2027 LEADERSHIP & IMPACT GRANTS

Apply for the next cohort to turn your ideas into impact.

LOCAL IDEAS. LASTING IMPACT.

First State Educate invests in stronger school board leadership through two complementary approaches: Capacity Grants, which help board members develop and test solutions to challenges in their districts, and Primo Scholars, which builds a stronger pipeline of African American leaders prepared to serve effectively in school governance.

Across Delaware, our 2026 recipients are putting that investment into practice in areas including student voice, early literacy, school readiness, emergency communications, and community engagement. Just as importantly, the programs are designed to build capacity that lasts beyond a single grant cycle, whether through replicable district practices or leaders equipped to mentor and support others.

MORE THAN A GRANT

Support from idea to implementation.

FSE surrounds participants with the support needed to turn learning and ideas into stronger governance. Throughout the program, recipients receive individualized guidance, opportunities to learn alongside peers, and connections to additional expertise.

That support includes:

  • Monthly one-on-one mentoring and individualized office hours with the FSE team

  • Regular cohort meetings to share progress, challenges, lessons, and successes

  • Assistance with planning, implementation, progress reporting, and problem-solving

  • Connections to outside expertise and specialized resources

  • Opportunities to learn from school board leaders across Delaware and share effective practices.

For Capacity Grant recipients, that support helps locally developed projects move from concept to implementation and, ultimately, into models that other districts can adapt.

For Primo Scholars, the investment goes deeper into leadership development. The program is designed to provide African American leaders with intensive governance learning, mentorship, and a statewide network that can strengthen their effectiveness now while building a pipeline of future school board leaders.

Capacity Grant recipients may also receive an additional $250 to extend their work through an optional back-to-school event, creating another opportunity to bring project learning into their communities.

WHAT YOU COULD BUILD IN 2027

The 2027 Capacity Grants and Primo Scholars programs offer two distinct ways to strengthen school board governance and ultimately improve opportunities for Delaware students.

Capacity Building Grants

For school board members ready to turn their ideas into action.

Capacity Grants support school board members in investigating local challenges and developing practical solutions that strengthen governance, community engagement, and student outcomes.

Projects may focus on:

  • Board governance and effectiveness

  • Community and family engagement

  • Student achievement

  • Literacy or STEM

  • Professional learning

  • New tools, systems, or approaches

Projects are designed not only to address a need within one district, but also to generate lessons, resources, and models that may benefit boards across Delaware.

Primo Scholars

Building a pipeline of African American school board leadership.

African Americans remain underrepresented in school board leadership, while structural barriers to civic participation, access to leadership opportunities, and mentorship can make it more difficult for prospective leaders to enter and navigate governance roles.

The Primo Scholars program is a leadership-development and pipeline initiative for current and aspiring African American school board leaders. Its purpose is to increase representation while equipping leaders with the governance knowledge, confidence, relationships, and support needed to serve effectively.

The Primo Scholars model includes:

  • Scholarship support for intensive school board governance development

  • Training in areas such as equity-centered governance, data-informed decision-making, budget and finance, community engagement, and strategic planning

  • One-on-one mentorship

  • Connection to a statewide network of school board members and education leaders

  • Opportunities to put governance learning into practice within local communities

  • Continued support as graduates mentor and encourage future African American school board candidates

The long-term goal is not simply to develop individual leaders. It is to create a sustainable leadership pipeline in which experienced scholars help prepare those who come after them, strengthening representation and governance capacity across Delaware over time.

BRINGING ADDITIONAL EXPERTISE TO THE WORK

FSE connects participants with expertise beyond our own team to strengthen both their learning and implementation.

James Bridgeforth of the University of Delaware has supported grantees as they establish their projects and move from concept to implementation, providing another layer of expertise as board members navigate their work.

The Primo Scholars model also connects participants to intensive governance development through partnerships including School Board Partners and Colorado State University Global, alongside FSE mentorship and statewide networking opportunities.

By bringing together coaching, peer learning, formal governance development, technical guidance, and trusted partners, FSE creates an infrastructure around school board leaders rather than asking them to do this work alone.

2026 RECIPIENTS

Strengthening Board Knowledge for Better Decisions

Project: Science of Reading Training

Alison’s project provides customized Science of Reading training for school board members, helping them better understand how literacy research connects to their responsibilities around curriculum, budgets, student achievement, and superintendent evaluation. By bringing board members, district leaders, and curriculum and financial staff into a shared learning process, the project strengthens the board’s ability to ask informed questions, monitor literacy progress, and keep reading outcomes at the center of governance decisions.

Dr. Alison Myers, Cape Henlopen

Y.F. Lou, Christina

Building Preparedness Through Experience

Project: All-Hazards Cultural Competency Pilot

Lou’s project examines whether multilingual families receive timely, accurate, and accessible information during school emergencies. Through a realistic board tabletop exercise and direct family input, the project examines where communication can break down and translates those lessons into stronger governance, more accessible communication practices, and future family preparedness events. The project also incorporates Parent Safety Ambassadors and planned Family Safety Hub events to gather direct family input and provide practical preparedness resources.

