taught me the meaning of the role of the teacher. I was asked, "Do you want to be a teacher who is loved or respected and why?" At first I said I said loved because with love comes respect. But I was wrong. Recently my high school lost legend Mr Paul L Parets who passed away on October 13, 2024. He was the band director at Alexis I duPont High School from 1976 to 2012. He taught so many students and showed them how to follow their dreams. I never had the honor to march in his band but I was still his student. No matter what you did there - if you were an an AI student - you were proud. As a little girl I remember going up to the school during halftime to watch what we called the long blue line. The Alexis I duPont marching bands, the big boom of music filled the night sky and the cheering. You felt felt how proud the students were. Now 12 years later as my fellow AI alumni sit in the pews say goodbye to Mr P., I know that to be a teacher means way more than being loved or respected. I do not get to choose. To be a teacher means to love and respect your students. As I sit in the pews listening to all the memories of the classes before me, there was always one thing that was the same. He was that teacher who was there for you when it seemed like you were alone. Mr. P. believed in you enough until you learned to believe in yourself. If there was one quote that defined Mr. P. besides his own, it was from the movie Drum Line. One band, One sound and what a sound it was. The world went quiet when Mr. P. passed but only only for a moment. The sound of his band, his masterpiece of many years fills our hearts and our minds, our memories. I know what I'm doing in life is what I'm supposed to do. Thank you.

Greg Wilson Good evening. I'm Greg Wilson with Friends of AI. Nearly two years ago on October 19th, 2022 Red Clay School Board presented a slide deck that tracked the decline enrollment at AI from 1400 students in 2009 to less than 700 in 2021. That 52% decline alarmed one Board Member. She was shocked. She looked at that AI was sinking, sinking, sinking. She had been on the Board for 10 years and had no idea that the precipitous drop had occurred. She was embarrassed. She said we did nothing, nothing, nothing. Another Board member quickly interjected and said we did do something - we demanded more Red Clay kids get into Conrad, Charter, DSA. To repeat - they said "We did do something." We, being the Board, did something. The decline of AI's enrollment in my opinion was a direct result of a change in Red Clay policies. Which means a fair remedy can be and should be put in place to reverse your mistakes of the past. The first effort where the first inclination of change was the creation of the an AI Task Force, which I served on with Paul Parets in the spring of 2023. One of the key recommendations was the creation of a Secondary School Attendance Zone Committee. Paul was adamant about this. I mean, he would get all fired up. I beg you to vote on the second reading on an Attendance Zone Committee. Prior to his passing, we hoped that the district would move on this issue but it kind of lallygagged and dragged its feet. After Paul passed, passed away, the ground swell of support...from the Band Alumni was amazing. Do we think the Board has been delinquent in its duties? Yes. Yes, we do. Do we think the Board can remedy its mistakes? Yes. After Zoom calls, AI alumni want to do what they can to help the school in any way it can. In 2024 the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board it'd be tragic to see AI die. If it did so it'd be an embarrassment to the School Board. AI does mean something. Shirley Bulah, who was part of Hockessin 107C graduated from AI. The Freedom Trail went by AI. President Joe Biden announced Kamala Harris as his running mate at AI and in those 130 years so many kids so many students so many teachers so many great moments have happened at AI. If you guys can make the difference you can make a change we ask that you vote on that committee. Thank you.

Jordyn Pusey Hello, my name is Jordan Pusey. I am a Red Clay parent and I'm a proud graduate of AI duPont high school. While I was there I served in the Tiger Marching Band and was a member of the AI duPont Lady Tigers where we won five straight soccer championships. I was here last year because I'm a parent of Marbrook and when we were here asking you to save our Spanish immersion program which was recognized tonight for its service of student students, we noticed that AI duPont Alumni were also here asking for you to vote "Yes" on the recommendations from the AI duPont Task Force. It's yet been another year you have not voted in those all of the recommendations. We have not voted in the Attendance Zone and it's just very curious to me how fast this District seems to move on certain issues without public input, without transparency, but when you don't want to do something - when you don't want to do right by the community - we drag our feet, we delay, we obstruct, we create task force upon task force where we're just task-forcing ourselves into oblivion while my alma mater is bleeding out. There is no reason that school should be down to 550 students. There is no reason. We need to stop and you need to make the right decision tonight and you need to put it back on the agenda and you need to vote Yes on the Attendance Zone Task Force. Thank you.

Brenda Steffon my name is Brenda Steffon and I'm a proud graduate of AI duPont 1988 where I served as librarian for the AI Marching Band that year. I appreciate the time you dedicate to our community and the important role you play in shaping the future of our students, however I stand before you tonight regarding the unaddressed Attendance Zoning Committee approval and the vote on that and the future of our AI High School. I must express my concern about the continued challenges we face. This once celebrated institution - a gold standard of Delaware - recognized nationally, now finds itself in a critical juncture and I am uncertain about our future if swift and decisive action is not taken. While AI High School initially held its own against the rise of several Charter Schools, the targeted decision to eliminate Choice busing for students has severely impacted enrollment leading to a staggering 33% decrease in 2016 and this significant decline has turned that once thriving educational environment into a school now operating at only 55% capacity. Compounding this problem is the fact that our feeder zones have not been redrawn in quite some time, limiting the influx of new students from our surrounding areas. A glaring example of our school's decay is the broken scoreboard on the football field, a symbol of neglect that sends a message to our students our parents and potential families around the state of our commitment to excellence. I have personal connection to this issue back in 1987 a feeder zone change impacted me during my senior year. The recently deceased Paul L Parets advocated fiercely for me and several others, encouraging us to speak up at that meeting and I stand before you as a part of a collective voice of AI High School advocating for our kids, our teachers, our programming, and our pursuit of excellence. It's disheartening to stand here tonight filled with a myriad of emotions and questions for you. Why the lack of enthusiasm in confronting these issues head on? Our students and families deserve more than ambiguity and uncertainty and the lack of redrawn zones and the continued delay will not only erode our school's reputation, but also jeopardize the educational opportunities of our children. I have currently moved back to this area and moved into my family home in Hockessin. Not a single family in that area of Ashland goes to a public school anymore. It doesn't matter if it's McKean or AI. That's the question you want to hear from your constituents out here - is that they are not attending public school. I have a 6 year old in Montessori.

Tony Brown My name is Tony Brown. I'm also a 1997 graduate of AI duPont High School. Having moved back to this area as well, roughly about three years ago. I've heard so many different comments and I don't know if the rumors - I don't know if they're real - I don't know what's going on but I know that when I came back as many of my other fellow peers are shocked they shocked in the past several weeks after the passing of Mr Paul Parets I've learned from my fellow locally engaged peers that AI has decreased in quality significantly. In learning about the decrease student population and the ability to attract students, I ask why? What is the root cause? Like every organization in the past six years whether it be public, private. Data-driven decisions are important. They're the backbone of progress. So when I learned there was an actual Task Force created and chartered by this actual Board, I thought there for progress. Find the data and make the best decision based on the data. I understand there has been attention and effort given to other Red Clay high schools. Why not AI? I also recently learned as recently as 2016 the choice busing funding for AI has been at a standstill at the state level - only awaiting this Board's approval. I would love to talk about the rich history and what AI means to me and so many others, but I want to know about attitude and effort. Attitude and effort. As elected members, as leaders in the community, the only thing you can control is attitude and effort. This has been on display for the past few years. The decrease in support for AI. We're asking for you to vote in favor of supporting the increase of attendance of AI. History will show your attitude and efforts and we will be here. We will keep coming back. There's a legacy that was left most recently in October by Mr. Parets but he made leaders. Not only the ones that are here, but they're around. Having come back and I know that my kids are here now - gosh,  what an opportunity to come back here and be a part of what can be great again. Doesn't have to be what we had but there's still progress to be made. So I just ask you - where's your attitude? where's your effort? There's history, guys. Make sure you're in it. Thank you.

