In May, Krey committed during an appearance on WYPR-FM's Maryland Morning to enroll another 50 children in the school of 160, to make up for the money she was losing. Back at Holabird, employees wondered how they could possibly deliver. "I was like, 'Well, it came out of my mouth, so here we go,' " Krey said later in an interview. "It really lit a fire under us."
All summer, she and her teachers, parents and students knocked on doors, talking up Holabird to families who were not used to being courted. Some were sneaking their kids into county schools. Others were choosing magnet and private schools. After the visits, more of them chose Holabird, where enrollment surpassed 220.
That was Alonso's intent. "I challenged them, as in, 'You have a good thing going. People want good schools. If they know you have a good school, you won't have to worry,' " he said. "They did exactly what I wanted. They took it seriously."
In the fall, Krey got her award: a budget increase.
Some principals, though, found their new responsibilities overwhelming. They were now in charge of figuring out how many teachers they could afford to hire and how many books they could afford to order. While overseeing instruction and managing the building, "you're trying to figure out how much toilet tissue to buy," said Phoebe Shorter, who retired last summer as principal of Franklin Square Elementary.
In addition to the budget duties, high school principals have to get hundreds of seniors to pass new state graduation exams this year. When the state school board weighed whether to postpone the requirement, Alonso testified passionately in favor of keeping it. He didn't want to let up the pressure.
On top of that, he added yet another challenge. Between last January and September, 925 city students dropped out of high school. Alonso's order to principals: Get them back. After a flurry of phone calls, home visits and re-enrollment fairs, more than 200 returned. That left principals to figure out what to do with students who in some cases are much older than their peers and tough to control.
Hearing complaints, Alonso had no sympathy. To him, the mentality that the students are too disruptive, too difficult to work with, is what led to them dropping out in the first place.
"On this I will take no prisoners," he said. "So they're difficult. As opposed to what?"
Encountering resistance
