This was supposed to be an exciting week at Maritime Industries Academy, with students preparing for a Jan. 9 visit from the secretary of the Navy.
Instead, the little Baltimore high school - in a strip mall in the 700 block of W. North Ave. - is in turmoil, railing over the sudden departure of the principal and the assistant principal.
Dozens of parents and students marched about 10 blocks to school system headquarters yesterday morning in support of Principal Marco T. Clark, who has resigned, and Assistant Principal Kevin Brooks, who was placed on paid administrative leave.
System officials declined to give a reason for what happened because the matter is a personnel issue. But several sources with knowledge of the system's investigation said Clark faces an allegation that a student's grades were falsified for the student to graduate and that Brooks has been cleared of wrongdoing.
Efforts to reach Clark and Brooks were unsuccessful.
System spokeswoman Edie House confirmed last night that Brooks will be reinstated today, acting as managing assistant principal. He will oversee daily operations pending school board approval.
The 300-student school was formed in 2004 as a result of the breakup of Walbrook High, where Clark had been assistant principal under former mayoral candidate Andrey Bundley. Bundley was removed as Walbrook's principal that year and transferred to a central office job amid accusations that he had allowed students to graduate or advance to the next grade without meeting requirements.
The parents and students protesting yesterday, the first day back from the winter break, were angry that the system had not explained what happened to Clark and Brooks. Both left abruptly two days before the break started. On the last day before vacation, Dec. 21, the protesters said, the school was in chaos as central office administrators and school police arrived in large numbers. Many teachers didn't show up to work; others were crying.
"It was crazy," said 17-year-old Kenjah Henry, a junior at the school who participated in the protest. She said of Clark, "For a lot of us, he's like a father figure. We all know he would never resign. He would never just leave us. We're like his children."
The parents and students also said the school is typically far more orderly than several of the city's other neighborhood high schools. There is no school police officer regularly assigned there. The school had reported a 99 percent graduation rate last year, according to literature it distributed.
