City Schools

Sixteen students who were involved in serious incidents of misbehavior have been told they can never return to Baltimore public schools, even as city and state school board members debate the legality of denying students an education. The city students, who are 16 or older, were permanently expelled last school year under a practice instituted last October by city schools chief Andres Alonso. Angry about the number of small fires that were being set in schools, Alonso told parents in a letter that he would permanently expel all students who were involved in arson or explosives.

More than 200 parents, students and education advocates gathered at Fort Worthington Elementary in Baltimore last night to celebrate their victory in fighting for school funding. The Baltimore Education Coalition, a network of more than 30 advocacy groups, was formed this winter in response to proposed changes in the state's funding formulas that would have disproportionately hurt schools in the city and Prince George's County. The coalition had planned a rally in Annapolis for last night.

The unanimous decision by Baltimore's Board of School Commissioners to name Andres Alonso as the next schools CEO signals a strong desire to move the system forward with a greater sense of urgency. Mr. Alonso, the top deputy for New York City schools, comes with impressive credentials and is known to be passionately focused on teaching and learning, although he is untested as the person in charge. An effective communicator, he can make his views and vision clear to those who are concerned about student success - but he will also need skills to navigate the tricky waters of state and city politics so that educational progress is not threatened or undermined.

In politics, candidates take campaign money wherever they find it, which is what brought Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon to a large mansion in Clarksville last week for a small soiree with a group of businesspeople. Dixon said she needs about $2 million to spend on Baltimore's Sept. 11 Democratic primary election. So C. Vernon Gray, a former Howard County councilman and current human rights administrator, arranged the event at the home of A. Nayab Siddiqui and Dr. Janet Siddiqui. Among the candidates Dixon will face in the primary are City Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr. and Del. Jill P. Carter.

The Baltimore school system is preparing to install metal detectors in any middle and high schools where the community supports use of the devices, officials said yesterday. System officials are surveying principals, staff and parents to see whether any communities want to require students either to pass through a metal detector or to undergo a scan with a hand-held wand. No schools will be forced to install detectors, but schools chief Andres Alonso says he supports giving principals the option if there is community support.

On its face, the dispute between the Baltimore Teachers Union and the city school system seems almost trivial. But below the surface, the fight is about much more than 45 minutes a week of planning time. It's a power struggle between the school system's old guard and a new, reform-minded chief executive officer. It's reflective of the deep mistrust many teachers hold for any directives from the central office. At the same time, it shows a division within the city's teaching ranks, some of whom support the union leadership while others are embarrassed by the display.

When John L. Crew, then deputy superintendent for planning, research and evaluation, stepped into the vacuum created by the firing of city schools Superintendent Roland N. Patterson in 1975, he said he planned to stay in the position only five years. "I stayed two more years than I planned," said Crew, a certified professional psychologist, in an interview from his Ashburton home the other day. "When I stepped down in 1982, I was awfully tired." During his tenure, he restored relative calm to city schools in the wake of the turmoil that marked his predecessor's years, and achieved rising student achievement test scores.

In a recently updated posting on the popular Internet Web site MySpace.com, one 15-year-old girl who claims to go to Baltimore City College taunts her school's biggest rival: Poly got beat twice in one day. The girl's boast refers to City's 26-20 win over Polytechnic Institute on the football field Saturday afternoon and what she believes was the outcome of a melee involving more than 20 girls in the parking lot after the game. City and schools police were called to Lot D of M&T Bank Stadium to break up a fight as fans poured out of the annual game between two of Baltimore's most prestigious public schools.

Furthering his hands-on approach to running education in Baltimore, city schools chief Andres Alonso secured the authority last night to sign off on any student suspension lasting more than a week. Until now, principals have had the discretion to suspend a student for up to two weeks. Under the policy change that the school board approved, they must obtain permission from Alonso or his designee to suspend a student for longer than five days. The board voted unanimously, with one abstention, in favor of the change.

TODAY BALTIMORE CITY COUNCIL -- Baltimore City Council will meet at 5 p.m. in the council chambers in City Hall, 100 N. Holliday St. A new council president and vice president are to be elected. HARFORD SCHOOLS -- Harford County Board of Education will hold a business meeting at 7:15 p.m. at 102 S. Hickory Ave., Bel Air. The agenda includes action on the 2008 budget and on charter school applications. TOMORROW BALTIMORE CITY SCHOOLS -- The Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners will meet at 6 p.m. at 200 E. North Ave. It is expected to receive school closure recommendations.

