Brandywine School District (abbreviated BSD) is a public

school district A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public primary and secondary schools in various nations. North America United States In the U.S, most K–12 public schools function as units of local school districts, wh ...

in northern

New Castle County New Castle County is the northernmost of the three counties of the U.S. state of Delaware (New Castle, Kent, and Sussex). As of the 2020 census, the population was 570,719, making it the most populous county in Delaware, with nearly 60% of the ...

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It serves

Arden Arden may refer to: Places ;Australia *Arden, an area in North Melbourne, Victoria near the Arden Street Oval ;Canada * Arden, Ontario ;Denmark * Arden, Denmark, a town **Arden Municipality, a former municipality, including the town of Arden ; ...

, Ardencroft, Ardentown, Bellefonte,

Claymont Claymont is a census-designated place (CDP) in New Castle County, Delaware. The estimated 2017 population of the 19703 ZIP code, which Claymont encompasses, was 15,292. History The community now known as Claymont started on the banks of Naamans C ...

, Edgemoor, Talleyville, - Talleyville is o
page 3
Compare to the school boundary maps. and a northeast portion of the city of Wilmington. It also includes

Brandywine Hundred Brandywine Hundred (also known as North Wilmington) is an unincorporated subdivision of New Castle County, Delaware. It is located to the north and northeast of the city of Wilmington. Hundreds were once used as a basis for representation in th ...

. The size of its territory is . Its administrative offices are in an

unincorporated area An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

, and has a Wilmington postal address. The district also offers a program known as the gifted and talented program. The program is for children with a higher understanding of grade level assignments. There are three schools participating in this program: Mount Pleasant Elementary School, Claymont Elementary School, and P.S. duPont Middle School. Mount Pleasant High School and Talley Middle School offer the

International Baccalaureate program The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) is a two-year educational programme primarily aimed at 16-to-19-year-olds in 140 countries around the world. The programme provides an internationally accepted qualification for entry into ...

for students who test into the program.

History

In 2000 the school board bought out the contract of superintendent Joseph P. DeJohn so that he would leave, and the board had plans to choose a new superintendent. That year Al Mascitti, a columnist for ''

The News Journal ''The News Journal'' is the main newspaper for Wilmington, Delaware, and the surrounding area. It is headquartered in unincorporated New Castle County, Delaware, near New Castle, and is owned by Gannett. History The ancestry of the News Journ ...

'', stated that the school board "started treating the district like a foul-smelling refrigerator".

Administration

The current

superintendent Superintendent may refer to: *Superintendent (police), Superintendent of Police (SP), or Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), a police rank *Prison warden or Superintendent, a prison administrator *Superintendent (ecclesiastical), a church exec ...

is Lincoln Hohler. The current Board of Education President is John Skrobot III, and the current Vice President is Kristin Pidgeon.

Demographic

In the 2019–2020 school year, the district enrolled 10,500 students and employed 919 teachers for a student-to-teacher ratio of about 11.43:1. Between 2012 and 2016 it was recorded that the students 66% Caucasian, 22% African-American, 5% Asian, and 4% Hispanic or Latino. Within the district during this time 12.5% of families have an income below the

poverty level The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...

, and 21.9% receive Food Stamp/SNAP benefits.

Partnership

The school district partnered with the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 mas ...

program TeenSHARP to help prepare selected students in the district for top colleges, where students engage in up to two college-level course each school year, for up to 4 years.

Schools

;High schools (grades 912) *

Brandywine High School Brandywine High School is a public secondary school located near Talleys Corner in unincorporated area, unincorporated New Castle County, Delaware, with a Wilmington, Delaware, Wilmington postal address. Although the school is not within the Wilmi ...

* Concord High School * Mount Pleasant High School ;Middle schools (grades 68) *P.S. duPont Middle School *Springer Middle School
Talley Middle School
;Elementary schools (grades K5) *Carrcroft Elementary School *Claymont Elementary School *Forwood Elementary School *Hanby Elementary School *Harlan Elementary School *Lancashire Elementary School *Lombardy Elementary School *Maple Lane Elementary School *Mount Pleasant Elementary School ; Preschool programs (PreK) *Charles W. Bush Early Education Center *Joseph Brumskill Early Childhood Assistance Program (ECAP)

Notable events

In 2006, a Claymont Elementary school teacher was arrested for first-degree rape, and providing alcohol to a minor, after it was discovered that she had sex with a 13-year-old male student twenty-eight times. She also allowed for the child's 12-year-old friend to watch them and provided them with alcohol. She pled guilty to a single count of second-degree rape and received a mandatory minimum 10-year sentence. A federal lawsuit was levied against the district in 2016, as a mis-identification and subsequent search discovered weapons in a students bag, caused a 5-day out of school suspension. After the mis-identification was discovered the father raised the suit of potential Fourth Amendment violations, when he discovered the suspension would stay on his sons record. The lawsuit led, to students and their personal property cannot be searched without a parent or guardian present. In 2018, a blue school bus was unveiled to help feed students during the summer when school is out of session, and funded through the USDA's Summer Food Service Program. District Supervisor of School Nutrition Pam Gouge, highlighted the need for the bus as nearly half of the districts students qualify for a free or reduced lunch, and the

Food Bank A food bank is a non-profit, charitable organization that distributes food to those who have difficulty purchasing enough to avoid hunger, usually through intermediaries like food pantries and soup kitchens. Some food banks distribute food direc ...

had pulled out of areas. That year also saw the district participating in the National School Walkout, organized by the survivors of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. In 2019 it was announced that a middle schooler from the district was invited to sit with

Melania Trump Melania Trump ( ; born Melanija Knavs , Germanized as Melania Knauss ; born April 26, 1970) is a Slovene-American former model and businesswoman who served as First Lady of the United States from 2017 to 2021 as the wife of 45th president Do ...

for the

2019 State of the Union address The 2019 State of the Union Address was given by the 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump, on February 5, 2019, at 9:00 p.m. EST, in the chamber of the United States House of Representatives to the 116th United States Congress. It w ...

, after reports that he was bullied as he shares the same last name as

President Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

References

External links

Brandywine School District's Home Page

Sources

{{Delaware education Education in Wilmington, Delaware School districts in New Castle County, Delaware