Baltimore school leaders are proposing to close two small traditional schools with declining enrollments and a charter school that is not meeting academic standards.
In a presentation to the city school board Wednesday night, city administrators asked the board to close Dallas F. Nicolas Elementary School on 21st Street just north of the central office on North Avenue, and Renaissance Academy, a high school in Upton.
In addition, the school system wants to close Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys, a charter in East Baltimore that has operated for a decade.
All three would be closed at the end of the school year if the city school board agrees with the recommendations.
The school board will vote on the closures on Jan. 14, following several public hearings and a board meeting where members can ask questions about the proposals.
Dallas Nicolas was opened in the 1970s but currently serves only 187 students who would move to Margaret Brent Elementary/Middle School, which has an enrollment of 232. However, the school system is proposing to drop the middle school at Margaret Brent and have those 71 students attend other schools.
Renaissance Academy has been known over the past decade as a school that tried to provide a supportive environment for students who struggled with issues related to poverty. In 2016, three students died of violence, including one who was stabbed by another inside the building. The school, which is a traditional public high school, has only 180 students, with fewer than 30 each in the junior and senior classes.
The school system proposed closing the school in 2016 but reversed its decision. The school has difficulty providing enough academic classes for a high school, according to Angela Alvarez, executive director of the Office of New Initiatives.
The Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys, a charter school that opened in 2015, is proposed to be closed because its students are not making academic progress.
The review of Lillie May Carroll Jackson, an all-girls school, is pending and will be announced this month.
Because Patterson High School in East Baltimore and Digital Harbor High School in Federal Hill are at capacity, the school system wants to turn National Academy Foundation into a high school, getting rid of its middle school grades.
The recommendations came as part of an annual review of schools in the city.
City administrators also recommended the school board renew the charters for several schools. Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women, Coppin Academy and Pimlico Elementary/Middle would get a three-year renewal and Clay Hill Public Charter School a five-year charter renewal, under the recommendations.
When considering whether to renew charter schools, the system looks at student achievement, finances and climate.
Last year, the school system had proposed closing two charter schools and one traditional school. Edgewood Elementary School in Mount Holly closed, but Creative City Public Charter School in Towanda-Grantley was kept open and Southwest Baltimore Charter School in Washington Village/Pigtown was converted to a regular public school.
Creative City made significant progress on the Maryland Report Card, with student achievement on the English and math state tests rising significantly over 2024 scores.
In the past decade, the school system has closed about 30 schools to account for declines in enrollment. Enrollment has begun to stabilize, but the district has too many empty seats in west side schools and overcrowded schools on the east side.
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