Can anyone give examples from three Delaware school districts of local control? I’m guessing that Brandywine School District having an IB program is one, so you can’t use that one.

General result of post-deseg upstate consolidation of upstate districts: No economy of scale, no local control, layers of life-tenured middle management. Things were a lot better when Stanton, McKean, Conrad and AI had their own districts.

Why don’t we view administrators as a support system for teachers, rather than the head honchos?

When my dad was a school principal, this was pretty much the way that he ran the front office. His job was to make sure that teachers had what they needed to do their jobs AND to deal with the folks at HQ to get resources and do the best he could to keep them away from the teachers. Because teachers should be teaching, not kissing the butt of bureaucrat someplace. Other good principals that I saw at the time had similar mindsets(and if you think about the kind of places that 60 Minutes tends to idolize you see this as something of a pattern).

It strikes me that this is a way to think about some of the additional streamlining to get more resources in a classroom. Some HQ overhead is to be expected but I’m pretty sure that there is alot that is not needed.

LOL ! come on now don’t you miss the day sparing with the Don and his capos.

You go it! And I have copies of the invoices for the imported cherry veneered furniture. Wasn’t the lease for $650,000,00 + a year? Remember Red Clay owne an office build paid in full on Washington Street and sold it to help pay for Brandywine Springs which had an annex building for the new district office. The the parents cried to expand Brandywine Springs to K-8 and the district office signed off to a multi year lease at he penthouse even though there was space at Warner or asking Charter School of Wilmington vacanted now needed space.

My kids have gone to school in Brandywine years ago; and to a small, local district in another state; and to a large, county-wide consolidated district in yet another (We’ve moved a lot!)

We’ve been in a school with a high percentage of parental involvement and in a school with almost none.

Here’s the thing: the small, local district is more expensive; my taxes for the same valued house are much, much higher; my kids’ services are often dependent on the “squeaky wheel” syndrome; and who you know is much more important than what your kid needs; and, while there are fewer services, you know exactly what your kid is getting. The administrators are accessible, but often entrenched.

The large, consolidated, county-wide district is less expensive; my kids’ services are dependent on how they test out and what the counselor says; you can’t really know anyone except your kids’ teachers and assistant principals; and there are many more services, courses and “stuff” offered, but you sometimes have to seek it out and you have to keep up — no one is going to lead parents gently by the hand. The administrators aren’t living in “a monument to monopoly in education” (brooke– I love that phrase!) but are very aware of the trajectory of their careers, more so than their peers in the smaller districts.

It’s just different.

Good education doesn’t depend on the size of the district (and sometimes not even the amount of money thrown at it). There are so many variables. My experience in Brandywine was horrible. Most people wouldn’t agree. My experience in Louisville, KY — a place that should have been the pits — was outstanding.

There is no “one size fits all”. But as the costs of education continue to grow far faster than the rate of the economy, and as property values decline, there will be a point of revolt: whether you decrease the school budget and deal with the fallout, or you lower costs through consolidation, a choice will have to be made.

But here’s the thing. We must evaluate EVERY action we take with our schools primarily as it impacts our students. God knows, I’d like costcutting. The impact on my family of raises in school taxes has been ridiculous, for reasons I won’t go into, here. But I saw the consolidation we’ve previously undergone having a largely negative impact on student outcome, and that makes me cautious.

Consolidation assumes that 3/4 of our current administrative staff is superfluous. I just find that hard to credit. I’m picturing, frankly, “District offices” that rise from the plain like Ship Rock, visible for miles, a monument to monopoly in education. Worries me.