Michael Carter?s nephew, Zakee, made it to third grade at Harlem Park Elementary School but couldn?t read simple words or confidently write his own name.
“He was sliding through the system,” said Carter, a West Baltimore native.
“Parents play a part but when he missed 180 days of school, his mother did not receive one phone call or letter from the school.”
This oversight inspired Carter, a longtime community activist, to start attending public school meetings. He became intensely involved in the education of his nephew, now a high school freshman.
Carter?s passion for school reform did not go unnoticed. Bebe Verdery, education director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, asked if Carter was interested in joining a group called the Parent and Community Advisory Board.
Now, four years later, Carter steps down next month after serving two terms as PCAB?s chairman, the maximum length allowed.
Baltimore schools still face tremendous problems: a 30 percent graduation rate, an expected $50 million budget shortfall and the pressure to prepare students for a high school exam they must pass to graduate, starting next school year.
But Carter, 58, appears optimistic about a future under new schools chief Andres Alonso and appreciates the relationships he?s forged with school system officials to help students.
Frustrated parents constantly call and e-mail Carter.
One upset mother worried that her son would drop out of middle school. Due to a shuffling of students following school closures, the boy had to leave at 6 a.m. to ride four different buses from his East Baltimore home, past two other middle schools, to a third in West Baltimore.
Carter talked with principals until the boy was transferred to a school closer to home.
Meeting with parents and system officials has become a full-time, unpaid job for Carter, who just humbly explains that he wanted to be a male role model for children.
“The role you have played has been invaluable,” school board President Brian Morris recently told Carter.
“Your voice has been the voice of parents. I can?t think of a more noble undertaking.”
School board member George VanHook called Carter a “true community servant.”
But Carter isn?t done yet: He plans to volunteer at Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts, a new high school that trains students in the visual arts.
