Laurisa Schutt is the executive director of First State Educate.
For too long and despite the sincere and often heroic efforts of educators and principals, Wilmington schools have failed to educate our students effectively.
In moments of humility and reflection, education system leaders admit that the current decision-making structure in Wilmington schools does not allow for sustained continual improvement — there are pockets of wisdom and change here and there but not sustained improvement over time. We have seen this inability to make meaningful progress in our traditional structure again and again.
Now, there is an opportunity to move forward with a different structure.
All Wilmington school district superintendents and boards have received a proposed agreement that would create a new Wilmington Learning Collaborative. This proposed agreement is the result of more than 200 conversations with Gov. John Carney and his team. In the August school board meetings, elected members will vote to move forward or stay where we are and remain in our current structure.
While there is no unanimous agreement or a silver-bullet solution to the challenges of education in Wilmington, there is broad consensus that we are not where we need to be and something — something now — must be done.
The collaborative’s structure is that “something now.” It does not replace Redding’s redistricting committee nor districts’ essential role in creating visions for success — but it does form a novel, community-based leadership structure solely focused today on schools in Wilmington and committed to empowering educators and the city community.
Teachers, principals and families deserve the flexibility and support necessary to build truly great schools in Wilmington — we hear this from educators over and over in public comment at school board meetings, through resignations and exit interviews. Current structures don’t provide that flexibility and support — with persistent and unacceptable results.
This is what I hear from teachers:
The document presented to the school boards and the superintendents is the direct result of months of working together. No district has presented an alternative vision; the only alternative on the table is the status quo. The collaborative’s structure is not just an agreement; it is a framework that will come to live and breathe only if superintendents and boards lean into the complexity and imperfection of change — of making a public declaration of “Let’s try,” of seeing the big picture of support and focus versus all the possible barriers.
Trying requires trust from districts giving up a little bit of power, management and oversight to educators and to the new collaborative, enabling the executive director to find real success. Not trying looks like the triumph of bureaucracy.
I encourage you to speak up in your July and August school board meetings; call your board members, superintendents and principals. Tell them that change is possible when we act together.
Everyone loses when kids are not educated.
Everyone loses when we stand in our own way.
Everyone wins when excellent schools anchor strong communities.
