Sen. Carper’s New Castle County Schedule for Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Wilmington, DE – Senator Tom Carper will spend Tuesday, February 21, 2006, in New Castle County, Delaware. Senator Tom Carper will deliver the keynote address at the “Building Inter-Metropolitan Rail Corridors” forum to be held by the University of Delaware’s Institute for Public Administration. His speech, entitled “Rail Policy: a View from Washington,” will focus on his current legislation to reauthorize Amtrak and provide federal funding support for passenger rail investment. The forum will provide scholars, transportation planners, policymakers and advocates an opportunity to discuss and assess future directions and strategies for rail service between America’s cities. Senator Carper served on the Amtrak Board from 1994-1998. Senator Carper will then be buying Girl Scout cookies from a local Brownie troop to send to troops overseas. Brownie Girl Scout Troop 425 sent a letter to the Senator’s Washington, D.C. office, asking for his help in “Operation Taste of Home,” a partnership with the USO at Dover Air Force Base, which enables cookie-buyers to send ever-popular Girl Scout cookies to our men and women in the Armed Forces. The 16 girls in the troop are hoping to sell at least 114 boxes each, specifically for the troops, which would be enough for 1% of the troops overseas. Senator Carper will then have lunch with students and tour the new East Side Charter School. In June 2005, the city of Wilmington gave the former Martin Luther King Elementary School to East Side Charter School (ESCS). In 2004, Department of Education rated East Side a “superior school” and they received a SRA Pride Award recognizing them as one of only four schools nationwide for academic excellence. They have forged a collaboration with the University of Delaware’s Early Learning Center, and hope their partnership will evolve into a state-of-the-art urban educational facility for other traditional schools and charter schools to replicate. ESCS has approximately 192 students in grades K-7 and the student: teacher ratio is 16:1. Seventh grade started in 2005; 8th grade will start in 2006. Two additional kindergarten classes also started in 2005, enabling each grade to grow by two classes each year thereafter. Increased enrollment will generate the operating revenue necessary to hire more teachers and fund special programming such as art and music Tuesday, February 21, 2006 8:45 am – 9:30 am Keynote Address at Transportation Forum University of Delaware John M. Clayton Hall Conference Center on the Laird Campus Newark 9:45 am – 10:00 am Cookie-Buying and Visiting with Brownie Troop Girl Scouts of the Chesapeake Bay 501 South College Avenue Newark 11:30 am – 12:45 pm Lunch with Students and Tour of East Side Charter School 3000 N. Claymont Street Wilmington