Lieutenant Governor Matt Denn | August 27, 2010
From the Official Blog of Delaware’s Lieutenant Governor Matt Denn
One of the great things about being Lieutenant Governor, aside from my regular appearances on Nightline and invitations to join the E Street Band, is that I get to see firsthand some of the great things that Delawareans are doing. This week was one of those weeks.
First, I got to attend the Caesar Rodney School District’s welcome back ceremony on Tuesday for its teachers and staff. What a terrific event–the district’s food service staff prepared breakfast for hundreds in the high school cafeteria, and then everyone headed to the auditorium to hear brief remarks from Superintendent Kevin Fitzgerald and watch a video about each school’s Teacher of the Year. There is no way that any person could hear these teachers talk about what they do without being completely pumped up to start a new school year. I’m not in the Caesar Rodney schools every day, but I like what I see. When I did my study earlier this year of school districts directing funds into the classroom instead of overhead, C.R. was the second best district in the state at doing so. When we set out to find examples of schools doing a great job at involving parents in their kids’ educations, a Caesar Rodney school–Reily Brown Elementary–was one of our two statewide winners. Superintendent Fitzgerald was greeted by teachers as a friend when I visited on Tuesday. Motivating teachers, involving parents, spending money in the classroom–this is what I like to see. Good job, Caesar Rodney.
Later in the week I drove down to Lincoln to help Milford Housing Development Corporation celebrate the completion of its 100th self-help house. Until I got invited to this event, I had never heard of MHDC. It is a non-profit housing development organization in southern Delaware that has managed to bring everyone together–banks, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the future homeowners themselves–and actually get a bunch of houses built for lower-income Delawareans during the toughest real estate market in generations. The future occupants of the houses help do the work–a model similar to Habitat for Humanity, whose members were also present to show support for MHDC. The folks at MHDC are getting the job done, putting people to work and building affordable houses for Delawareans. Good job, MHDC.
I’m no Pollyanna, these are tough times for a lot of Delawareans and we are working hard every day to make things better. But it is good to know that amid the bad news, there are some people doing great things in our state.
