Meet Delaware's Most Influential People 2024 in education
Our newsroom started this annual series to celebrate Delawareans and highlight work making an impact in the state. For the first time in 2024, that includes an education category.
It’s worth noting that’s no easy task.
Influence doesn’t always come on a statewide stage. Teachers, student advocates, principals, counselors — so many educators are bringing impact to their rooms, their buildings, their communities. As we highlight Delaware’s Most Influential in education this year, their work echoes across collaborators and throughout the state.
The paraprofessional
In many ways, it's been a year for the paraprofessional. The role of these support positions has expanded across Delaware schools like never before — working alongside overworked teachers and strained resources; assisting on instruction or one-to-one support for special education; or, in other cases, covering entire classrooms on their own. Most have associate's degrees; many work second jobs to make a livable wage. The roles have been folded into ongoing conversations on pay increases across education support personnel. This is a focus within the Public Education Compensation Committee, and one Delaware State Education Association wants to boost this budget season. The para-teacher track also has seen boosts. Legislation in 2023 pushed to smooth the pipeline for these paras to become full teachers, if they aim for it, specifically allowing them to come in with higher salaries based on that experience.
Highlighting paras: These roles are growing like never before in Delaware schools. And they aren’t the teachers
Dorrell Green: Red Clay school district, superintendent
Dorrell Green leads Delaware’s largest school district as its superintendent. And the same leadership has been honed on more areas than Red Clay Consolidated — from the board of the Wilmington Learning Collaborative, now solidifying in work and mission, to several community organizations dedicated to supporting the city’s youth. He’s been a prominent voice on education equity and looking to bolster student success. The University of Delaware graduate and hall-of-famer has been a leader in the state for decades, whether that’s teaching for nearly 20 years, leading in Brandywine schools or working within Delaware’s Department of Education.
Margie López Waite: Las Américas ASPIRA Academy, CEO
Margie López Waite wears many hats. Having been instrumental in launching the first dual-language charter school in Delaware, López Waite continues to lead a shift in the state to see bilingualism as an educational asset. The CEO of the growing Las Américas ASPIRA Academy in Newark is also a prominent Latino community advocate, lending her service on the boards of the Redding Consortium, Rodel Foundation, Charter School Network and Hispanic Commission. López Waite also has been outspoken on issues of equitable funding across all public and charter schools.
Mark Holodick: Delaware, secretary of education
Mark Holodick has been defining his stride as Delaware’s secretary of education. Last year marked his second year at the department, after a long history of leading within Brandywine School District. Naturally, that impact is felt throughout the state. Holodick has been at the helm as the first steps of a Black History bill’s implementation rolls out, new reading curricula develop, a teacher shortage fuels further reform on teacher pipelines and educator compensation, and as all eyes have locked on how Delaware will climb out of pandemic impact. The secretary has also situated himself within critical conversations on public education compensation and funding reform in Delaware’s education system. The latter follows a 2018 lawsuit demanding the state take action to justly serve lower-income students, students with disabilities and multilingual learners. As Holodick put it to a crowd back in December: “We can't be too old and stuck-in-our-ways to make change.”
Darren Rainey: Recruitment and Retention of Diverse Educators
Stakeholders across the state have renewed focus on a “teacher pipeline” since pandemic reopenings, from several angles. Darren Rainey, for one, has made efforts to diversify that recruitment his specialty. The Delaware State University program manager for Recruitment and Retention of Diverse Educators has been expanding his role since he started in 2022. He’s now known for leading events at the HBCU and across Delaware — looking to offer expertise, mentorship and inspiration for more people and students of color to be interested in the profession. And hopefully, interested in staying.
Melissa Tracy, Odyssey team: Odyssey Charter School
This Delaware educator of 17 years leads a "one-of-a-kind" food studies program — from teaching students the importance of healthy food systems, to transforming her room into a large hydroponic lab where students produce organic fruit and vegetables themselves. Oh, and Melissa Tracy, alongside her Odyssey Charter School high schoolers, donates about 6,000 greens in the community each month as of last year. Tracy was a top-10 finalist for the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize 2023, honored for her innovation and farming technology used with students, while her school was a Yass Prize finalist in the same year. Odyssey has supported the growth of her program to maintain 36 raised gardens, vertical gardens, a greenhouse and more. Now, Tracy hopes to continue inspiring other schools — particularly those serving students with high needs — to reach for programs like hers. After all, she started small.
Sean’s Room: Mental health education and resources for Delaware youth
The SL24: Unlocke the Light Foundation and Sean’s House, a mental health haven off the University of Delaware’s campus, have continued statewide efforts to educate high school and college students about mental health, assist athletes with the transition to a life without sports and create safe spaces for youth to discuss mental health challenges. The newly created Sean’s Room is a mini version of Sean’s House that offers peer support and mental health resources within academic and community settings. The first Sean’s Room opened in February 2023, with a second opening in The Warehouse in Wilmington in December 2023. The hub's focus on youth mental health speaks to the greater attention being brought to student wellbeing in Delaware in recent years — including mental health education in K-12, an increase in student wellness centers statewide and efforts to increase mental health workers in schools.
Aaron Bass, First Community Foundation team: Running EastSide Charter School
As the CEO of EastSide Charter School, Aaron Bass and his team are filling educational gaps in the area by bringing a state-of-the-art STEM facility to Wilmington that will become an innovative learning space not just for students, but for the greater community. The STEM facility will have a science laboratory and allow students to engage with 3D-printing, robotics and coding. Aside from Bass’s strides to affirm success through teacher wish-list partnerships, his “Suit up, Show up” community event — when local Black professionals meet students and connect as role models — and much more, the EastSide board as a whole works relentlessly behind the scenes to ensure students, their families and the neighborhood at-large are taken care of beyond school hours.
Fayetta Blake: Pathways to Success, founder and executive director
Fayetta Blake is pioneering early access to the workforce for Sussex County youth through Pathways to Success Inc., of which she is the founder and executive director. The organization strives to prepare youth, adults and their families — particularly those in at-risk communities — for success and aims to assist in the elimination of housing discrimination. Through information, empowerment and education in the form of school programs, work-based learning experiences, starter programs for careers in teaching or various trades and technical skills training, Pathways to Success empowers the next generation of Delawareans by providing them with the framework to become positive and contributing members of society. The values highlighted by the organization, including integrity, diversity and good stewardship, ensure that participants have a head start to success and the tools to continue propelling themselves forward.
Christa Davis, Shanta Reynolds: New Castle County Vocational Technical School District
Christa Davis, a district literary specialist, and Shanta Reynolds, director of teaching, learning and equity, in the New Castle County Vocational Technical School District worked with students to create Unity Day, a student-led conference focusing on diversity, equity and inclusion. The conference is a year-round collaboration between each district high school that calls on student leaders to work together — Unity Day’s goal — through a themed day filled with student speakers, a keynote address and student-run workshops. In its fourth year of operation, this effort from Davis and Reynolds emphasizes a renewed focus on inclusivity in education across Delaware schools, and it mirrors diversity initiatives across the state, from enhanced curricula to more inclusive student offerings and involvement.
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Here are Delaware's most influential people in education in 2024
