Brian
A dad, husband, and public education supporter. Small tent progressive/liberal.
Christina School District Citizen's Budget Oversight Committee member, who knows a bit about a lot when it comes to the convoluted mess that is education funding in the State of Delaware.
Brian's Latest Posts
Iowa’s Steve King Wants to Know What Non-Whites Have Contributed to Society
I hope the NY Times doesn’t mind me borrowing their quote. Because I really couldn’t write a better excerpt than this: In response, Mr. King said: “This whole ‘old white people’ business does get a little tired, Charlie. I’d ask you to go back through history and figure out where are these contributions that have been made by these other categories of people that you are talking about? Where did any other subgroup of people contribute more to civilization?” – Rep. Steve King, R-IA
BREAKING: Turkish Military Attempts Coup
More details from the statement read out on the state broadcaster TRT at the behest of the military faction that seems to be behind the coup: It says that the freedom of Turkish citizens is guaranteed by what is referred to as a “peace council”, regardless of religion, race or language.
It says the Peace Council will not allow public order to be damaged.
It is worth remembering at this point that the Turkish government still claims to be in charge.
An EU source monitoring events has told Reuters that military forces have control of airports and strategic points in Istanbul.
Choose One: Smaller Classes, Art, Library, Gym, or Music
Librarian-Gate is happening right now in Christina School District. It’s kind of unfair to target just this one District though, because the other 15 districts have to go through this every year too. Someone somewhere got it from someone else that District administrators “promised” all librarians would be returning to Christina schools if the March […]
Brandywine School District Passes Referendum
Quick blurb because I’m still at Christina Board meeting, but Brandywine has passed their referenda by close to a four thousand vote margin!
9,612 FOR – 5,780 against.
Congratulations!
BSD also smashed Christina’s total turnout (13,395) by almost 2,000 votes: 15,392 total votes!
Brandywine’s Referenda: Take 2
So what’s all this mean? When a District goes out for an operating referendum they’re not going out because the Superintendent wants a raise or because they want gilded flatware in their cafeterias. They’re going out because they can’t keep paying for everything they currently have without more revenue -or- getting rid of existing staff and programs. The only way Districts get more operating revenue in Delaware is by asking residents to raise their own property taxes. Take a look at Christina this year and what changes we had to make because we failed twice to pass an operating referendum last year. Class sizes pushing 40, no librarians in our high schools, scaled back guidance services, no after-school transportation for extracurriculars, most extracurriculars cut. This will be a reality for BSD next year without passage tomorrow. Slashing $8 million out of an operating budget will pretty much decimate the same things.
Sussex School Districts Shine in Board Elections
A reader pointed out that I did not include any results from the Sussex districts last night. Full disclosure; I gave up refreshing the Dept of Elections page waiting for results to be tabulated and went to bed. Think it’s too much to ask that our 3 county state report election results identically across each county? […]
Delaware Contested School Board Seats – Unofficial Results
Abysmal turnout featured for Delaware School Board elections. Winners: Christina SD- Paige, Capital SD- Jackson, Caesar Rodney SD- Marasco, Lake Forest SD- Dempsey.
Christina School District Board Elections
I was asked in a comment on another post to weigh in on the Christina School District’s School Board elections tomorrow. I said my response deserved its own post; so here we go. I’ve been following the candidates over the last several weeks reading what they’ve been putting out on social media, listening to the feedback from people who attended the candidate forums. Tonight I attended the final candidate forum in person to hear the candidates first hand and I walked out feeling the same way I felt walking in.
New York Primary Results Post
New York polls are closed and the results are coming in. Let’s talk about it!
Live From New York…
In his short walk around Midtown, Mr. Sanders spoke with Michael Cantalupo, a frustrated supporter who said he was shut out of the process because he had missed the deadline to change his party affiliation to Democrat from Independent.
Mr. Cantalupo, who stopped the senator to explain his predicament, said he first tried to change his registration last May but that the Department of Motor Vehicles lost his paperwork. In December, he tried again, but by then it was too late to become eligible to vote in the Democratic primary
April School District Happenings: New Castle County Edition
The oft unnoticed school board elections are happening in every New Castle County school district May 10th. In only one of the districts is an actual contest taking place. 5 of the 7 seats up for election across the county have candidates running unopposed, which too often is the case in BOE elections.
As anticipated, Brandywine School District will be returning to the public sometime in May seeking approval for capital and operating referenda. Last evening their Board voted to go back out; this time there will be no turf involved.
13,395 Votes
145 votes may not seem like a lot, but considering the margins from prior failed referenda: 2000 votes in February 2015, 900 votes in May 2015, there appears to be a trend emerging. 8100 total votes in February, 11,000 in May, 13,395 tonight. We closed a gigantic gap in a little over 1 year and got this referendum passed. There will be much analysis to come, but for right now I just want to give the unofficial final tally, and throw up a quick graphic of the percent change in turnout totals from May 2015 to March 2016. Our city of Wilmington community came through HUGE for u
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