“The deepest fear in any school emergency is the stretch of time when parents do not know where their child is. Imagine a family that cannot read the alert, that stretch gets longer. This Capacity Grant from First State Educate let Christina Families name that gap and design around the one question that shrinks it: if I cannot get to my child, who can?”

-Y.F. Lou, Christina School District

Rita Hovermale, Woodbridge

Starting Strong for Student Success

Project: Kindergarten Readiness

Rita’s “Ready Raiders” project explores why some children enter kindergarten socially or academically unprepared and what schools and families can do to better support them before they arrive. The project combines five years of kindergarten-readiness data with input from educators, district leaders, and families through intentionally welcoming parent focus groups. Those findings can then be used to develop practical resources and learning opportunities for families, while the project’s six-month framework gives other districts a model they can replicate.

Timothy Banks, Woodbridge

Refocusing on What Matters Most / Elevating Student Voice Into Action

Project: Student Voice & Board Engagement

Timothy’s project creates a structured partnership between high school students and school board members so student voice can play a more meaningful role in district governance. Students build leadership skills, gather perspectives from their peers through surveys, focus groups, interviews, and dialogue, and work alongside adults to identify priorities and develop recommendations for the board. The six-month model is designed to move beyond one-time student feedback and establish sustainable structures for youth-adult partnership and student engagement.

Yanelle Powell, Milford

Building the Next Generation of Leaders

Project: Community Voice in Action

Through her Primo Scholars experience, Yanelle is applying her leadership development to a critical area of school board governance: meaningful community engagement. Her work focuses on helping board members move beyond one-time public input toward ongoing listening, trust-building, and intentional efforts to hear perspectives that may not routinely reach the board.

She is developing practical guidance for connecting community priorities to board decisions, policy, and resource allocation, demonstrating how stronger governance leadership can create more responsive relationships between school boards and the communities they serve.

Dr. Jeffrey Benson Jr., Seaford

Student Voice Drives Strong Schools

Project: Student Engagement & Listening Sessions

Through Primo Scholars, Jeffrey is applying his leadership development to strengthening authentic student voice in school governance. His listening sessions and student engagement work explore how boards can move beyond simply hearing student feedback toward creating meaningful opportunities for young people to inform priorities, contribute to problem-solving, and understand how their input influences decisions.

The work has also surfaced opportunities to create lasting structures around student voice, trusted adult relationships, leadership opportunities, and earlier student involvement in decision-making.

FROM ONE DISTRICT TO MANY

For Capacity Grants, a successful project is not intended to end when the grant period does.

At the conclusion of their work, Capacity Grant recipients create Replication Guides documenting what another school district would need to adapt the project, including:

  • The purpose and need behind the project

  • Key partners and approvals

  • Step-by-step implementation guidance

  • Recommended timelines

  • Materials and resources

  • Estimated budgets

  • Lessons learned and supporting tools

The result is a growing collection of practical, locally tested approaches that can travel beyond the district where they began.

A Science of Reading training developed for one board can become a model for another. A kindergarten-readiness initiative can give another district a starting point for engaging families. A student voice project can provide a framework for creating stronger youth-adult partnerships elsewhere.

Primo Scholars creates sustainability in a different way.

Rather than replicating a single project, Primo Scholars is designed to replicate leadership capacity. Scholars build governance knowledge and networks that remain with them beyond the formal program, and graduates can then mentor, train, and support other African Americans interested in school board service.

Over time, that model can create a statewide network of experienced leaders supporting the next generation and reducing one of the barriers identified at the program's outset: too few established pathways and mentors for African Americans pursuing school board leadership.

PREPARE TO APPLY

The full 2027 application portal and supporting materials will be available here when applications open.

Interested in a Capacity Grant?

Start thinking about a specific challenge within your board, district, or community and the evidence that demonstrates why it matters.

Start with a real need.

Identify a specific challenge within your board, district, or community and use data or community insight to explain why it matters.

Connect the work to students.

Show how strengthening board knowledge, governance, or engagement can ultimately improve the conditions in which students learn and succeed.

Create a realistic plan.

Define what you will do, who needs to be involved, what resources are required, and how the work can be completed within the grant period.

Plan for what comes next.

Consider not only what success looks like in your own district, but what others could learn from your work.

Interested in Becoming a Primo Scholar?

Consider where you want to grow as a governance leader and how deeper training, mentorship, and connection to other leaders could strengthen your ability to serve.

The program is designed for current and aspiring African American school board leaders interested in building their governance knowledge, strengthening their leadership capacity, and becoming part of a longer-term network supporting African American leadership in Delaware public education.

Full 2027 eligibility, scholarship, training, and application details are coming soon.

STRONGER LEADERS. STRONGER BOARDS. STRONGER COMMUNITIES.

FSE’s approach invests in both the ideas that can improve school governance today and the leadership pipeline needed to sustain stronger governance tomorrow.

Capacity Grants give school board members the support to test locally driven solutions and share what works. Primo Scholars expands access to intensive governance development and builds a network of African American leaders prepared to serve, mentor others, and strengthen representation over time.

Together, these investments create impact that can extend from one leader, to one board, to communities across Delaware.

2027 Capacity Grant and Primo Scholars applications are coming soon.