Dylan McDowell I graduated from AI High School in 2009 and I'm not going to repeat a lot of what's been said tonight because we had quite a few people and it's really built on top of, I think, 2100 people in this Facebook group. yeah I'm sorry I'm usually very loud so this is new for me we it's it feels very loud but I'll trust you. We have 2100 people in this Facebook group and it's a testament to how many kids pass through that band room. How many kids benefited from Paul Parets and AI High? I think what I want to say I'm throwing out all of my notes. Just to say I think we're all on the same team in that we all want strong public schools especially in this district. For what it's worth, I went to Linden Hill then Marbrook then HB then AI. As a kid I was all over this district. I'm happy to be back. I live here again. I moved back from Philly. I would love to send my future kids to Red Clay schools but I'm seeing some of the same things right. What's been said about my neighbors are AI grads. They send their kids to Friends. That hurts because I know our schools are great. AI has a lot of the same teachers as when I went. It's the same building. Being there with alumni I saw a lot of the same things but what was different hurt and I think really what we want is for our school and the kids there now to have a working scoreboard. I know maybe it's not going to be a 300 member band again but there should be enough kids for a football team. There should be enough kids for a band. Its own independent band. I just wanted to say building on what they said that I think we can be a team in that I think enrollment, I understand that enrollment is a challenge in public schools everywhere but it used to be helpful to have AI and say that band goes to the Rose Bowl and London and God knows where else. It used to be great to say that's a successful comprehensive school. It was a banner under which so many of us marched to say public schools not just can be great are great. Look at this one. Look at the ones around it. Look at Red Clay and we all really want to get back there. I hope it's something we can do together I know a lot of us are going to be coming back for future meetings. I hope so anyways. I might not be wearing the blue shirt but we'll be here and I just hope we can move forward on some of the recommendations of the Task Force and also move forward on this Attendance Zone issue. I think it is a problem that our school is playing from behind when you look at those numbers and the old slide decks. So I know the answers won't come easy. I trust that you all are doing your research and your homework. I just wanted to say we're looking forward to working with you together. If there's something we can do as alumni I think it's very unusual to have 2100 people say what could we do for the school? What do they need? From 1976 to 2012 as they said. But we're here. We'll be here and we want to be part of the process with you to get our school back to full attendance and its former glory. Thanks.

Mark Pruitt: Good evening, Superintendent Green, Board members, I am here tonight to present a comprehensive plan to provide equitable educational programming that meets the needs of all our secondary school students and future secondary school students through program and attendance zone changes. We believe that analysis uncovered from data at the AI Task Force Committee and the presentation in September, where I provided an analysis, necessitates such a change.

It's important to note, though, I would be remiss if I didn't say this - when you talk about a school in a downturn - as all three of our attendance zone schools have been over the past 15 years - that is not to say the school is not having success. In fact, just last week, the College Board, a national college board, came out to AI High School to look at the tremendous growth they’ve had in Advanced Placement coursework, and how they could replicate that nationally.

I would also say it’s very important that teachers in under-enrolled schools are actually doing more. They stretch themselves to pick up courses to meet the needs of a small group of students. Sometimes, when we talk about making changes or improvements, it can be misconstrued by the people who are doing a great job at those schools.

The format of the presentation follows the Board's request from September and includes goals of work, scope of work, communication for transparency, committee makeup, expectations of members, and timelines. I’ll also talk about the partnership with the University of Delaware and how they can help us. Please feel free to ask questions along the way.

The first half of the work over the next two to three years involves determining what changes we need to make to our programming to ensure sustainable schools that offer equitable college and career programming for all students at all times. For example, we need to determine optimal enrollment numbers and what adjustments are needed to the current model.

When I had my first conversation with a person at the University of Delaware, he said, “You’ll continue to have dips in enrollment as long as you have more seats than students. Once you know the levels you want for these schools, we can help with the data.”

Next month the Superintendent and his team, which I’ll be working on, will present the four options for attendance zones, enrollment, and programming to the Board for discussion. So we’ll give you four options of what our secondary school program may look like going forward.

We then would recommend that at the January 25 meeting the Board vote to advance these options for consideration to the school Board to a special committee, an Attendance Zone, Enrollment, and Programming Committee.

The goals for the committee are to evaluate the order of the options from strongest to weakness provided by them from the school Board to the committee. In doing so, the committee will consider a strong and balanced enrollment across schools, impact on current attendance zones, equitable access to quality education for all students, and also providing the Board which they believe are the advantages and challenges of each option through analysis, community feedback, and research.

Scope of the work would include data analysis, review of current enrollment data, optimal capacity of schools, geography of schools and students, the students that would attend those schools, any legal and policy review, stakeholder engagement. Important to collect feedback from stakeholders including parents, students, teachers, and community members to inform recommendations.

We would need have a couple of evenings, I believe, in order to get anecdotal feedback and also a survey get feedback and then provide a recommendation report, a final report, to the school Board outlining the rationale for the order of the options, supporting data for these decisions, and a community feedback summary. This report shall include the advantages and disadvantages of each option.

Also important to note that I think it's important when you're doing something like this that the committee would not have the power to actually make the changes, you know, which is what is in italics at the bottom.

Cathy Thompson: Excuse me, Mr Pruitt, meaning any recommendation would come back to the Board for action?

Mark Pruitt: That is correct. Okay that you know it would be important to communicate at these meetings that this is a subcommittee of community members that would then make recommendations, that they are not in fact changing programming or attendance zones.

Community linkages very important. We talked about this in September also. The committee will maintain open communication with the School Board, District leadership, and key stakeholders. We could give monthly progress updates at the Board's request. We will engage with community members with town hall meetings and surveys and also we would produce a public facing District web page which will post meeting agendas, minutes, slides, data, and other supporting documents.

Committee members as it exists right now we will follow. Our recommendation is to follow Board policy 9004 advisory committees to the Board, in which case the committee will be comprised of three District administrators, three school based administrators or school leadership, three teachers, two chosen by RCEA, one by our superintendent, and seven parents and community members representing one from each nominating District.

The District would provide that committee data specialists from our tech team, legal counsel, experts from the office of transportation, and also from our finance office.

Vic Leonard: Questions going quickly through this. You said seven teachers and parents?

Mark Pruitt: No I said seven parents and community members, one from each nominating District.

Cathy Thompson: He did misspeak.

Mark Pruitt: I apologize. I'm focusing on my voice and misspoke. So three teachers, seven community member parents.

Jose Matthews: And Dr Pruitt just for clarification can you remind us how the parents and community members are selected.

Mark Pruitt: Well it's interesting. I think this is probably an issue where we will not have a problem getting one from each nominating District. I think we would probably put out some sort of survey application, put your name in, as long as you in fact live in the District, that we would maybe pull names out of a hat. I know we've seen that done.

Dorrell Green: Yeah so what we would do in essence is work with our communications team, create an interest survey, make sure that hits each one of our nominating districts, seven districts throughout the District, vet that. I mean I think we also want a comprehensive balance of knowledge, expertise. You know are they sitting in the audience right now in terms of alumni that may have some interest. I think historical context matters as well as folks who may have general finance so that way it's an informed balanced approach to how that committee is formed. But we will work with our communications team on approval with the Board to create that interest survey to get some nominations for those seven individuals who represent the nominating District.

Susan Sander: One question. I'm sorry. If you don't get one representative from each nominating District will that hinder the formation of the committee.

Mark Pruitt: I don't think so. But I don't anticipate. I think we'll be able to find one from each nominating District.

Susan Sander: It's the only requirement that has parameters so I was wondering if you don't actually find somebody from a specific nominating District that that would hinder the committee.

Dorrell Green: I think it's in the Board's prerogative to adjust, make an adjustment or an amendment to how you want this committee. Again we're just presenting this because this is what stipulated in it. But obviously for the Board and for the purposes of what we're discussing you have flexibility to think about how we would adjust or make modifications based on again I think the need. I think we should personally in my recommendation to the Board again we are and I can't understate this enough the most dynamic School District as it relates to demographics, geographics, and need. So really having a broad comprehensive approach. I think we do take the seven nominating District approach but being intentional about the perspective that those individuals are bringing to this committee. And if it's the pleasure of the Board that we can't find someone give us the ability to through that list look at someone's skill set to maybe fill in as someone who couldn't fit within a given nominating District.

Susan Sander: Thank you.

Vic Leonard: And last thing. This would be a Board level committee, is that correct. Not a District committee.

Mark Pruitt: We are recommending that we follow Board policy for a Board level committee that would be a special committee that would sunset at the end of these goals.

Mark Pruitt: Expectations for committee members. We want them to have commitment. We want them to have objectivity. We want them to be collaborators. And we want them. Members will serve as liaison of the groups they represent. So we really this is a representative committee where you would go gather feedback from your nominating District, other teachers in Red Clay, and bring that perspective back and be representative in nature.

Anticipated timeline. This is the anticipated timeline for the first half of this work. February 2025 we would establish the committee. Have our first meeting in March. Our final meeting in August. Provide recommendations to the Board in the September 25 Board meeting. And the Board would take a vote to take action on one of the four options presented.

Vic Leonard: Question on that. Are these two committees we're talking about or one. I know we talked in September Dr. Nesmith said we should have one committee and Dr Green agreed with that. One committee not two. This is not two committees?

Dorrell Green: So what I would say it can be one committee that's going to either serve two functions because again you got to look at enrollment. You got to look at numbers. And then obviously attendance - the zones aspect of it - in terms of how you how we re calibrate because again the symptom that we're dealing with with AI right now is a result of current attendance Zone. A large portion of the families who live in the zone and we heard some of that and we've seen it - aren't choosing the feeder option.

