State revokes Bryan Allen Stevenson School of Excellence charter
Bryan Allen Stevenson School of Excellence, a Georgetown charter school, will close at the end of the current academic year, the State Board of Education decided the evening of March 19.
The board unanimously agreed with the recommendation by Delaware Department of Education Secretary Cindy Marten to revoke the school’s charter at the end of the school year.
”After careful review of the full record, I have concluded that BASSE has not met the statutory criteria under Section 512, Paragraph 8 related to enrollment and economic and operational viability,” Marten said.
“First, BASSE’s authorized charter specifies an enrollment many times higher than is currently realized, and the record does not reflect a clear path to achieving the enrollment necessary to support the school’s operations,” she said.
Also, BASSE’s 2025 financial audit found there was insufficient information to determine its financial condition, Marten pointed out.
“Considered alongside current enrollment levels, the department cannot verify solvency, payroll obligations or appropriate use of funds,” she said.
The school serves grades six through nine and had made plans to expand to 10th grade during the 2026-27 school year.
The state Charter School Accountability Committee on Feb. 17 unanimously recommended revoking the school’s charter due to enrollment, financial and organizational concerns.
The review was initiated after the Delaware Department of Education, with the assent of the State Board of Education, placed the school’s charter on formal review Dec. 18.
Options available to the State Board of Education included no action, probation with goals to improve operations or closure. A recommendation to close required action by the state board and DDOE secretary.
Enrollment at the Georgetown charter school slipped from the initial 230 when its doors opened in September 2024 on the Delaware Technical Community College Owens Campus to 153 at the end of December 2024.
Head of School Raushann Austin said Feb. 18 that the number of students fell to about 123 by the start of its second school year in September 2025, shortly after she was hired, and has remained at about that level.
A March 9 public hearing organized by DDOE gathered comments for Marten to consider in her recommendation.
The event, held at the Delaware Tech campus in Georgetown, drew about 50 school leaders, staff and students who urged the state to keep Bryan Allen Stevenson School of Excellence open. They were optimistic that enrollment declines could be reversed.
Leaders of the charter school said financial and organizational issues had been resolved under the current administration.
Written comments submitted to the state were more mixed, with some parents and students praising the school, and others critical of it.
The school was saddled with debt from the start, and there were continuing changes in leadership as enrollment declined in the first year after it opened, Austin said in February.
Bryan Allen Stevenson School of Excellence began with a $300,000 deficit, and enrollment dropped from 230 on opening day to 153 by the end of December 2024, she said.
The charter school’s board had scheduled a meeting for the night of March 19 following the anticipated decision by the state.
Some of the school’s leaders have been pinning hopes of increasing enrollment on actions by Sussex Academy and Sussex Tech. The county’s other two charter schools would be announcing student acceptances for next school year and establishing wait lists of an estimated 2,000 students.
Bryan Allen Stevenson School of Excellence officials expected some wait-listed students would apply to their school. However, acceptance decisions at the other schools were expected Friday, March 20, a day after the state’s final decision on closure.
Kevin Conlon came to the Cape Gazette with nearly 40 years of newspaper experience since graduating from St. Bonaventure University in New York with a bachelor's degree in mass communication. He reports on Sussex County government and other assignments as needed.
His career spans working as a reporter and editor at daily newspapers in upstate New York, including The Daily Gazette in Schenectady. He comes to the Cape Gazette from the Cortland Standard, where he was an editor for more than 25 years, and in recent years also contributed as a columnist and opinion page writer. He and his staff won regional and state writing awards.
Conlon was relocating to Lewes when he came across an advertisement for a reporter job at the Cape Gazette, and the decision to pursue it paid off. His new position gives him an opportunity to stay in a career that he loves, covering local news for an independently owned newspaper.
Conlon is the father of seven children and grandfather to two young boys. In his spare time, he trains for and competes in triathlons and other races. Now settling into the Cape Region, he is searching out hilly trails and roads with wide shoulders. He is a fan of St. Bonaventure sports, especially rugby and basketball, as well as following the Mets, Steelers and Celtics.
