Recently, the Baltimore
City School Board announced that several City Schools will be
closing or renovated within the next ten years.
Low enrollment and outdated facilities have been the main concern of
Baltimore City School officials. Each
school building in the city was evaluated and became a part of an intense intervention
for the much desired update to the school buildings. Some schools will receive basic updates at
the end of the ten years, while others are facing more immediate “solutions”
including school closure.
For some communities,
the news that their school is being closed has been cause for an uproar. Some communities have protested at school
board meetings while others have even taken legal action in response to the
news.
In particular, the community of
Northwestern High and some of its highly successful alumni have filed a lawsuit
claiming that the decision is discriminating against low-income, minority
groups. The counterargument is that most
schools in Baltimore City have similar demographics to Northwestern and are
able to supply their students with an updated facility and effective teaching
resources – unlike Northwestern High School.
If the decision was truly meant to deprive low-income, minority
students, the majority of schools in the city would be closed.
But, while parents and
alumni are concerning themselves with saving a fallen building, I think that they
should be more concerned about where their children are destined to go after
the school is closed. While Forest Park High
School, the school students are being transferred to, is benefiting greatly from the reconstruction of Baltimore City Schools, their recent
test scores have fallen even below that of the dismal
scores of Northwestern.
In the case of Northwestern students I would pose the question: can a
new building be the answer for both school communities? Will glossy hallways and up-to-date art
centers be the answer to failing schools?
Forest Park will also experience a school that is running at full
capacity; will this help students be career and college ready? And if Forest Park does not prove to offer
the turn around it appears the school board is claiming it will be, what are
the other options?
1 comment:
Kelly,
I couldn’t have said it better myself! Where are all of our students expected to go once these schools are closed or are in the process of being renovated? Will the surrounding schools have the capacity to support the increased influx of students? What will happen to the teachers at the school and will schools be given more money to help transport these students across town to other schools? There are multiple questions and variables to consider when attempting to close down or beautify multiple schools in a city like Baltimore. Additionally, I wonder how our schools will deal with increased violence that may occur as you start to see students from different communities be merged into one space? While it would be ideal to believe that very little acts of violence will occur we must be preventative and have a system in place to deal with the reactions that will arise as a result of the closings. In a district as large as ours, school officials must seriously think trough their plan of action and be ready to provide an alternative for students, parents, teachers, and school leaders. One can only hope that our board has thought of the multi-tiered response needed to make this transition of schools closing as easy as passible for everyone involved.
Post a Comment