So what we don't want to do through this process is shift lines and then create an issue similarly to when AI was at its peak, Dickinson was suffering in terms of feeder. So while the intention is really to look at all three of our Comprehensive High Schools this also impacts middle schools. So there's a number of points that this committee albeit has a focus say that will actually have ripple effects in terms of what could potentially happen across the District. So that's why we're looking at attendance Zone enrollment and programming because all of that matters to Mr Pruitt's point there's a lot of effort in the smaller school because you might have you want diverse offerings but then you're limited in terms of your teacher capacity to be able to do it. So you have educators who are picking up different things. So where does that program make the most sense. We're talking about the MYP program at the John Dickinson School for example.

If we're talking about strictly High School growth, right now three out of our five high schools within Red Clay are 6th through 12th grade buildings. So there are implications of what happens to that sixth to eighth grade group at a building while we're simultaneously trying to address just the high school issue. So there are a lot of moving parts because of the way that we're situated as a District that we have to be mindful of that this committee again through commitment, objectivity and because we all initially sometimes come with our own bias, that we have to be comprehensive about how we look at this to not in five years from now have another community come out to say that somehow we're having enrollment issues at another High School.

Our overall general numbers in terms of high school students has not changed but we've doubled the amount of available seats as we sit in this choice window. So we truly have to be intentional about how we approach this work. So I will say yes it's one committee, but at some point that might be we're going to call on some folks from the bench are going to have to come in because it could be a heavy lift for one committee to focus on all of that work when you're only talking about a small group based on the level of detail and specificity that we're going to have to go into not just to ensure stable enrollment but equitable programming as it relates there are staffing implications that will be involved in as well.

So this just isn't redrawing feeder patterns or boundaries and we're committed to making this happen but again I think in full transparency we have to be transparent with all of our community to understand that this probably we will be the first time that we haven't played whack-a-mole where there's an issue that's propped up in the District and we saw that issue without actually paying attention to what's happening in another part of the District. And I think we are where we are right now because that's been the past mindset and this isn't a judgment of no one but there's value and beauty in being the Red Clay Consolidated School District. But too often we're siloed and we're segregated in how we look at the Red Clay Consolidated School District.

So this truly is an opportunity for us to look at it. For those of you WDEL ran a report today on school enrollment. Schools down state are growing. So generally is there a lot of growth that's happening in our District when we talk about future growth for certain schools. So there's going to be broader impact that I think we have to be honest about as a District in terms of what this ultimately means for the Red Clay Consolidated School District while us not losing focus on what we heard around the need for our Comprehensive High Schools to be competitive to be the traditional high schools to live up to the legacy that they've established historically.

So I just want to be on the record to make that clear that this just isn't shifting an attendance Zone because we can shift attendance Zone and families are still going to make the same choices that they're making if we're not talking about programming that goes into the schools when we talk about attendance zones.

Vic Leonard: Good. A couple more things. One, I think September you said that attendance dictates programming. Now that's flip-flopped to programming dictates attendance. Why that switch?

Mark Pruitt: You mean enrollment? Enrollment and programming are connected. You need one to drive the other. It's a chicken and egg situation. I believe you need enrollment to expand programming, but you also need programming in a choice environment to attract students.

Vic Leonard: Well that hasn't worked in AI for the last 12 years we know that.

Mark Pruitt: That's right.

Vic Leonard: So why the switch now?

Mark Pruitt: I did not switch.

Vic Leonard: Okay. You didn't go from now we're looking at attendance zones..and it looks like with this presentation attendance zones will be maybe a year away from now - after we get the other programming and enrollment going - the other part of that committee.

Mark Pruitt: An attendance Zone without a program change...

Vic Leonard: See on here you're going to recommend that attendance zones be looked at down the road.

Mark Pruitt: I think I have that that the group would switch from a programming decision to aligning our attendance zones to meet that programming need. It's the next slide. 

Vic Leonard: By July 2026 completed in 2027.

Mark Pruitt: correct.

Vic Leonard: Okay so we started this a year and a half ago when we made that recommendation to look at the attendance zones. Now that'll come to an end in 2027 is that what you're saying. Looking at the attendance zones just doing the review of that.

Mark Pruitt: No I'm saying that the actual changes students would go to new attendance Zone schools in September 2027. Two and a half years from now. 

Vic Leonard: Two and a half years from now and a year and a half from where we first recommended it. I'm just saying it. It's been a while that we've been talking about this and I have timeline here. I'm not going to waste time to do it but it's been dragging and we can all agree to that correct.

Cathy Thompson: Can you speak into the microphone Mr Leonard because I can't hear you. Can you speak into the mic because I can't hear you.

Vic Leonard: Certainly.  So we started talking about this. It was the last recommendation in the task force before it was sunset and it was number two on the list of nine things to examine or review attendance zones in the District. That was the second on a list out of nine things that everyone at task force which included community members District personnel Board members and teachers and we all agreed we want to do this. So from when that report came out May of 2023 until now a year and a half later we're just now talking about oh we're going to do this other thing first before we get to the attendance zones now which will make it two years later and then the end point will be five years down the road. You understand what I'm saying.

And I don't know if AI at our current rate of enrollment going down if it'll be viable at that. 

Dorrell Green: And if I could just in full transparency. So if we had to redraw the attendance zones and boundaries. If we just looked at attendance zones in and of itself where do we want to redraw those boundaries that think that we're going to grab a thousand students or 500 students or 600 students? I mean and we can do that. If that's the approach the Board wants us to take - make the recommendation. We work at the pleasure of the Board. 

Vic Leonard: We have made that recommendation. 

Dorrell Green: The Board has not made that recommendation Mr Leonard. Again I'm not arguing. The Board right now has the timeline that we established. If the Board doesn't agree to it the Board can tell us to accelerate it. The Board can tell us to look at something different. We're just presenting to you from what it's going to take for us as a District not just a moment in time. We could speed it up. So what's the Board's prerogative? Do you want us to look at changes in 2026?

Jose Matthews: So and I can contribute here after the presentation we can make motions to amend the timeline or any changes that contingencies of the Board that way we have a vote for the record. Dr Pruitt? Please.

Mark Pruitt: Upon Board approval of a selected enrollment and programming option the Board would establish an attendance Zone committee which again it sounds like they want that. We're leaning towards that being the same group to evaluate explore and recommend a modified attendance Zone option which aligns with the newly approved enrollment and programming plan. The second committee would make recommendations to the school Board by July 2026 and details of this committee if it were to be different people will be determined at some point between now and then.

FY 27 school year would serve as a planning year as we need time to make adjustments to staffing facilities. We also need to give families a year lead time because of the school choice law and phase one of changes for students will begin in August of 2027.

Susan Sander: Wait can I just ask you. You said that phase one would begin - but you're saying you have to give families a year of choice planning. So you're talking about 2028 now? Did I hear that wrong.

Mark Pruitt: You're correct yes. So we won't see any change until 2028.

Susan Sander: I'm just trying to clarify what you just said.

Mark Pruitt: July the changes would phase in.

Susan Sander: Well no you said phase one of the changes could begin. 

Dorrell Green: Based on what he just outlined students would go to whatever new attendance Zone would be in August of 2028 because the 2027 school year would be the planning year. I understand what people are shaking. That's the point that he was making.

Cathy Thompson: Can we not talk from the audience. 

Jose Matthews: If we could please refrain from any comments from the audience please. Ms. Sander you have the floor.

Susan Sander: Yeah so I was just trying to clarify what you meant by one year of parent planning for their choice. So would we actually see the attendance zones have changed the year before and they'd be implemented in 2027?

Mark Pruitt: The Board action - the last digit is a typo. It's August of 28 would be the first change. So the changes will become official a year prior but then you have to publicize that and give folks choice opens in November and give them a chance to make a choice based on those changes.

Susan Sander: Okay 

Vic Leonard: Well at current rates of decline in enrollment at AI, 70 students per year and that's four years down the road you can do the math. There are going to be very many students left at AI unless we do something quickly and I don't think four years is quickly. So we times 70 is 280 more students at current rate. You're talking about less than 300 students at AI High before this goes into effect. So that timeline does not fit the urgency of what's happening in AI High at this time and we do need to move that timeline up.

Susan Sander: Can I ask if there's any flexibility with recommendation. No I just is there any flexibility in the anticipated timeline between March of 2025 when they first meet until August of their final meeting. Is there any way to consolidate that particular time frame? Are they meeting once a month? Are they meeting twice?

Mark Pruitt: We can certainly try to consolidate that.

Susan Sander: Okay because that probably would help a little bit with the timeline.

Mark Pruitt: But it needs to be on a year. It needs to be approved in a summer and given a planning year and a choice year. It can't. It's not something that could be backed up by six months. 

Susan Sander: So regardless of anything it's still going to take three years to implement a change because of what you just said. 

Mark Pruitt: You need a year of planning. A year of choice. You need a year of planning which is inclusive of planning for the year and family planning for school choice.

Jose Matthews: All right and thank you Miss Sander. So I just want to throw this for Board consideration just to hear what the feedback would be on a timeline like let's say theoretically we were to accelerate the current timeline and then we have recommendations by July 2025 then the planning year would be FY 26 and then the implementation would be FY 27. What are the thoughts around something like that.

