This week, the Baltimore City School Board had its dreaded school closings meeting. At this meeting, the Board announced that Southside Academy High School would be closing at the end of the year, pending an official vote on March 27. Three middle school sections of K-8 schools—Moravia Park, Federal Hill Prep, and Steuart Hill Academy—will be closing at the end of the year, while their elementary counterparts will continue.
In comparison to Alonso’s first two years in office, this is a relatively small number of school closings. It is nevertheless a struggle for the students, families, and teachers in these four schools. While students and teachers are trying to find schools for the next year, they must also keep motivated through June. Neither families nor teachers had a warning that their schools were going to be shut down until after the meeting. I have heard that teachers were told the morning following the meeting while they were already in school. I applaud their strength for being able to teach after hearing that news, but fear for the students who will inevitably struggle to transition to new school cultures and schools that are much farther from home.
Arguably the most surprising news from this is that the district is planning to close dozens of schools next year. City Schools CEO Andres Alonso ominously warns, “It’s going to be radical next year.” I doubt that my school would be closed next year, but one can never be sure. I can’t help but think of the dozens of teachers and hundreds of families who didn’t know their schools were under consideration for closing until it was too late.
The full article, as published by the Baltimore Sun, is available here.
1 comment:
Anna -
I am extremely interested to learn more in depth why these schools were closed, especially the middle schools whose elementary counterparts are to remain open. As I read the article on The Sun website, the author only mentioned that these schools were being closed because they were "failing." Is it the "easy way out" to simply close a failing school? Or should we revamp administrations and provide teachers with the extra support they need so that a school can stay open and turn around? My school is both an elementary and middle school, and while I would agree that my school is struggling with a middle school, I do not believe the only solution is to close the school and displace teachers and students.
While I'd love to believe that closing schools means better ones will be opening so that Baltimore can best serve students, I know this is not the case. Schools will close, pushing the displaced students into other schools, consequently creating larger, more burdensome classes and multiplying the already problematic situations in other schools. It will be interesting to see the effects of the school board's decision...
Katie Packer
Post a Comment