State Board: Great Oaks Charter will not be shut down

Great Oaks Charter School, a Wilmington charter serving a student body of more than 80% Black students, will not be shut down.

After nearly three months of being placed on formal review by the Charter School Accountability Committee, Education Secretary Mark Holidick recommended Thursday night to the Delaware State Board of Education to allow the school to continue operating.

The board voted in support of that recommendation.

The review was triggered because the charter submitted an enrollment of 236 students at the beginning of the year.

Its authorized enrollment is 325 students, so the charter had 37% fewer students than the number agreed upon with the state.

Jim Mazarakis, chair of the Great Oaks School Board, previously said it was difficult to recruit and maintain students the past couple of years because of the pandemic.

He also has pointed out that the school serves 90% minority students and 30% special needs students.

Kim Klein, secretary of operations at the Department of Education, shared the 22 conditions for Great Oaks that the charter will have to meet to ensure its survival. Klein shared some of the deadlines, but not all.

Some of those conditions include:

• An authorized enrollment of 200 students, rather than 325, for next school year.
• Must submit a revised budget for the current school year that aligns with its current enrollment of 236 students.
• Must meet 90% of its authorized enrollment by April 1, 2023. That is 180 students.
• Submit a plan on how it intends to build cash reserves back up and meet the state’s financial framework performance metrics.
• A detailed plan for the six teachers that are currently not licensed and certified in the area that they’re teaching.
• Evaluations for administrators and teachers.

More on Great Oaks:

Oct. 3: Great Oaks Charter’s low enrollment leads to state review

Oct. 27: Emotional Great Oaks community pleads for school survival