Towson University to Run Schools in Baltimore--Are They Ready

As part of a city restructuting of schools in the flailing Baltimore School System, Towson University, a public university Northwest of the City, has been granted tentative approval to run five schools in Baltimore.

Under the plan, which is scheduled to come before the board for a final vote next month, Towson would run Dr. Carter G. Woodson, Arundel and Cherry Hill elementary/middle schools. State school board approval was necessary to allow Towson to manage the schools because all three are required to restructure after failing to meet standards on state tests for years. Towson now manages Morrell Park Elementary/Middle and is slated to manage another Cherry Hill school, Patapsco Elementary/Middle.

Sparked by the state school board's action, union officials called for a meeting with city schools administrators to protest the transfer of 49 teachers from those schools as part of the restructuring plan, including 11 from Morrell Park.

Because of the Maryland law governing charter schools, these schools that will be operated by Towson are not charter schools but rather the schools will be run with significantly more oversight than a normal charter school. So the union may have a real greivance about the transfers, but it seems to be a bit of tempest in a teapot.

Towson officials said a leadership team made up of principals and other administrators decided which teachers would be kept at Morrell Park. Principals made the decisions at the other schools, said Jeffrey N. Grotsky, a senior researcher at Towson's College of Education.

Grotsky said the schools will find new teachers, in part, through two job fairs.

"It wasn't an evaluation on their ability to teach," Grotsky said. "It was a determination as to whether or not folks really bought into the approach we're going to use. As we build this culture of 'Failure is no option for kids,' it was whether or not we felt people were willing to make that commitment. It wasn't that they were unsatisfactory or poor teachers. And no one has lost their job."

Transfers happen all the time and the needs of Towson are perhaps a little different. Because of the supposed different approach, Towson needs to make sure it has buy-in from the staff in order to make the strides Towson is being expected to make.