Jose Matthews: July 2025 is just seven months. So you want the programming done and the attendance Zone done?

Jose Matthews: I'm throwing that out there just for consideration.

Cathy Thompson: I think that might be too fast. When we did the Cook attendance zones it took months. It took months when you look at where the kids are coming from. So I think you have to plan more than that. You have to give several months to do that.

Jose Matthews: Any other thoughts?

Susan Sander: Don't we have some of that data already. Haven't we established some of that data?

Jose Matthews: Call order. I just want to make sure we can hear each other and have discussion. Thank you Miss Sander please.

Susan Sander: Yeah I understand that the task force has been implemented since 2022 and I know there's been some data generated so we do have an idea of some of the information that you're suggesting is going to take this long but we already have that data. Am I right?

Mark Pruitt: We have the historical data. I don't know that we have. We don't have all the data. We don't have everything. We could by working with the University of Delaware the Biden Center who provides that information.

Aje English: So I have a question. So the data that we don't have is it the data that would affect the other schools aside from AI.

Mark Pruitt: Here's the data that we don't have. If we move this geographic section from this school to this school - how many kids is that actually? At some point going forward because of the birth rate. The number of births in that area over the past nine years. That's the type of information that we don't have.

Cathy Thompson: Well do we have any of the enrollment stuff that we want to and the programming stuff for the two or three schools or whatever the plan is going to be. How long does that piece of this take?

Mark Pruitt: What I can say is we were going to take six months to get that done. I could certainly. We could certainly work to condense that. I'll do what we can. I'm willing to try anything. I'm a proponent of this. 

Cathy Thompson: I'm just asking what a reasonable time period for that is.

Mark Pruitt: Well if you're going to use a committee a couple of the options are substantive changes.

Dorrell Green: Will this suffice for the Board? Then if we have the authority to analyze a number and bring options to a committee for a committee to analyze and review then bring back to the Board.

Yeah because in essence what we're doing is we want involvement. We want transparency. Do we have the ability to provide let's just say three options to the Board and work with IPA University of Delaware to crunch numbers to bring something. But again there will have to be a lead up year. So this isn't anything in terms of next year we've redrawn feeder patterns and boundaries without giving the District as a whole the opportunity because again this just doesn't impact our high schools. This impacts - This isn't just one school being impacted. This likely is going to be a broader shift across the District.

So if it would suffice for the Board for us to work and do the analysis, work to form the committee and then figure out through the analysis looking at birth rates looking at where we're seeing growth because I don't know if the million dollar town homes that are being built right on Centerville Road and 48. How many children would move in? Whenever there's new developments we have to have projections about how many families are moving into there. That's what IPA helps us do because ultimately whatever decision that we do or make has to be a sustainable decision.

So just drawing the boundaries and creating potentially disruption across the District as a whole we have to be mindful of that. Is there means of consolidation? So there are some things that we can look at numbers and provide the Board with options along with committee support to try to accelerate it if that's the Board's desire.

Jose Matthews: So I'm going to make -

Vic Leonard: Well can I make one more comment. I know this topic came up January meeting of this year and we asked the Superintendent to give us some feedback on attendance zones committee progress and you asked for six months to get that and we said okay June we'll ask you again. We asked you June and then September we got that. So that was six months there that you had that you asked for and we gave that to you to gather data and then you made a presentation in September and with some data which was great. So what else happened in that six months now you're asking for another six months or eight months?

Dorrell Green: And again with all due respect - school happened. We have 15,500 students and families. So this isn't again as much as I understand and I empathize this isn't a singular issue. I understand. So what I'm asking for now and I'm trying to work with the Board because if you want us to accelerate the timeline, we have to take a different approach.

Jose Matthews: I'm going to make an amendment.

Cathy Thompson: Well can I say something because I do think we ought to be looking at potentially there needs to be a period to do the enrollment and programming stuff and then there needs to be a reasonable period on each to do the attendance in stuff. I don't think all of that's going to get done by July. 

Jose Matthews: So let's see what the Board wants to do. So I make the amendment. I move to make amendment that the secondary attendance Zone enrollment and programming committee provide their recommendations their final recommendations to the Board by July 2025. That the timeline also include a planning year for FY 26 and for full implementation of the chosen voted and approved recommendation to be implemented in FY 27. Do I have a second?

Cathy Thompson: I'll second.

Jose Matthews: Thank you Miss Thompson. Do we have any discussion?

Cathy Thompson: I have some discussion. So I am in favor of this committee. I absolutely am. And I love the holistic approach. We know we have an issue at the high school level. We have too many seats and not enough students. So we've got to define the problem. We've got to put in place the programming and we've got to develop the attendance in. It doesn't make sense to do a piecemeal. This whole approach is the right way.

Our function as a Board is to look at the whole District. Not to piecemeal it and not to focus just on one school. We have to look at everything and everybody. As Dr Green has said we've got to look at it holistically because we need to make decisions in the best interest of the students and we've got to focus on the facts.

I was a member of the AI High School task force and I learned a lot of information at that task force meeting. The enrollment issue is multifaceted. High school students as Mr Pruitt has said have been steady for a number of years about 5,000 students attending the Red Clay high schools. The number of seats at these Red Clay high schools has increased over the years and now stands at 5,700 seats. So we have 700 seats too many. That's just Red Clay seats for Red Clay kids.

There are also kids that are attending other schools as well because we've got a ton of schools in this area through charters and privates and choice and all that sort of stuff. So we do have a problem and the state is also continuing to add seats through charter creation and expansion.

The Board did listen well to the recommendations of the AI Task force and once it implements this we'll have implemented every single one of them. The Esports curriculum is now a pathway at AI. There's two CTE programs for SY 25 and they invested in programming and facilities. There is a dual enrollment course for construction pathway. We've partnered with Goldey Beacom and we now have dual enrollment opportunities. We've done a rebranding effort. So we've done everything and this is the final piece. We listened to every one and we implemented every one.

I do believe we have to define the problem and figure out how to deal with that holistically. I am fully in favor of it. Changing feeder patterns without doing this study is going to wreck havoc as Dr Green has said. I totally see that because we have seen that happen. Choice and charter have changed Red Clay significantly and we learned this at the Task Force. We wanted choice and charter to begin with but there were unintended consequences. One unintended consequence is that our traditional public schools have suffered in terms of enrollment. We all know that. We see it.

So I like this. I think this solution is right and I fully support it. I know it has to. We need to deal with our high schools holistically.

Jose Matthews: Miss Stevens please call the vote.

Ms. Stevens: 

Vic Leonard: Is it changed on here? Yes.

Ms Sander? Yes.

Ms Thompson? Yes.

Mr Wilson? Yes.

Mr Matthews? Yes.

Unanimous motion carries.

Jose Matthews: So now that we have the vote we know the decision of the Board and that will be to fast track the process. While I am not going to dictate operations I will make the suggestion that we be provided with an updated timeline. I also recommend that we start the committee process in January. I know that you are already working on my recommendation for the website. I know that we will do a great job working with communications making sure that they have the information shared with the community.

In addition for the interest survey and application process for the community members I would also recommend that there be some sort of informational session reiterating the expectations the level of participation and dedication needed over the next six or seven months. That way folks are really clear on what it is that they're applying for and signing up for.

We already have updates from UD. I don't think there's any need to reiterate that. But we really appreciate all the hard work that you're doing so thank you.

Mark Pruitt: For clarification - all of the work is done by this July? The recommendations will be submitted and voted on in July 2025 and then we will have a planning year FY 26. A full year to plan and then implementation will occur FY 27.

Mark Pruitt: I think that you're calling the planning year and the implementation year are the same year.

Jose Matthews: No.

Dorrell Green: They wanted effective 2027 is when new students would start to attend correct.

📄Attendance Zones, Enrollment, & Programming/ Path Forward & Charge Presentation Report

📄Explanation and Data Red Clay's School Capacities Report 

1. Superintendent Report Items Submitted by the Board - Charter & Magnet Equity Actions Follow-up and Discussion
   ⏯ 2:21:37 – 3:00:52

• Mark Pruitt, Director of Secondary Schools, presented districtwide magnet/charter enrollment data during Superintente

Dorrell Green: So the next part, I'm going to have Mr. Pruitt come down and we're going to tag team through Dr. Bohms’ initiation. Several other Board Members have had interest in really looking at our magnet and charter enrollment in terms of programming. What are some things that the district is doing? We want to be able to, one, share some data around the magnet/charter, Mr. Porter share some processes, but then also look at some greater impact in terms of what that means for our secondary schools across the district that may help the Board gain some deeper insight in terms of our numbers and demographics within the district.

Mark Pruitt: Thank you. This issue has come up at board meetings for at least 12 years. At least. On and off. We actually did some work in 2014. Sam brought the two charter school presidents and the two magnet school principals together. We started to do some work, put together some committees, and see if we could make some difference, create some goals with data, and see if we could make a difference over a period of time. I believe that was 2015.

