'Institutional Memory'

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In 1995, Delaware's public school system was described by politicians and businessmen as a “liability” to the state’s economy. If Delaware wanted to attract businesses to the state, it had to show that it was “turning the public school system around.” The basic idea was to place operational decision-making authority in the hands of the education professionals in the school buildings.  

During this time, Ed Woolard, former president, and CEO of the DuPont Company, hired me. I was told that the consortium ( DuPont, Hercules, Bell Atlantic-Delaware, Delmarva Power, Zeneca, and Christiana Care) didn’t know how to run a school, and that was why I was hired. I was 50 yrs old and had 28 years of experience in education. Eighteen of them were as principal of St. Mark’s High School, the largest nonpublic school at the time (see The News Journal's article from 1995 located at the bottom of this page). 

Mr. Woolard's directives to me were, “Get the job done...the consortium companies have their reputations on the line; failure is not an option.”  

BACKGROUND: (click here to view full History)

The Charter School of Wilmington (CSW) replaced Wilmington High:  Wilmington High was the only traditional city high school at the time, and the state was trying to remove the court-ordered busing. That building had the lowest test scores in the state and was racially identifiable. The last freshman class to enter was about 70% African-American. Red Clay tried to get a better balance by introducing three magnet programs; a science and math academy, a banking and finance academy, and a program called the Phoenix Academy. However, they were not successful. 

It was decided that Wilmington High School had to close and replace it with the Charter School of Wilmington, focusing on math and science. A study was done at one time that showed most parents favored this focus. 

CSW's name was intentional:  The school's name is the Charter School of Wilmington, not Wilmington Charter. That was a conscious decision of mine. Many people thought we were just Wilmington High 2.0, so an image change was needed. In addition, it was an attempt to “capture” the term “charter.” The Bayer Company came up with that magical medicine called aspirin, but it didn’t protect the name and became a generic term everyone uses. I wanted CSW to “capture” the name “Charter.” We used the rear entrance of the building as our school bus drop-off and pick-up area to help create a separate identity. A year or so later, we added a “modified dress code” to reinforce the new identity and to create a positive culture. The Board wanted the top administrator to be the school’s CEO (Chief Education Officer). They considered CSW to be a business operation, and the title of "principal" was inappropriate, so they selected the title of "president."

Origin of CSW's teacher's contract:  I drafted the original teacher contract and submitted it to the Board. It had a line item for the teacher’s signature and one for the Board Chairman’s signature. The Chairman, Vernon Rice (second in command in DuPont’s legal department and whose wife served on the Red Clay Board), returned the draft to me and instructed me to remove the line for the Chairman’s signature and to replace it with a line for my signature. I was told that the teachers worked for me.

Amendment of Delaware's Charter Law to include bus transportation was approved:    

The original Charter Law provided bus transportation for students only if they were picked up in the district where the charter school was located. Parents of suburban students would have to drop their children off on a Wilmington corner and pick them up after school. This was unacceptable. I drafted an amendment to the law that would use the Vo-tech schools’ method of providing bus transportation regardless of where the students lived. The law was amended with the help of the charter board and the DuPont lobbyist. 

Origin of CSW's bonus system for all employees:  I proposed a bonus system for all employees. I met with the president of the teachers union (Earlene Gillian Smith) to explain what new things we would be doing at CSW, and if she had any questions, she should give me a call. I also told her I intended to do more for my teachers than the union did for its members. Everyone would receive 95% of the Red Clay pay scale as their “base” salary. The Board would evaluate the progress of the entire school at the end of the year and award a bonus of anywhere from 0% to 10%. 

Initially, the Board wanted individual merit pay, but I objected, saying it would be divisive. Making it a group effort would help develop team spirit. Finally, the Board agreed with me and, in fact, increased the bonus range from 0% to 15%. 

CSW admitted every application:  Every student who applied was admitted for the first 3 or 4 years. I visited the Hilltop Lutheran Community Center to meet parents and recruit students. I met with Jea Street, the William “Hicks” Anderson Community Center, and the Latin American Community Center with Maria Matos and her Board. I had our marketing materials translated into Spanish. I attended services at a black church and made a pitch for CSW. My development director, Greg Meece, and I invited the catholic school eighth-grade teachers and counselors to an evening presentation at the school. 

For a short period, I also visited a few Catholic elementary schools during their lunches to speak to the students. The CSW nickname is the “Force.” Some folks think the choice was based on some scientific principle (F=MA). I really liked the “Star Wars” film, and I pictured myself saying to the CSW coaches and players as they headed off for the athletic competition, “May the Force be with you!” I offer no apologies!

Origin of CSW's "phases" system:  I used homogeneous ability groupings for our students called “phases” (which I helped develop at St. Mark’s High School) to minimize the “spread” of abilities in each class so the presentations could be more focused. The teachers preferred this system. Report cards or records from the sending schools could not be used solely for phasing because there was a significant disparity among schools and grading systems. 

Similar to the College Board, the students took a placement test to determine phases. The phases could be changed at the recommendation of the subject teacher. The test used was the Terra Nova (the same one used by St. Mark’s). I projected the first year’s enrollment to be 250, and we ended up with 243. That included one class of juniors, two sophomores, and the rest were freshmen. 

Most of the students were or would have been Wilmington High students. I never anticipated an enrollment of more than 600.