‘The community has spoken’: New Wilmington school takes the name of beloved local educator

She couldn’t sleep.

School board meetings might be known for droning on through discussion, presentation and procedural malaise — but after one Tuesday night in Wilmington, Juanita Pritchett strained to slow her heart rate.

It had almost looked like a typical Christina school board gathering, hardly filling an auditorium of the aging Bancroft School on Lombard Street, with mostly school principals typing away on their work laptops. But soon seats began to fill with more faces, with coordinated colors of Kappa Alpha Psi, with Pritchett and her family.

The guest of honor didn’t take a seat, but his attendance would be marked among the first items of new business: renaming the New Bancroft School.

Christina schools moved this month to name its latest building anchored in the heart of Eastside Wilmington after a veteran educator from the same streets, a Delaware State University hall-of-famer and a late community giant. By fall 2024, the Maurice Pritchett Sr. Academy is now set to open under a name that keeps the memory of Juanita Pritchett's husband alive for generations.

It will be the first new school in Wilmington in decades, capturing some $84 million in state funding.

“He worked 40 years in the school system, grew up in that school system, attended those schools. He had given so much in hoping to make the lives of the children, the people, the parents and just the local community better,” she said a few days after the unanimous vote.

“That circle of life, you might say. Growing up in the community, giving his life to the community and how it was the community that fell in line and brought about this happening.”

Maurice Pritchett Sr. died this spring at age 80. He served as the principal of Bancroft for more than 30 years, in the same elementary hallways he once walked. He worked for the district, served as an ambassador for Delaware State University, volunteered in community programs. And it would seem the Wilmington native is remembered by not only his college sweetheart and wife Juanita, not just his children in Maurice Jr., Andre, Dwayne and Danielle — but a swath of Delawareans whose lives he touched.

“You know, he's looking down thankful,” Juanita Pritchett said. “And like I said, it was hard for me to go to sleep because I was just so full of happiness and joy.”

Remembering Maurice Pritchett Sr.: 'Everybody’s dad'

By 1975, Maurice Pritchett would find himself helping to develop curriculums alongside teachers who once taught him in class. He became their principal.

The Delaware State alumnus and basketball standout would dedicate his life to the school for over three decades, his wife described, seeing more than a thousand kids pass through its doors each year. He was honored as Delaware's 1994 National Distinguished Principal, before being called up to the district, working in community engagement and later assistant to the superintendent.

Even after retirement, he and his wife created Pritchett & Associates Inc., a business focused on educational consulting. As his obituary put it, his achievements and work in programs for children “are far too numerous to list.”

Tony Allen remembers the man he met at just 18.

The Delaware State University president, planted at the front of the auditorium Sept. 12, knew “Pritch” as one of his idols. Charisma and personality marked the then adviser to the University of Delaware Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, as Allen wrote in a column remembering the late leader this May.

“He was the kind of man who we all yearned to be: not simply good and decent, but an example of achievement and sacrifice, with an unapologetically clear vision about the importance of family at home, school, and in his community,” he wrote.

Allen was one of many who shared “everybody’s dad” with the Pritchett family.

Multiple board members chimed in with their own experiences. Naveed Baqir spoke of the undivided time Pritchett took to teach him about the school community when he announced he would run for the board. Alethea Smith-Tucker said it would be close to impossible to find someone in Wilmington who didn’t have a connection to the new school’s namesake.

The applause following their unanimous vote boomed in agreement.

A new school for Wilmington

Christina opened naming nominations for just one month.

Bancroft, alongside its outdated, failing systems, was formally eyed for renovation over four years ago. New Bancroft would look to host first through eighth grades in an updated outfit, tucked just on the opposite side of Seventh Street from its predecessor.

Community submissions trickled in until July 14, seeing some 25 people suggest new names for the building still under construction. Fifteen would include variations of Maurice Pritchett Sr.

“The community has spoken,” Juanita Pritchett said, moved to remember the cheers earlier that week. “That in itself says everything. He was about the community. He was for the community. He was of the community.”

This will mark the first new school in Wilmington in 50 years. Hundreds of children, parents, teachers and officials gathered in May just to mark the ceremonial last support beam placed in the building framework. The blocks-wide campus will be edged by Sixth and Eighth, between Lombard and Spruce streets. The Christina community can expect construction on the two-floor building to finish by August 2024, according to the latest update from contractors, and that fall should see its first students with modern technology, learning spaces and more.

Maurice Jr. and his mother agreed in their excitement to see the school continue Pritchett’s legacy. It's one they see as listening and serving before taking.

“It's showing others that pathway is an important way,” said Pritchett’s oldest son.

“Continued success, routine growth, continued love in the community — as long as that's there, he's a reflection of that. And he lives on for everyone that comes through those doors.”

Kelly Powers covers race, culture and equity for Delaware Online and USA TODAY Network Northeast, with a focus on education. Contact her at kepowers@gannett.com or (231) 622-2191, and follow her on Twitter @kpowers01.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Wilmington's first new school in decades named after Maurice Pritchett