State moves to take Christina School District out of city

The legislative resolution opens the door for Christina School District to no longer be in the city of Wilmington.

The state legislature has stepped in and created a path for the removal of the Christina School District from the city of Wilmington.

House Concurrent Resolution 146 , sponsored by Rep. Nnamdi Chukwuocha, D-Wilmington, supports Christina’s city students and plans for the eventual withdrawal of the district from the city’s bounds.

It’s a result of the recommendation made by the Redding Commission for Educational Equity, which was created in 2019 and suggested policies and practices to the governor and legislators to improve education equity and outcomes in the city of Wilmington and Northern New Castle County.

RELATED: Redding plan could remove Christina, Colonial schools from Wilmington

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Christina is the second largest school district in Delaware (Red Clay Consolidated), serving more than 13,000 students.

“The Christina School District is, by our recommendation, not meeting the needs of the students of the city of Wilmington, and we should begin to make plans for them to no longer serve the city of Wilmington with the discontiguous footprint which currently exists,” said Senate Majority Whip Elizabeth “Tizzy” Lockman, D-Wilmington, and co-chair of the Redding Consortium.

This is just a first step, she said, and this resolution is not a binding action in any way.

“It’s really just about acknowledging the context in which the Redding Consortium has been working, the mandate that has been handed to us and the progress that we’ve made in the study and consideration of what next steps taken,” Lockman said, “as we spend the next couple of weeks to months coming up with a more substantive plan for what this means.”

Lockman said the resolution acknowledges Christina school district’s failure to meet Wilmington students’ needs.

Sen. Dave Lawson, R- Marydel, said he recently went on an enlightening tour of the city’s schools.

“I was amazed, and I was absolutely stunned at how bad the conditions are in some of those schools,” he said. “We are not serving our future very well.”

Sen. Eric Buckson, R-Dover, also toured the schools, and pointed out that “there’s some really good people doing really great things up there in some really great schools.”

HCR 146 now heads to Gov. John Carney’s desk for signature.

“It has run its course and more, it’s time to change it,” Lawson said. “It’s time for the city of Wilmington to have its high school. It’s time that we look after those people who live in that district, instead of looking over.”