What you're going to see is a few slides here that we'll go through rather quickly. The first one is Red Clay's enrollment data by various demographics. It's a rather dense slide. You certainly will have it beyond this meeting, and it goes through from 2013 to 2022 with a series of demographics by percentage. That is the district percentages over that time for the entire K-12 school district.

The next four slides are those slides for each of the charter and magnet schools. I will have a summary slide after each of these four slides, but you’ll be able to see, for example, that African-American students in 2013 at Cab Calloway were 15% and are now just shy of 18%. You can look at that data over time for Conrad, CSW, and DMA. This slide - and I want to thank Sean Snyder, who did a lot of this work. - took the four schools together and the changes from 2013 to 2022. This is not to say the changes met our goals in every instance, but it is what it is. The data is what it is at this point. Using last year's September 30th number. I'll give you a minute to look at that because I think it's little more manageable and digestible slide in a setting like this. 

I'm going to take just a moment to talk about some of the things that the two magnet schools... Now I don't we don't have access to the work that Wilmington Charter and or Delaware Military Academy may have done. You know maybe I we could go get that information see what they've done but certainly we could share what's been done in our own schools here at Conrad and and Cab. I can say this that we started this work in 2015 but as the interest in the school at least in terms of choice applications took off in 2012 at Conrad, what we very quickly recognized was that there were you know there there had to be more of an interest at all of our schools than one or two students from Mote or Lewis Elementary and 36 to 40 students from Forest Oak or Linden Hill Elementary.

So what we did was in 2014-15 we created an enrollment diversity committee that included administrators, parents, students, and teachers to begin to look at what factors, what strategies we could take on at Conrad. They created goals: three-year goals and five-year goals over that time. We met I believe five times a year and the school level committee was very successful. Out of those you know what that committee came up with was an Adopt A School model where we took a look at which Title I School actually... it didn't have to be a Title I school, it always was a Title I School which school had the lowest number of applications to Conrad per capita of fifth graders and we would target that school the following fall.

This is an example of of doing a lot of work but not quite having the results that that we had hoped for. Every time at least during the time we used this initiative, Warner, while while the numbers did improve and our Warner graduates at Conrad have increased tenfold over that time, it still remained in 2019 when the pandemic hit the lowest per capita applications to Conrad. There was also an Adopt a Student Initiative for the targeted three schools where teachers would follow up and make sure those students have what they needed at the assessment on a Saturday. About three years, four years back Conrad went to a "seven for seven" initiative to take kids who clearly through their interest, minimum interest and aptitude, at their previous school met the requirement—why put in a possible hurdle of them not showing up on a Saturday for an assessment? Something like that. And currently some of these things we were unable to do so what Miss Todd Dixon did most recently was outreach through Zoom initially question and answer sessions with parents at specific schools. She's targeted Warner and Highlands... excuse me was then Highlands now the Johnson school and we'll continue that in person this year.

Cab Calloway initiatives and strategies during this time period one I know that was uh both Ms. Rumschlag and Mr. Gray Bolden thought were successful were their Cab Ambassadors program. They would send a student who was at Cab as a high school student and who had gone to that Title I school back with them to work as an ambassador to create interest in attending Cab Calloway School of the Arts. Additionally they use the Cab Smart summer program to have no cost programming in Performing Arts for all Title I schools. After-school programming at no cost for targeted Title I schools. This year Mr. Gray Bolden is adding an additional early assessment. His first year going through this process he thought it's very complex for a lot of his families. He had been at Motet Elementary School and so he wanted to give families a chance to get in December and that way he could follow those students into January if he thought there was a need had they not been able to get a ride, not been able to do you know one of several things that could possibly trip them up by no intent of a 14 year old certainly no intent of a 10 year old.

At the district level - the district's had a Choice Buddies program that went on for years. The district office would work with Title I counselors to have to make sure that they understood the choice process that they would be able to share that information with their parents and community and then they would also collect data from year to year on enrollment from our Title I schools.

And more recently we are bolstering Arts programs in Title I elementary schools. Ms. Rumschlag's working on that. I also think it's worth noting from the Teaching and Learning office that we have emphasized a specific block of Science in all of our grades but specifically fourth and fifth grade to make sure that they have access to those opportunities as they move potentially towards a a STEM-based program for Middle School.

Dorrell Green: Then just lastly the partnership with LIGHT which is an organization that really helps not only support students preparing them for rigor within magnet and Charter programs specifically, but they also support parents. They help them navigate the choice process which we know is a very challenging process for some in terms of due dates so they they really walk them through that process. So Encore Aria serves as a partner with us and for those who aren't familiar, Encore was a former teacher at Thomas Edison and realized a lot of his students who come from underserved underrepresented communities while they had the aptitude and and could achieve at high levels they were having difficulties being able to access that. So we have partnered and have a community partnership relationship with LIGHT and they actually follow their students up through graduation through college. So that's a good partnership to have and they have a very high success rate quite often if you see students in CSW for example, nine times out of ten they probably gained access because they're a LIGHT fellow. So we felt from a community partnership standpoint it behooves us to really look at those relationships and I think the important thing with them is they they work with and support the families through various means of various programs and the acronym stands for again "Leading You Through Empowerment" so it is an empowerment and advocacy type of a premise as well. So we're fortunate enough to have those partnerships and allies to help support the work.

Mark Pruitt: You know what another issue that's come up certainly with the School Board Members- has been enrollment in our high schools - in this instance AI duPont High School. We thought that it was probably a good time to take a look at some enrollment at the school over the last couple of years or what you see there. Also the next couple of slides I'd like to thank Kristine Bewley and Phil Smallwood for their work in putting this information together.

What you see there is enrollment data from AI duPont High School from 2009 to 2021.

• Yellow: Students that attended that school in that year that lived in their attendance zone.

• Red: In-district choice students.

• Blue: Out-of-district choice students.

The high mark of course, you could pretty much see it: there were 1,292 feeder students attending AI duPont High School in 2009. That is down to 550 feeder students in 2021. Feeder students in 2009 were 1,292. Feeder students in 2020... that was the lowest year, there's actually an uptick the most recent year: 547.

• Highest number of in-district choice students: 151 in 2009.

• Lowest number: 52 in 2021.

• Highest number of out-of-district choice students: 148 in 2016.

• Lowest number: 17 out-of-district choice students in 2012.

Mark Pruitt: Next shows you enrollment at AI, the John Dickinson School, McKean, Cab, Conrad, CSW-Red Clay students. We did not have the opportunity at this point to get data on DMA Red Clay students. Okay, a marker as to when Choice busing ended, when Conrad was fully mature... that's a very important mark in time right? And Odyssey High School opening which of course is just a mile from AI duPont High School. So what you have there is obviously a data trend at AI duPont High School which you saw in the previous slide: 1,490 down to about 1,700... and the most significant number which would mirror that would be Conrad which had 200 students in 2009 up to 700-720 high school students. Pretty flat since 2014-15.

Dorrell Green: And so again just sharing that again from from both angles, really looking at the magnet/charter situation along with traditional Comprehensive High School and enrollment decline. You know, it impacts it as a whole because even if you look at between the initial first slide that was that was shared you're roughly looking at probably about a hundred-plus students between 2013 to 2022 in terms of overall shift in the enrollment. Right? So the number of students that attend these schools has stayed constant over this period of time. There was actually about 200 more students in these schools now than there were in 2009. The number has fallen a little bit the last few years but overall it's relatively stable during that time at about all the schools I want to say 5,500 to 5,700 grades 9 through 12. Including the you know enrollment including the two charter schools

Cathy Thompson: That's magnet, traditional, and charters?

Mark Pruitt: That is the five high schools in Red Clay and the two Red Clay chartered high schools.

Kecia Nesmith: I have a question and I don't know, you can't probably answer this, but it's something to think about. I was just wondering as I look at this very interesting data. In that decline, how many students started to go to private school or parochial schools? With that huge dip. 

Mark Pruitt: It's not data that we have access to at our fingertips. It is data that Kristine was going to try to work with the state on. I believe they've been collecting it recently but had no method to collect it prior to some period of years ago... I'm thinking from talking to her yesterday, three four years ago. 

Dorrell Green: And just generally speaking not necessarily at the secondary high school level but we have approximately 39 private and parochial schools within our geographic district boundaries as well. 

Cathy Thompson: 39?

Kecia Nesmith: Well, Delaware is like I think number four now the highest percentage of students going to the private parochial schools. 

Mark Pruitt: Our students - this number of all these schools is relatively stable. It's just where they've gone, where they attend at any period of time in those seven schools over this 14-year period.

Vic Leonard: Mark, what do you attribute the tremendous drop... the 55% drop in AI compared to the others? 

