Baltimore Moves to Restructure, Close Schools

The cash-strapped and educationally challenged Baltimore City school board voted last night to close seven schools and restructure eight others in a move resulting from state pressure to operate more efficiently, address poor student achievement and save operating funds.

According to the Balitmore Sun, the overwheming approval of the moves, opposed by more than a few parents and community leaders is expected to save some $20 million in the capital budget and some $2 million per year in operating costs. The Baltimore school system suffers from a surplus of space, the schools, prior to the closings, can house 125,000 students but the system has just 85,000 students. Earlier the school board had voted to create a plan to reduce class space by 15 percent. The current crop of closings is part of that move for a system facing $ billion in capital improvements and repairs.

The Baltimore city school system is the worst performing district in the state. With some schools having fewer than 1/3 of the students testing as proficient, pressure from NCLB and from the state to improve the perforance of the schools has lead to a unusual management structure for the eight schools that are being restructured. As I noted yesterday, Towson University, a local university that is part of the University System of Maryland, will manage five elementary/middle schools and two of the three restructured high schools. Johns Hopkins University will manage the other high school. Each school will be governed by a board of directors composed of parents, teachers and community leaders.

Each of the schools will have a governing board and there will be an overall governing board for the seven schools that Towson will manage. Each of the schools will reportedly be run as a quasi-charter school, meaning that the school's budget will be managed independently, although it remains to be seen how that will operate when dealing with union contracts and other factors. One reason complete move to charter status did not occur is Maryland's statewide cap on charter schools (24 statewide) has been reached and the General Assembly has not authorized an increase.

Towson University is already running one school in the city and has provided staffing, funds and equipment and is expected to do the same. As one parent noted in the story:

Deborah Demery, the PTA president at Carter G. Woodson, praised the plan that provides for Towson to run the schools for five years.

"As parents we're committed to this," Demery told the board. "As long as Towson is there, we will be there."

What remains to be seen is how effective these new arrangements will be at incresing the only measure that matters--student achievement.

Related: Baltimore Schools to be Restructured