From The Baltimore Sun: The Baltimore school board has voted to close six schools this summer and a seventh next year . The schools closing: William H. Lemmel Middle, Harriet Tubman Elementary, Samuel Banks High, Thurgood Marshall High, Homeland Security Academy and George Kelson Elementary/Middle. Paul Laurence Dunbar Middle will shut down in the summer of 2010. William Pinderhughes Elementary will move into the building now occupied by Kelson. The National Academy Foundation high school will move to the old Thomas G. Hayes Elementary building, across the street from Dunbar Middle, and next year will expand into both buildings to include the middle school's students. The purpose of the overall reorganization is to expand successful schools like Pinderhughes and NAF while closing failing ones.
FROM MARCH 2009: Baltimore schools chief Andrés Alonso has proposed a reorganization plan that would close failing schools and expand successful ones. He also is recommending 179 central office job cuts to close a budget shortfall. The reorganization would affect about three dozen schools and thousands of students. It emphasizes student and parent choice: Low-performing schools that no one wants to attend would shut or merge with higher-performing, more popular ones.
Read The Baltimore Sun article.
