Secretary of Education Susan Bunting welcomes the second cohort of her Teachers Advisory Council to gather feedback of educators from across the state.

Established last year, the council includes up to two teachers from each of the state’s 19 school districts and up to six charter school educators. Bunting aims for the group to facilitate communication, contribute to solutions, and help increase the voice of teachers in policy decisions.

“I greatly value the opportunity to hear directly from those who work closest with our children,” said Bunting, who also meets bi-monthly with current and past district/charter and state Teachers of the Year. “These educators see first-hand how our policy decisions are working in our schools.”

Advisory council members are recommended by their superintendents or the Delaware Charter School Network for the voluntary role. Bunting asks each to share his or her personal feelings as an individual rather than serve as a representative of a district or charter school’s position on an issue.

The 2019-20 members are:

• Appoquinimink: Luke Crossan of Waters Middle School and Shelby Gordon of Bunker Hill Elementary School
• Brandywine: Matt Hoopes of Concord High School and Jenna Magee of Lombardy Elementary School
• Caesar Rodney: Melissa Rapp of Caesar Rodney High School and Kim Weber of Welch Elementary chool
• Cape Henlopen: Greg Berman of Cape Henlopen High School and Shorel Clark of Brittingham Elementary School
• Capital: Lesley Louder of Dover High School and Natascha Ward of William Henry Middle School
• Charter: Guy Cooper of Providence Creek, Tami Lunsford of Newark Charter, Dara Savage of Early College High School, and Karen Willey of Sussex Academy
• Christina: Christina James of Shue Medill Middle School and Kyle Reed of Gallaher Elementary School
• Colonial: April Bullen of McCullough Middle School
• Delmar: Ryan Shockley of Delmar Middle School and Sonja Warner of Delmar High School
• Indian River: Dana Lambert of Lord Baltimore Elementary School and Clarissa Oglesby of Sussex Central High School
• Lake Forest: Jennifer Louder of Lake Forest North Elementary School and Wendy Rust of Lake Forest High School
• Laurel: Danielle Eastgate of Laurel High School and Ali Voss of Laurel Elementary School
• Milford: Nick Jefferson of Milford High School and Kim Sekscinski of Mispillion Elementary School
• New Castle County Vo-Tech: Andrea Green of St. Georges Technical High School and Angie Parsons of Hodgson Vocational Technical High School
• POLYTECH: Tina Lykens and Cameron Sweeney of POLYTECH High School
• Red Clay Consolidated: Kathy Gormley of Highlands Elementary and Barbara Prillaman of Conrad Schools of Science
• Seaford: Marisa Clarke of Central Elementary and Robert Edmondson of Seaford Middle School
• Smyrna: Catherine Evans of Sunnyside Elementary and Jennifer MacDonald of Smyrna High
• Sussex Tech: Carolyn Maull and Tony Varrato of Sussex Technical High School
• Woodbridge: Katie Kotowski of Woodbridge High School (only one teacher designated)

The first meeting of the 2019-20 school year is at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 18 at the Collette Education Resource Center, 35 Commerce Way in Dover. The group will meet every other month to discuss a variety of issues affecting teachers.

Media contact: Alison May, alison.may@doe.k12.de.us, 302-735-4006

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