November 30, 2022

State Educational Support Professional of the Year to be named

The Delaware Department of Education is honoring 20 educational support professionals for their outstanding work supporting their students and school communities.

“Educational support professionals are vital to the success of our schools. Their work often is behind the scenes and rarely gets the recognition it deserves. I’m honored to have the opportunity to celebrate these outstanding employees and spotlight the important roles they and the colleagues they represent play supporting our school communities,” Secretary of Education Mark Holodick said.

Now in its third year, the Delaware State Educational Support Professional of the Year (ESPOY) program recognizes outstanding service by school employees who provide direct or indirect services to students and their families. The Delaware Charter School Network also is invited to participate. Employees considered for the award include:

From those nominated at a building level, one educational support professional of the year moves forward to represent each district or the charter school community in the state program. Each district/charter network winner receives a $2,000 personal award from the winner’s district or charter school. The state program then chooses one person annually to serve as Delaware’s Educational Support Professional of the Year. State winners receive an additional $3,000 personal award from DDOE as well as $5,000 to be used for the educational benefit of his or her students.

The 2023 state winner will take over the title from 2022 Delaware Educational Support Professional of the Year David Thomas, computer lab/technology paraprofessional at Lake Forest East Elementary School in the Lake Forest School District.

A selection committee made up of DOE and non-DOE judges is reviewing the local winners’ state applications, and the state honoree will be announced at Delaware’s first ever statewide ESPOY celebration the evening of Wednesday, Dec. 7 in Dover. The event will be live-streamed to DOE’s YouTube and Facebook accounts following the dinner portion of the evening; likely this will begin shortly after 7 p.m.

DOE is excited to recognize these outstanding professionals whose work is vital to students’ success. Find additional information about the nominees here.

Why the Wilmington Learning Collaborative matters

Governor Carney joined the Delaware Department of Education and leaders from the Brandywine, Christina, and Red Clay school districts earlier this month to sign an agreement that officially created the Wilmington Learning Collaborative.

The Wilmington Learning Collaborative is a voluntary network of schools in Wilmington across multiple school districts. The collaborative's goal is to create consistency for students, empower educators, school leaders, and communities, and improve outcomes for students in City of Wilmington schools.

School Choice window open now through January 11

The Delaware School Choice window for the 2023-24 school year is open now through Wednesday, Jan. 11. 

Delaware’s school choice program allows families living in Delaware to apply to enroll their children in any Delaware public school district, charter school or vocational-technical school, regardless of their home address. 

Families must first register their student in their school of residence if not already registered in a Delaware public school and then must complete a standard choice application form during the school choice application window.

With a few exceptions, families must choice students into schools during the school choice application window. Please note, applying for choice does not mean a student is guaranteed enrollment.

12 schools honored for students' academic achievement

Secretary of Education Mark Holodick commends 12 schools from across the state for their students’ growth and progress toward English language proficiency.

Woodbridge Early Childhood Education Center in the Woodbridge School District is among a host of U.S. schools that have been named a 2022 National ESEA Distinguished School for the extraordinary success of their students. The National Association of ESEA State Program Administrators (NAESPA), formerly the National Title I Association, has been selecting examples of superior, federally funded school programs for national recognition through the National ESEA Distinguished Schools program (formerly the National Title I Distinguished Schools program) since 1996.

The 2022 National ESEA Distinguished Schools will be honored February 1-4, 2023, at the 2023 National ESEA Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. 

Woodbridge Early Childhood Education Center, which will receive $11,500 as a financial award, also is among 10 Delaware schools named a Recognition School for Excellence in Serving Special Populations for the growth and progress toward English language proficiency that their multi-language learners made during the 2021-2022 school year. The students showed exceptional growth toward meeting proficiency on ACCESS tests.

The nine other Recognition schools each will receive an $8,000 award, a certificate and a banner to hang in their building.  Two schools also are being recognized as Schools of Continued Excellence and will receive a certificate and a banner. Schools of Continued Excellence are schools that have qualified as a Recognition School for the second consecutive year so are ineligible for the Recognition award this year.

2022 Recognition Schools

2022 Schools of Continued Excellence

More information about all National ESEA Distinguished Schools is available on the NAESPA website. 

Organ, Tissue donor board honors high school video winners

The Delaware Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Board has honored the winners of its 2021-2022 Organ Donor Awareness Video PSA Scholarship Contest. The board funds the video public service contest, open to all Delaware high school students, as a way to increase awareness among young people about becoming designated organ and tissue donors in Delaware.

The scholarship contest is organized by the Delaware Department of Education and Gift of Life, a regional donor program that serves Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and promotes the value of organ and tissue donations with the general public.

“One of the best ways to promote the awareness of organ and tissue donation is to encourage young people to communicate with each other,” said Jill Fredel, Chair of the Delaware Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Board. “The students’ videos deliver the message about the need for organ and tissue donation in a way that will reach other young people. We congratulate the scholarship winners for learning about why organ and tissue donation matters and for spreading that important message.”

New Castle County Winners

Alexandra McWatters, Newark Charter School, $1,000
Bianey Espinal-Aguilar, Delcastle Technical High School, $500
Arian Santos, Delcastle Technical High School, $500
Brian Kenney, Delcastle Technical High School, $500

Kent County Winner

Conor Craig, Caesar Rodney High School, $1,000

Sussex County Winners

Ella Shockley, Delmar Senior High School, $1,000
Kelly Davis, Delmar Senior High School, $500

Watch the first-place videos here.

Register online to become a designated organ and tissue donor in Delaware.

Delaware Department of Education I education.delaware.gov