Mark Pruitt: Well let's go to the last slide and we can look at that. I think you brought up a really good point. I think this could possibly I think this can possibly really inform some of the work of the Task Force and the district as we create a new strategic plan Obviously, I think this is really important information to have. As you said Mr Leonard, overall student population has declined 52% at AI between 2009 and 2021. Out of District Choice peaked at AI in 2016 but that number was only 148. So that's not a number that's driving this decline. In-district Choice has declined by 66%. Of course that sounds like a lot but that is again a hundred and something students.  Conrad High School has grown over the exact same time by 209%. 216 students to 669 students in 2021. So you're talking about 450 of students. This is not the why. I understand that but I just want to get through this this here first. There's 450 students. In 2015 Odyssey opened and now there are 73 Red Clay students that attend Odyssey Charter School. Over the period of the last 10-12 years there's been a real emphasis on Red Clay students attending CSW and DMA. DMA's data is not in here. That's created a 48% increase in Red Clay students attending CSW. Was 600 in 2009 and now 300 students more at CSW. Those are Red Clay students and of course you know choice busing was significantly decreased in 2018 which may have impacted the 148 students who lived in the district who may but not in AI's feeder who may have chosen to use that bus.

Kecia Nesmith: Can you remind me when you said when was DMA Charter going to be chartered? Was it before all of this? 

Mark Pruitt: 2004. I want to say 2004. Within a year either way of that.

Vic Leonard: Mark, Can you explain why just the two schools - McKean and AI - were denied the choice busing or partial choice busing in 2018?

Mark Pruitt: I could certainly ask some folks and get back to you regarding that.

Vic Leonard: Yeah it's wondering to me that just two schools were affected by that.

Adriana Bohm: Mr Leonard, I've asked that question a number of times and I think Dr. Ammon usually answers it. Not that I'm trying to put you on the spot but I believe I was part of that conversation way back when.

Ted Ammon: Hopefully I'll give you the same answer I gave you.

Adriana Bohm: I'll remember, trust me. 

Ted Ammon: AI certainly has taken a lot of the discussion about that choice busing, but it was not solely AI High. Over the years - for many years - there had been choice bus routes put in in certain locations, certain neighborhoods based on interest and it was not something the state paid for. So every year we had to pay back a significant number of funds to the state because they do not provide for choice busing. The decision was made... a decision was made and it was right around the same time as our attendance zone discussion and I think that's when Dr. Bohm and I first talked about it. A decision was made that - certainly choice busing is is an interesting topic, it certainly is a barrier to some kids choosing to go to a school but we didn't have universal choice busing. We had selected choice busing over the years from certain neighborhoods; there was no necessarily you know rhyme or reason to it. So the decision was made that it was time to phase that out so that certain neighborhoods didn't have an opportunity that other neighborhoods did not.

Vic Leonard: My question was why did it affect one school more so than others? At AI.

Ted Ammon: Did it? We'd have to dig into that. We certainly didn't survey why some families chose to still go to a school when the bus went away. There were anecdotal stories about that but I don't know that we could necessarily say that it only impacted AI.

Vic Leonard: The population between 2018 and 2022 went down 32% in AI. I don't think that's a coincidence that same time that choice busing was taken away.

Ted Ammon: There certainly were some students that left during that time. Let's attribute all of them at the time to choice busing and that would be a portion of the overall decline. 

Vic Leonard: A large portion. 32% is a large portion.

Kecia Nesmith: When I look at the slide, the impact of the charter enrollment in yellow, what I see is more - I don't think that choice busing affected it because out of district students went up in 2018... didn't go down. The number of students in the feeder pattern went down consistently over time. And so I wonder... I'm thinking about the political environment in 2009 and there was a lot of discussion around choice... and I'm talking about the national not even Delaware. So with the choice, a lot more choices being offered and also discussed. That was a big political thing back in 2009 if I remember correctly. Then you have private and parochial schools, you have CSW, you have DMA, you have the Cab, you have Conrad... you know all those things were so many more choices were being offered or starting or people just thinking that they want a choice right?

Dorrell Green: I would highlight that the greater impact is to the feeder numbers, not necessary... I mean again we can say that choice had an impact but our analysis of this really was as a result of those Choice options I.E. Conrad becoming you know maturing at the school and being a desirable option, in essence had the feeder numbers of AI decline as you look at it from the 2009 on that particular bar graph slide.

Kecia Nesmith: What I see is from 2000 so there we're back in 2009. There were a number of students in-District that choiced into AI but that declined after 2014 not 2018. So it was consistent 2017, 18, 19 it went down a little bit in 20 pandemic. So I just wondered like I think there's a lot more factors that we need to consider with this decline enrollment with AI. 

Mark Pruitt: Certainly - anyone who worked on this data to put this together would not want this to be - there's no judgment in this data - there's certainly no excuses in this data. What this shows is that we've got work to do. I believe that we need to have fully functional comprehensive high schools and that enrollment. In order to do that, to have a a full array - everything from CTE programs to successful athletic programs to advanced placement dual enrollment programs - where you have a wide variety of interests. This is not a magnet school with a specific interest. You need to have enrollment to do that. I think that's where the work lies going forward. Sometimes data like this requires you to ask different questions. When I saw that the data of in-District had dropped off so much I talked to Kevin Palinetti about this and he said well we retain a really high percentage of our feeder students. So I looked at our current 8th graders, their feeders, we have about 1,280 8th graders in our district. AI by far has the smallest number of those students that at this point would feed into AI High School. They have 249 of those students this is before anyone chooses another school. 249 are set to feed into AI. 469 are set to feed into McKean. 466 are set to feed into Dickinson. That would lead me to believe that the number of students in the AI feeder pattern that uses our schools has changed since the last time the feeder patterns were established.

Vic Leonard: How does that change that drastically? Did you change the feeder patterns?

Mark Pruitt: Nobody's changed any feeder pattern since whenever the last time the Board approved it.

Vic Leonard: You're saying two hundred some in the AI feeder pattern now what was it before right now?

Kecia Nesmith: It's white flight. It's white flight.

Vic Leonard: White flight is a symptom, not a cause.  I'm trying to get the cause.

Kecia Nesmith: The cause is that there are more black and brown kids going to the school.

Vic Leonard: Ok, why? White flight is not a cause.

Kecia Nesmith: Well racism is the cause.

Dorrell Green: In the end we're looking at programming, we're looking at solutions. There's been a change between 2013 and 2022 152 students at that level. And our options are still plentiful in terms of families who have options to choice options.  The district isn't growing at the same rate that we provide additional opportunities. It becomes a whack-a-mole effect. We have 7 high school options for roughly 5500 families. So when you look at the broader number in terms of impact we have to look at the current environment which we are. We have to look at feeder patterns to some degree and understanding that programming makes a difference and right now we have 77% black Hispanic students at AI High School. We have you know CTE programs and we're working with the administration right now around some exciting opportunities and partnerships, But the numbers haven't changed over the period of time and what you see is a decrease in the feeder students because those students have chosen other options that we've made available to them either as a district or that they currently have available to them outside of the district so there's obviously internal pressure and impact on that and there's some external factors that we'll continue to work through to ensure that all of our schools get the attention, time and due diligence that's necessary to make sure that every student who are in our doors have the opportunity to thrive and grow.

Adriana Bohm: Can you go back to the previous slide for a moment please?  That one. I just look at that and I'm horrified that that ship of AI sank for so many years and that us as a Board - me included because I've been on this board for a long time - we didn't address this. I mean that thing literally was sinking, sinking, sinking... and we did nothing, nothing, nothing. That should never happen in Red Clay again.

Cathy Thompson: Well, we did do something. We demanded that Conrad only take Red Clay kids, and we demanded that Cab only take Red Clay kids. We did. And we demanded CSW take Red Clay kids.

Adriana Bohm: But what did we do for that line at AI to continue to go down and down and down.What did we do? And I take blame for that as well. This should never be allowed to happen again. That's my point. Number one. I have a request. When I look at this and when I look at the slides that you shared - thank you for them, they're very lovely - for Cab and Conrad, I'd like to see an overlay between race and class. So we see the number of black students, we see the number of low-income students, but I would like to see what happens when we put race and class... we intersect them. Like I want to know what percentage of low-income black students, what percentage of low-income Hispanic students, what percentage of low-income white students attend Conrad and Cab. And then you said we didn't have DMA but we had a little bit for the Red Clay students at CSW. So I'd like to see some of those overlays because I think that gets... that's even gonna get us to a more critical juncture or a more significant point because I believe the data will demonstrate quite clearly that its low-income students of any race but specifically African-American Latino students who are not being accepted into these programs. So I think that's really where the work needs to be done. But I'd like to see the stats before I provide an assessment or analysis. I'd like to analyze those slides. Thank you but these slides were lovely. Thank you.

Kecia Nesmith: Thats really good data. I agree with that.  There were a lot more students in the district in 2009 than there are in 2021. It's looks like it. I hear what you're saying Dr. Bohm but the only school that really had that big shift is AI so I would do a hyper focus on on that data. Because it's going to be hard - if the state collected all of that.

