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Published on: 2/12/2008
Last Visited: 2/13/2008
The motivation is to do something that's different," said Arthur Boswell, a member of the Wilmington Education Task Force, which was created by a joint resolution passed by the state's General Assembly.
The group recommended that school district boundaries be redrawn to remove the Colonial and Christina school districts from the city of Wilmington, leaving Brandywine and Red Clay Consolidated school districts behind as dual education providers, ideally allowing city students to be educated in neighborhood schools rather than traveling to the suburbs.School administrators are divided about the merits of the recommendations.
The dividing line in the redistricting would be Market Street, with Brandywine to the east of it with about 2,000 students and Red Clay to the west with about 2,600 students.
Boswell said the dividing line was drawn at Market because there would be roughly the same number of students in the two districts.
Ideas a work in progress
"That's one possible way to divide it," he said."There's no adamant, it-must-be-this-way dividing line."Plus, he added, "We have to do an analysis of the property values."
The task force also recommended establishing a comprehensive traditional high school in the city, which doesn't have one.
A subcommittee concluded that building a high school would be too expensive, Boswell said.
But, he said, "The body as a whole said, 'Yes, you can,' without specifying how."
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Sen. Margaret Rose Henry, D-Wilmington East, who is co-chairwoman of the task force and sponsored the resolution creating it, also will present the recommendations to the General Assembly, Boswell said, but he could not specify when that would be.
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"That's a legitimate question," said Boswell, the executive director of Neighborhood House.