City schools recognized for school lunch program 3 The Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future will recognize Baltimore City public schools today for creating an organic farm and incorporating local foods into school lunches. The center's 2009 Visionary Leadership in Local Food Procurement and Food Education Award will be presented to schools chief Andr?s Alonso and Tony Geraci, the system's food and nutrition director. Dr. Robert Lawrence, director of CLF, and Dr. Michael Klag, dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, will present the award at Great Kids Farm, the school system's organic farm and education center in Catonsville.

A minor revolution, in the form of cheese lasagna, had come to the cafeteria at Hampstead Hill Academy, but the struggle had only just begun. Kitchen staff accustomed to heating pre-made meals had to wrestle with sticky pasta noodles, then brace for balky eaters on this, the first "Meatless Monday" for Hampstead Hill and other Baltimore public schools. On Mondays throughout the year, cafeteria menus will be all vegetarian - a first for city schools and, it's believed, any large school system nationwide.

Sixteen students who were involved in serious incidents of misbehavior have been told they can never return to Baltimore public schools, even as city and state school board members debate the legality of denying students an education. The city students, who are 16 or older, were permanently expelled last school year under a practice instituted last October by city schools chief Andres Alonso. Angry about the number of small fires that were being set in schools, Alonso told parents in a letter that he would permanently expel all students who were involved in arson or explosives.

Linwood L. Roberts, former director of employment for city public schools who earlier had been an elementary school principal and teacher, died Aug. 27 of cancer at his Parkville home. He was 60. Mr. Roberts, the son of a Talbot County school bus driver and a homemaker, was born and raised in St. Michaels. After graduating from Robert Moton High School in Easton, he earned a bachelor's degree in 1972 in elementary school education from what is now Morgan State University. He earned a master's degree in educational administration and supervision in 1980, also from Morgan, and a certificate in school improvement leadership from Goucher College in 1999.

Second of two parts The different-colored uniforms tell the story. They converge at Mondawmin Mall from Frederick Douglass High School, just a few blocks away and connected with a walkway built over the Gwynns Falls Parkway. They come from Carver, 10 blocks farther south, and from high schools from northwest to northeast and south to north. It's a transit hub for 11 bus lines and the subway, and a daily afternoon meeting spot for teens heading home from school, their competing white, green, blue and orange shirts filling the parking lot and the bus depots, many milling about waiting for the mall's afternoon curfew to end at 4 p.m. The place also is a meeting spot for officers from three agencies - the Maryland Transit Administration and city and school police - who try to keep the kids moving while watching for trouble.

City schools chief Andr?s Alonso will receive a $29,000 performance bonus for the 2008-2009 academic year, the chairman of the school board said Thursday. The board-approved bonus, which is the same as the previous year's, rewards the strides Alonso has made in improving the district, including its recent exit from "corrective action," rising enrollment and a lower dropout rate, Chairman Neil E. Duke said in a letter. The board met earlier this month to discuss the matter and reaffirmed its decision in the past day or so, Duke said in an interview.

The Baltimore City school board approved a contract with Teach for America on Tuesday night that will allow up to 200 teachers into the city's public schools during the coming school year. The cost to city schools of $450,000 includes recruitment, selection and training of new teachers, who commit to their posts for two years. Schools chief Andr?s Alonso said the contract only covers one year because of the current economic climate. "Given the changes in the market with regards to teachers in Baltimore City, we need to be careful of the commitments we make in the long term," he said.

Addressing hundreds of administrators as well as parents and students gathered at Morgan State University on Tuesday, city schools chief Andres Alonso described the "tipping point" at which the district finds itself on the eve of another school year. "It's a critical moment," Alonso said. "We've made tremendous progress, but we came from a place where we had to make extraordinary progress. ... Now we're at a point where we can truly become a model for the nation as a whole." Though the annual CEO Leadership Institute is meant to welcome new and returning administrators, Alonso said in an interview that school leaders have been "on the job" all summer.

In the poor neighborhood around Coppin State University, a little school called Rosemont has put a moratorium on taking new students from outside its West Baltimore neighborhood because it has no more space. Six or seven years ago, the elementary school was considered a failure. In Waverly, where 15 years ago some residents moved out when their children got to school age, Abbottston Elementary Principal Angela Faltz is fielding phone calls from parents of students from private and county schools.

Ten Baltimore schools are going through major changes this summer as the city school system begins efforts to close seven underperforming schools and expand three that are thriving. Some changes have been upsetting. At Paul Laurence Dunbar Middle School, staff members have raised concerns about absorbing the National Academy Foundation into their building this summer. The two schools will share the Dunbar site for the coming school year before Dunbar, which has struggled to maintain enrollment in recent years, closes next summer.