Baltimore County was poised to get its second charter school this fall. But a language immersion charter’s opening will be bumped to at least next school year, underscoring how challenging it has been to get publicly funded, independently run education programs off the ground in many parts of Maryland.

The application of Bilingual Global Citizens Public Charter School was approved by the county school board last year, but a May report from Baltimore County government revealed that a charter agreement was never executed.

“Therefore, the school will no longer open in September 2025 as anticipated, and funds are not included in the proposed FY 2026 budget,” the report stated.

The charter school executive director and cofounder, Bertrand Tchoumi, however, said he is confident the school will open in 2026-2027, saying it needs a sign-off from the school system and a building to operate within.

The recently closed Golden Ring Middle School in Rosedale seems to be the temporary option, Tchoumi said.

Gboyinde Onijala, a spokesperson for Baltimore County Public Schools, said she couldn’t speak to any plans regarding Golden Ring Middle. She added that the charter school operators “do not have a finalized location that has received the appropriate approvals.” She declined an interview request to talk further.

The county’s sole charter school is Watershed Public Charter School in Windsor Mill, which opened in 2019. Puzzle Pieces Learning Academy Public Charter School was recently approved and is set to open in the fall of 2026.

The lack of charter schools in not unique to Baltimore County. Of the 24 Maryland districts, only seven have charter schools.

The Maryland charter law is considered one of the most restrictive in the country because only local school boards can authorize the establishment of new charter schools. The boards have a disincentive to approve charters because they must fund them out of their budgets.

Bilingual Global Citizens would be Baltimore County’s only language immersion school when it opens. Its goal is to teach students how to speak French and Mandarin Chinese for kindergarten through eighth grade students, though the school plans to open just kindergarten through third grade the first year.

This fall’s opening had been underway: Students were picked through a lottery system. Tchoumi said parents have since been notified that they’d have to wait another year for the school to open, but that they will not have to go through the application process again.

The Maryland Alliance of Public Charter Schools, which gives charters in the state federal money for support, awarded Bilingual Global Citizens a $2 million grant because of its “really strong” application, said McKenzie Allen, executive director of the advocacy organization.

Allen said Tchoumi has a history with charter schools: He worked at Baltimore International Academy-East and opened Baltimore International Academy-West.

“So we’re really excited to see him move through this process because he is an incredibly well-informed, well-intentional founder,” she said. “He knows what he’s doing.”

While Maryland charter schools largely depend on funding from local school systems to operate, the school building is the charter school’s responsibility.

The hunt for a building started right after Bilingual Global Citizens was approved in April 2024, leaving them with about a year and a half to find one before their planned first school year. One of the buildings Tchoumi liked, for instance, was $1 million to $2 million more than they could afford, he said.

So they had the idea to use Golden Ring Middle for one or two years until they can afford another place. The school system, Tchoumi said, would have to lease it to them. They had hoped to nail down the logistics, including finalizing the lease agreement, in time for the 2025-26 school year. No such luck.

After a school board approves a charter school, the next step is negotiating a contract between the school system and the charter school.

Timing is a common hurdle Maryland charter school operators face, Allen said. They don’t always have a lot of time to prepare for their openings after the school is approved. Bilingual Global Citizens, she said, signed the contract “but the district never inked it on the other end.”

“It’s easy to forget about those that are most deeply impacted, and those are the kids and families,” she said. “This is access to an incredibly unique program that could make all the difference in the lives of the kids that go, and this is now another year that they’re going to be missing out on that.”

Tchoumi said he has no doubts the charter will open next year. They are prepared on the academic side, he said, and local world language teachers have indicated they want to join the staff.

Despite the delays, Tchoumi said he believes the school system wants it, too, noting that the school board approved it and district leaders have said they want to give Baltimore County families another option for quality education.

“It’s going to be one of the best immersion programs in Maryland,” he said.

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.