Mentoring, Using School Buildings Outside School Hours The Goal

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 20, 2008

STANTON – Jack Markell and Matt Denn, Democratic candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor, on Monday announced a plan to partner Delaware businesses with schools.

The initiative, to be led by Denn as Lieutenant Governor, would boost both mentoring efforts in the schools and community use of school buildings during no-school hours.

“Delaware will not have a world-class economy without having a world-class school system. That’s why the Markell-Denn administration is committed to creating an education system where every child arrives ready to learn and every teenager graduates ready to succeed in the job market or in higher education. It’s not just teachers and administrators and parents who need to pitch in, we need the whole community to help out. My wife and I have seen firsthand how serving as a mentor can change a young person’s life and give a child a better future. I urge all Delawareans to take some time out of your day or week to help children in need. The rewards – for you and the child — can last a lifetime.”

“We will be asking businesses to encourage their employees to work with individual students, and where it is financially possible, to help schools keep their doors open after regular school hours so we can help kids with their homework and make sure they stay out of trouble,” Denn said.

The mentoring portion of the program is designed to revive efforts spearheaded by Sen. Tom Carper when he was Delaware’s Governor in the 1990s. Carper joined Markell and Denn for the announcement.

“I am proud of the many mentors that we recruited while I was governor and the many mentors who have continued or started since then. In fact, I just finished my weekly mentoring appointment before coming here,” Sen. Carper said Monday morning. “These efforts can only benefit from a renewed focus under a Markell-Denn administration.”

Denn said he would hope to have at least 10 business-school partnerships started in 2009. Representatives of Delaware Supermarkets, Inc., NKS Distributors and the Buccini-Pollin Group took part in Monday’s announcement and are interested in taking part in the new program.

“I would like to start with some of our schools where kids are facing the biggest challenges, where the achievement gap is largest and where after-school options are limited,” Denn said. “At a time when our state government is facing extraordinary budget challenges, this effort is one more way that we can use the basic decency of our citizens and our business community to help our kids without raising taxes or cutting important programs.”