The Redding Consortium unveiled its spending plan for next fiscal year.
Members of the Redding Consortium Monday night voted to approve a spending plan for the next fiscal year, which includes more than $16 million in operating funds and carryover funds left over from this previous budgets.
The largest allocation $7,914,637 for outside school time services and in-school health services.
These can be considered wraparound services, which help fill the gaps in needs for a student that the standard school day might not, such as counseling or before and after school.
The plan includes $3.7 million for pre-k slots to fund more programs and allow more children to enroll in pre-k.
In 2022, or fiscal year 23, the consortium had $12.8 million in funding, with a $10.2 million operating budget.
Similar to the Wilmington Learning Collaborative, the Redding Consortium aims to improve educational outcomes and provide a fair and equitable education to students in the city of Wilmington and all of New Castle County.
The next largest chunk of spending in the plan is $1.6 million in professional development, followed by $1,404,500 in a racial equity dashboard, which would collect data to measure inequalities and discrepancies in student achievement.
A $640,000 expenditure is for the Boost Program, an initiative to raise graduation rates among seniors.
Boost ’22 resulted in 88% of those seniors crossing the graduation stage last May, nearly 20% more than 2015.
The spending plan includes $370,000 for Redding Scholarships.
These scholarships are available for employees or student teachers who are currently working at a Redding Consortium and planning on enrolling at Delaware State University, Delaware Technical Community College, Relay, University of Delaware or Wilmington University.
Applicants must be a teacher, para-educator, student teacher, principal, nurse, counselor, social worker or other support staff in one of the following schools: Harlan Elementary School, The Bancroft School, The Bayard School, Stubbs Early Learning Center, Shortlidge Academy, Lewis Dual Language Elementary, Highlands Elementary School, Warner Elementary School, Edison Charter School, East Side Charter School, Great Oaks Charter School or Kuumba Academy.
Scholarship dollars go towards an individual’s tuition.
Another $240,000 is included in the plan to contract University of Delaware and Delaware State University staff to provide support, primarily with project help and communications, for the consortium.
The last item included in the plan is $150,000 for developmental screenings at early childhood facilities.
Gov. John Carney included a $10.2 million allocation to the consortium in his recommended budget.
Raised in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Jarek earned a B.A. in journalism and a B.A. in political science from Temple University in 2021. After running CNN’s Michael Smerconish’s YouTube channel, Jarek became a reporter for the Bucks County Herald before joining Delaware LIVE News.
