Following a three-hour work session Monday afternoon at the school headquarters on North Avenue, the Baltimore City School Board of Commissioners likely will approve the closure of eight schools at its regularly scheduled meeting today at 6 p.m.
Decisions on two other school closures, recommended by the city school system, are expected to be deferred until the end of March. The city is required by the Maryland State Department of Education to reduce its facility square footage by 15 percent during the next three years because of declining enrollments.
After a presentation by Thomas Stosur, city schools senior facility planner, the school system?s recommendations to close Thurgood Marshall and Hamilton middle schools were expected to be put off until the end of the month after further hearings.
However, the school system?s proposed closures of Southwestern High School, Thomas G. Hayes Elementary and Dr. Lillie M. Jackson Elementary this summer; the planned closure of Southeast Middle School next year; the closure of Pimlico, Canton and Lombard Middle School in 2009; the merger of Lafayette Elementary with Calverton Middle into a elementary/middle institution; and the move of Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts from the Southwestern campus to the Harlem Park campus likely will receive the board?s approval at tonight?s meeting.
The closing of schools has been an emotional and difficult process throughout the city; with current seating for 120,000 students and enrollment projected to drop another 10,000 to 76,000 students during the next decade, it is an issue that won?t be resolved without further trials.
Monday, Board Chairman Brian Morris made a point of reminding other school commissioners that in order to receive capital funding from state lawmakers for the construction of new, state-of-the-art schools, closing unused space and underutilized buildings is necessary.
“I have a commitment ? and we do as a board ? to building new schools in Baltimore,” Morris said. “I just got off the phone with someone from Annapolis this morning. They said, ?it looks you all in Baltimore are doing what you need to do and we see that.?”