Mark Pruitt: 2009 and 2021. Those five schools are at about a 200 student increase since 2009. 

Adriana Bohm: So you're saying we have approximately 200 more students now than in 2009? 

Kecia Nesmith: And this number is including choice students as well from out of district.

Mark Pruitt: We have more students. That's not saying there hasn't been a slight decline over the past 3 or 4 years. That's the enrollment totals at those 5 schools.

Cathy Thompson: For Cab, some of those aren't Red Clay.

Mark Pruitt: That's correct.  I want to clarify what I meant by those numbers. It's snapshots in 2009 and 2021. Point being, point being is we're dealing with about the same amount of students here and it's just what seats they're taking up within in the in these 7,000 seats we have the offer and the 5,000 seats that we have fulfilled. 5,500 that we have to fill. 

Cathy Thompson: 7,000 seats?

Mark Pruitt: I didn't look at, maybe I'm speaking well, you have an extra six-seven hundred at AI and -

Cathy Thompson: It would be nice to know how many seats we do have and how many students.

Mark Pruitt: Instructional capacity?

Kecia Nesmith: The September 30th count - that was the whole thing. 

Dorrell Green: Again we have a lot more seats than students. And the student numbers over the years, to sum it up, really haven't changed drastically. But the opportunities and options both internally and externally has grown. We haven't discussed private and parochial, we haven't discussed VoTech, so there are a number of within Red Clay proper. And I know Conrad did an analysis of students, particularly of Hispanic and Latino descent, who were there for Middle School sixth to eighth grade and they lost them at high school because then they were choosing to go to Delcastle for example. So again, we understand the hyper-focus that we need to have on AI in particular, but please know we've made decisions as a district previously to address one where it creates another issue or vacuum on the other side. And I think this is what we're realizing now because when those decisions were made five, ten years ago, no one was forecasting out what that - what is that ultimately going to mean? So the Conrad issue was addressed, but no one forecast it out: 

What does that mean for the district as a whole when you start to see feeder numbers decline?

Because I believe through 2018 to 2021, only 40 students were lost in terms of out-of-district choice students. In terms, so there are a number of different numbers and that we can parse. We're focused on it, we're working with the admin. This has been of concern not only to us, but we got to be comprehensive how we look at this across the district. 

Cathy Thompson: And I do remember, because my daughter was graduated AI in 2009, I do remember the Board has made a number of decisions. One decision was to significantly limit choice to AI High School, and I remember Merv making that presentation at a Board meeting. We significantly decreased choice applications that could be accepted. And then as a Board we did that at AI. What about a district, both in and out? I mean we as a Board, we said we wanted Conrad to be all Red Clay, we wanted Charter to be all Red Clay, we've been pushing Cab to be all Red Clay. So we limit the number of out-of-district. 

Dorrell Green: So they were coming from other places and I would be safe to say 1,500 students within AI. I'm sure there's a lot of pressure on your climate in terms of size of building, scope of building while, you know again, the school is thriving. But we're also talking about infrastructure on another end when you're looking at, you know, capacity for schools, you know, ultimately that size. So again, we just wanted to share this information with the Board because it was a request. So thank you to Mr. Pruitt, thank you, Mr. Smallwood.

Jose Matthews: Mr. Pruitt, I had a couple things as well and as I proactively listened to the rest of my colleagues, I intentionally reserved comment just to really be cognizant of the feedback and the comments said tonight so I could really process and have an understanding of what we're seeing here. Superintendent Green, I think, highlighted something that I think is certainly missing from this discussion and conversation. I know that this conversation has been had in the past, but specifically for Hispanic students, a community that I'm incredibly and well-connected with seeing their interest in VoTech opportunities. AI being 35% Hispanic Latino, we have to look at what their community is interested in, what those students are interested in and what we're preparing them for when they leave here in Red Clay. And I would like us to look at our offerings to be able to leverage those populations and keeping them here so they don't have to go out to, let's say, a Votech. And those numbers I didn't see in this presentation, but I would be interested in seeing them because a lot of members in my community, specifically the Hispanic community, they do want to go out into the workforce and that's the reality of the circumstance here. And we're not meeting their needs and I don't think that's fair and I don't think that's okay.

So I think that there are some wonderful educational opportunities and wonderful job opportunities for people to live a fruitful life, and if we're not fostering that here, I think that's a problem. I mean there's no shame in going out and working a blue-collar job and making a reasonable living. We know that electricians and plumbers and construction workers and now we're in the age of these electronic vehicle maintenance technician certificates that a lot of other districts in the nation are providing for students as they move forward and move on. These are real desires for the Hispanic and Latino community I think we need to meet. So as we look at the demographic and population we're serving there, I want us to keep that in mind, absolutely.

📄District Charter & Magnet Enrollment Demographics Report October 2022

▼Full Transcript Below

1. Public Comment
   ⏯ 0:24:08 – 0:48:20

   1. • Yvonne Johnson (National PTA President) Urged the board to support AI High School amid declining enrollment, loss of choice bus stops, shrinking band, and loss of varsity football.

      • Kim Drabold (parent/AI Band Booster President): Highlighted ending of ACA program, low band and school spirit, declining enrollment, lost sports, poor communication, and called for Board support.

      • Reagan Hidalgo (AI Athletics Director): Reported varsity football cut due to low numbers and emphasized athletics and school spirit while aiming for varsity competition and 1A reclassification.

2. Items Submitted by the Board - Charter & Magnet Equity Actions Follow-up
   ⏯ 2:22:20 – 2:31:05

   1. • Board Member Adriana Bohm requested a 5 -7 year demographic trend report for Magnet and Charter schools; Superintendent Dorrell Green responded that the District is already analyzing equity and access data for strategic planning.

Yvonne Johnson: Good evening. First, I want to take a moment to congratulate Jill Flory. I just want to say that I will miss her. I know you will. What a loss for Red Clay, and a gain for Brandywine. Jill is a rock star, and I've worked with her for a very long time. I will miss her. Thank you, Jill.

Then I'd like to talk about the Wilmington Learning Collaborative. I know you're not voting on it tonight, and you know that I support it. I am asking you to support it. No plan is perfect. It's an MOU. You can't write a plan unless you have an MOU. I strongly implore you to vote for the MOU so you can get busy planning and move us forward. The children in the city deserve it. It's a collaboration. City parents, city community members, everyone in the city working together with our district, and hopefully the two other districts, Brandywine and Christina. So I'm asking you to please vote in favor of that next month. Let's move in a positive direction.

The last thing I want to talk about is AI High School. I'm very devastated by what is happening to that school. I can remember many years ago at this Board meeting. Mr. Martin, I know you have to remember. Parents lined up, hundreds of them, to beg you to keep choice bus stops because they wanted to be able to get their kids to AI. Then somehow they went away, and all we've seen is this entire school go from 350 kids in a band to 20 kids in a band. A championship football team. Now they don't even have varsity football. I could go on and on, but you've already heard it, because I know you're hearing from the community.

What I'm going to say is it's your responsibility to do something to support the principal, the staff, and the students at AI High School. Let's do something. It is long overdue. Mr. Leonard has put forth something. I can remember many things that we have done over the years to help. We helped Conrad with their mascot. Why can't we help AI get back the students that they need? Let's work together, not against each other, but together to help build back AI High School. Thank you.

Kim Drabold: Hi everybody, I am wanted to speak today. I am the AI High School band booster president but I'm also a concerned parent. I wanted to talk a lot about the concern that's going on at AI High School. For one, the ACA college program is going away. My daughter's a sophomore and her class is the last to be going through the program, which I feel is significantly detrimental to AI.
Along with, of course, somebody already said at the band, went from a large band to, you know, we're less than 30 kids at this point. We've only been there as a second year now and, you know, the spirit is pretty much non-existent at this point.
You know, just hearing about charter schools and all those things, a lot of folks - that's where they're going. And it really feels that the School Board is really not interested in the public schools today.
Just listening in the beginning of this call and celebrating all those schools, which, you know, very good for them, that they've worked hard and they deserve those accolades, which I'm very proud of them. But, you know, it feels like the Board, you all are not interested in the public schools today.
Just looking at AI, they went from 1500 kids a couple of years ago and now we're less than 700. That is not a good look at this point.
You know, we've lost the football team from a Varsity perspective. There's no cheer team. There is a lack of communication across when things are happening. We're being the last to be told. I mean, we really feel that we need a lot of support from the Board to help us. And that's not just for AI - but as public schools as a whole. You all need to get up and help us so we can have these moving forward and get some support going across. Thank you.

