Board approves Opportunity Fund waiver after public concern over allocations
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Summary
The Red Clay board approved a waiver to allow district-level flexibility in using state Opportunity Funding this year, voting 5-2 after extended discussion. Speakers urged clearer public reporting on how funds are used and the district said a state-mandated report will be posted by Jan. 1, 2026.
The Red Clay Consolidated School District board on Aug. 20 approved a waiver that lets the district reallocate state Opportunity Funding across schools to address staffing and student-support needs, voting 5-2 after public comment and extended board discussion.
Members of the public, including parents and community advocates, urged the board to preserve the funds at the schools that generated them and to publish clear, itemized explanations of how the money is spent. Hadrian Sissel, a parent, told trustees the Opportunity Funding program requires that at least 98% of the funds stay at the school that generated them; Sissel and others said the waiver previously allowed funds to be moved last year and that some high-need schools lost support staff as a result.
Superintendent Dr. Darnell Green and district staff described the waiver as a tool for addressing staffing mismatches and site-level needs efficiently. Dr. (first name not provided) Hammond explained that Opportunity Funding in Delaware supports weighted staffing and targeted services for students who are low income, English learners or require additional reading and mental-health supports. Hammond said the waiver is designed to let the district place fractional staffing units and contractors where the need is greatest, rather than being constrained strictly by the statutory per-school formula.
Transparency and reporting: board members and public commenters repeatedly requested itemized, building-level documentation about where funds have been spent. District staff said the state requires an Opportunity Funding report that will be posted on the district and Delaware DOE websites by Jan. 1, 2026; they also provided a draft summary at the meeting and said the district—s Community and Finance Review Committee (CFRC) will review the waiver allocations in September.
Risk and trade-offs discussed: several trustees and public speakers worried the waiver could allow supplanting of state, local or federal funds, a practice the law prohibits. Trustee Dr. Nesmith (board member) asked whether flexibility might mask reductions in other funding sources; district staff said allocations are evaluated in the context of the district—s total staffing picture (federal funds, Title I, academic excellence units) and that many Opportunity-funded positions are contractors or staff placed to meet identified needs.
Board action and votes: Susan Sander moved to approve the Opportunity Fund waiver; after discussion the motion carried on a 5-2 roll call (Miss English and Mister Hinson voted no; Mister Matthews, Doctor Nesmith, Miss Sander, Miss Tortoise and Mister Leonard voted yes).
What the waiver does and does not do: the waiver gives the district limited flexibility to shift fractional staffing units and vendor contracts between schools to meet urgent needs (for example, additional mental-health contractors or multilingual learner staff) rather than requiring every dollar to remain physically at the school that generated it for the entire fiscal year. It does not abolish reporting obligations; district staff said the January report will enumerate allocations and supporting documentation.
Ending: Trustees said they will ask the CFRC to examine the first-year waiver allocations in September and to provide clearer public summaries. Several board members and commenters said greater pre-vote transparency would help reduce community concern in future years.
