Hundreds of thousands of Maryland students returned to school Monday morning, but perhaps no one sported a bigger smile than Andres Alonso.
The head of the Baltimore City school system had a little more facial hair than his fellow academics on the bus to Johnston Square Elementary School, but their excitement seemed equally grand as he yelled to parents on the sidewalk and waved to crossing guards in the street.
Facing another difficult school year, Alonso is nothing but optimistic.
He hopes that teachers equipped with techniques to combat violence, millions of dollars in school renovations and a contagious positive attitude will keep the momentum going, after students last year made their largest gains on the Maryland School Assessment, a state test used to measure progress for the No Child Left Behind law.
“This is not about evaluation today,” he said. “It’s about celebration.”
The city opened six new transformation schools Monday for grades six through 12, in addition to two new alternative schools and two more charter schools. Alonso traveled to seven schools in eight hours to highlight what the different schools have to offer.
Johnston Square made the largest gains on the Maryland School Assessment last year; the Friendship Academy of Science and Technology Middle/High School is a new transformation schools meant to create an easier transition to high school; and Frederick Douglass High School officials say they have made tremendous improvements since 2004, when an HBO documentary was filmed to portray the school as failing.
“You manage by walking around,” said Alonso, adding that he has visited about 60 schools in the past week.
But Alonso was not alone.
Superintendents throughout the Baltimore area were out in force to greet students as they enter a challenging school year, the first in which students are required to pass the High School Assessments to graduate.
State Superintendent of Schools Nancy Grasmick began her day with Baltimore County Superintendent Joe Hairston, visiting Summit Park Elementary.
In Harford County, Superintendent Jacqueline Haas, County Executive David Craig and other officials met students aboard bus 724 to take them to George D. Lisby at Hillsdale Elementary.
Teachers at Fallston Middle and Edgewood Middle rolled out a red carpet for students, while at Roye-Williams Elementary, teachers stood outside in top hats and white gloves to usher in the new year.
As the elementary students boarded the bus with Alonso Monday morning, they were unsure who was already sitting in the window seat in the second row.
“I’m in charge of all the schools,” Alonso told the kids. “So I’m riding the bus just to see what it’s like for you guys.”
He struck up a conversation with fifth-grader Phillip Harris, 10, who last year went to the now-closed Thomas G. Hayes Elementary School.
“I liked it there,” Harris told Alonso.
But Alonso is confident that Harris will enjoy his new school just as much.