Regan Hidalgo: Good evening Superintendent Green, President Nesmith, and all of the Board Members. My name is Regan Hidalgo, and I'm going to be speaking on behalf of AI today, AI High School. I am a 2015 graduate of Alexis I duPont High School, where I now teach math along with a dozen other proud alumni. I am also the Athletic Director, and it is under the capacity of Athletic Director that I'm speaking to you tonight. Undoubtedly, you've all heard of the start of our fall season not going the way that we had hoped, with our Varsity season for football being unable to sustain the numbers that were needed to be able to safely compete in a Varsity schedule. There were days in preseason where we had single-digit numbers show up, which brought up the conversation between coaches and administrative staff to make the tough decision to forego our Varsity season and go with a strictly JV schedule.

Although fall Sports is not just about football, our cross-country team is fielding a full roster. Our soccer team is fielding a full roster. We have just got our field hockey team up to the numbers that we needed to also be able to compete with a varsity schedule. Our volleyball team not only has a varsity, but they also have a JV team that they've put together as well. On behalf of these seniors and their families from our football team, I wanted to thank Superintendent Green and Mr. Pruitt for their speedy work in getting these seniors temporary waivers to go finish their senior Varsity seasons at McKean, where I believe they just strengthened the record to be 2-0.

To speak upon something with the band that has come up a couple of times tonight as well, the students in the band have been working one-on-one with our director Rich Weaver to figure out ways where they can still perform and still play throughout the fall season. They are going to play at our JV football games, they are going to play at our soccer games, and they're going to play at our volleyball games, along with the cheerleaders as well. Our head coach Marcus Heyman and our school has adopted the slogan “The Future Starts Here.” We are confident that our coaching staff can work with the group that we have had that has been continually growing coming out with our football program. We're close to 30 kids now, a lot of them being freshmen at this point. Next year we hope to be able to compete at the varsity level, and we are also hoping to be reclassified to a more appropriate 1A division when we get there.

Athletics at AI has always been and will continue to be a core cornerstone of our school community. We stand by that, and just to kind of wrap things up, in the building we're off to a fantastic start. Despite all the setbacks, the vibe around the school has still been extremely high and extremely positive, and you cannot hide that tiger pride. 

Kecia Nesmith: Charter & Magnet Equity Actions follow-up. Dr. Bohm?

Adriana Bohm: So I've asked on a number of occasions to have an update. I don't know where we are on that. I'm asking again or if I'm actually getting a report this time.

Dorrell Green: So we're in the process. Obviously, we're analyzing all of our numbers across the district as we look at the racial and ethnic demographic and makeup of our schools. We're looking at processes by which we look to recruit not only for our charter and magnet programs but also our comprehensive high schools, really looking at feeder patterns through this assessment.

One of the things that we also learned is a lot of our VoTechs have greater access in many instances or cases to regular students than actually our comprehensive programs. And we heard a lot of public comment around the need to have AI continue or to flourish. And so again, part of this is really looking at, as part of our strategic planning process, a look at the overall feasibility and assessment of our overall district student demographics.

If I could just share briefly. The current - there's one school, John Dickinson School at the secondary level, that really mirrors our respective district demographics almost to a percent. And when we then see different pockets, for example at Conrad, where our district percentage for Hispanic and Latino students is at 27, Conrad is at 25. And then respectively here at Cab Calloway School of the Arts, our Black and African American student demographic across the district is at 21 percent, Cab is at 18. And so it's - where do we go? How do we initiate? I know Cab definitely goes out to all of our Title I schools, and that's one of the things that we're talking about processing before Choice open house, is really where are we actually going to sell and showcase those programs and then work and support families as they navigate that choice process to be able to go through, because that's oftentimes the barrier. We might highlight or showcase a program, but then in actuality parents haven't been able to navigate. So we're looking at it again from across the board: student demographic, current programs, how there are barriers and limitations to our current programs. Again, roughly about 4,088 students in our high school seats. Three of our current programs are sixth through twelfth grade.

When we talk about choice, we offer a lot of options, which is a good thing. But then when we're also looking at diversity across those programs, there are some internal mechanisms that we have to continue to analyze to ensure that not only are we promoting and providing access to those diverse programs, but more importantly we're not just showcasing and going to schools and their families can't get access by default if numbers are being capped. I know Mr. Pruitt is really helping to lead that work with our secondary schools, our Choice office with Dr. Amman. But we're holistically looking at those numbers because we are at the point now where as a district it's just not one program, and it's not necessarily a program, per se. It's really looking collectively at what are we offering across the district, and then ultimately how does that provide equity and access and opportunities. Mr. Matthews talked about talented and gifted and really looking at how do we cultivate that at a young age. One of the things that we realize is for a lot of those families at our sixth through twelfth grade buildings, once they're in, they're locked in. That's less transitions that they have. And then we're selling those high school programs when those numbers are already capped, so we're actually doing ourselves a disservice to those programs. And then the Board has made a decision in years past - not this particular Board, but the Board itself as a body - that access to those programs is only internal. So then that limits the ability to attract outside the district to diversify our programs as well.

So we're looking at all those aspects of that program, and we want to leverage and use part of the strategic planning process and look at our CTE career pathways. That's why we had, as I shared with the Board, Hanover do what they call a Middle School Benchmark of our career technical education programs so that we can actually support not only feeder programs but have clear indication as to where certain programs might be to promote a more diverse student demographic or body across all the options that we offer in Red Clay. And again, I don't know. I have Mr. Pruitt here who can speak to some level of detail in terms of that level of engagement with our secondary schools.

Adriana Bohm: So thank you for that update. What I'm really looking for - and maybe I need to make myself more clear - is an actual report that gives us a 5 to 7 year span of what our demographic information looks like in our schools, especially our charters and our magnets.

So I'm specifically saying DMA, CSW, Conrad, Cab.

And then I'd like to have a solutions-oriented approach because I know basically off the top of my head, since I've been in this district for nine years, what those numbers do look like, because we've had many conversations in this room about those numbers, and many of them were very heated conversations.

So I'd like to see a solutions-oriented approach about what we're doing to address that gap that we all know exists. But I'd like that in some type of - I have this lovely landscape analysis report for the City of Wilmington - I'd like a report so I can digest it, as I'm sure the other Board Members would like to as well, and I can take notes and then ask questions and offer comments.

That's the type of report I'm looking for.

Dorrell Green: So in essence you want a feasibility study to really look at demographics. We know our feeder patterns in this District have not changed since I would say the construction of Cooke. 

Adriana Bohm: So I'm not really interested in the feeder patterns because I've sat on committees for our feeder patterns. And for our charters and magnets, we don't need a feeder. Those would be choices. So those are choices that students make, and then looking at the admissions process.

So I just really want - I'm interested - Julie and I had a huge argument in this room many years ago. I want to see the demographic data, especially when it comes to students who have free and reduced lunch, are considered low income. And I want to look at race and ethnicity. And there I'm specifically talking about whether they're English language speakers initially right or if they have another mother tongue that's not English originally.

So I want to look at those demographics over the last five to seven years. I want to look at the trajectory, which I'm hoping is going up because we've been talking about this. But I want to look at those gaps, and I want to know what we're doing to address those gaps, because that will move us forward as a district.

And being on the Board, that's the work that's exciting for me. What can we do to move forward? And I think we have visionaries and we have creative people, so I think we can get from A to B. But I think we need to see it in a report and then figure out what action steps we're taking to get from A to B.

And I want to encourage us in that process. That's what I'm looking for.

Dorrell Green: So thank you for clarifying that.

Adriana Bohm: You're welcome.

Dorrell Green: We'll make it a point as we go through the strategic planning process to not only look at that. We know we've had conversations with CSW and a lot of our other Charter programs to look at again what in essence is a feasibility study.

Adriana Bohm: But I don't think we need to wait a year for that. I think we can compile that data in a relatively short amount of time and when I say we - I mean you all - because of course I'm not going to be compiling it. But we already have the data right. So I've already looked at it. I've already talked to lots of people in this district about it in many different forums. So we just need to compile it and then look at it. And I'm sure that can be done in the next few months because it's something I've asked for before. In fact Kecia has asked for it as well. Lots of people on this Board have asked for it. She asked for it when she first came on the Board.

Kecia Nesmith: Perhaps we can sit down and kind of, you know, figure it out. Specifically we can kind of look at, write it down and then make sure we get that and then we can make sure it gets in there.

Adriana Bohm: Well you've written it down because you've sent emails to Dr Ammon that we've all been privy to. That's the exact information. 

Kecia Nesmith: No, no, not you. I'm sorry. Mr. Green.

Dorrell Green:  I know that particular was around - so we're asking for just simply choice - because that was the numbers and I know you sat down with Dr. Ammon to look at.  

Adriana Bohm: Well yeah, look, I asked for charters and magnets. Charter & Magnet Equity Action Follow-up. 

Dorrell Green: Dr. Bohm, I'm just trying to get clarity around what you're asking so that we can provide a product.

Adriana Bohm: Yeah it's right there so it's written down.

Dorrell Green: Got it. Right. Thank you.

Adriana Bohm: Thank you. 

📰DelawareLive 2022 article on AI duPont enrollment drop

📰High School Football America article on AI's Varsity football

📰Town Square Delaware article on AI Task Force