In its closure recommendation, Baltimore City Public Schools paints a tough picture of Southwest Baltimore Charter School: The average student struggles with math and requires substantial help to advance to the next grade level. The school is also performing worse on state tests than schools with similar poverty levels, and students aren’t showing enough year-over-year progress.

But, to the students, parents and faculty members at Southwest, it’s not a failing school. It’s a second home. And they’re fighting the district’s recommendation that the school close next summer, ending a 20-year legacy and displacing 363 students.

Some students at Southwest previously attended nearby Steuart Hill Academic Academy, which closed last year after a hard-fought, parent-led appeal.

Abigail Breiseth, one of the co-founders of Southwest who has since left the board, said it feels as if the neighborhood is getting targeted for closures and argued these decisions will permanently push families out of the school district. Several Southwest parents told The Banner they would consider homeschooling, private schools and changing counties or even states if the city school board sides with the district in January.

“It looks very workable from a bird’s-eye view of looking at a giant system, a billion-dollar budget and thinking about efficiencies,” Breiseth said. “But it is absolutely destructive at the level of an individual human child.”

Ashley Thompson has four kids attending Southwest. She said she was blindsided by the district’s recommendation, even though she knows the school’s test scores need to improve.

“I read the report, and I was like, sheesh, on paper, this does look bad. Like I probably would want to close it, too,” Thompson said. “But there’s so much stuff that can’t be measured from a visit for a couple of hours and test scores.”

Thompson grew up in Howard County, home to many of the region’s highest-rated schools. The Baltimore city system’s unevenness gave her pause, but a friend who works at Southwest convinced her the culture was worth it.

“I felt like there were teachers and parents that cared about my kids,” Thompson said.

Although academics are the primary concern for Southwest’s operation, school leaders recently argued that, because the charter’s executive director and principal are in only their second year on the job, they deserve at least three more years to expand upon progress they’ve built.

Stacey Overton works at Southwest and transferred her seventh grader there. She compared this moment for the school to a final warning from a supervisor: Get it together or find the door.

“Once they found out what the real deal was with test scores, I think they’re working diligently,” Overton said.

She added that, while many students come from poverty, the school tries to support them with coats, book bags and food without making them feel ashamed. There are also the smaller things, such as an extra hug or pep talk, that make the day better.

Overton is one of several parents who said their children made academic progress at Southwest. Anthony Thompson, who has four children and one grandchild in the school in addition to four who have graduated, said one of his sons with a speech issue couldn’t speak in full sentences until he went to Southwest. Diamond Staley, president of the parent-teacher organization, said her daughter was a struggling reader until she got extra help at school.

“They started pulling her when she was in kindergarten to do small groups so that she could catch up to where she’s supposed to be,” Staley said. “And now my baby is reading above grade level. So it’s just little stuff like that.”

Staley watched her brother and two cousins graduate from Southwest and go on to Baltimore City College and Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, the city’s most prestigious public schools. It led her to believe “this school makes scholars.”

But it could be hard for students to thrive if their lives get upended by a closure.

Amber Guthrie’s two daughters in first and third grades have been at Southwest since pre-K. She fought to get them in early because she doesn’t know where they’d eventually go to middle school otherwise. Baltimore does not have zoned schools past elementary school, giving students some choice in where they attend later grades.

“By living across the street, it’s very convenient for me to get both of my kids off to school in the morning,” said Guthrie, who doesn’t drive. “I don’t want my children to be taking two and three buses just to get to middle school or high school.”

Angel Mkumbo, a seventh grader who leads “Affirmations with Angel” during her school’s morning announcements, has talked through options with her parents should Southwest close. But she knows nowhere else will feel the same.

Angel said Southwest is where she feels comfortable expressing herself. It’s come to mean so much to her that the news her school might close brought Angel to tears.

“It made me feel like I had no opinion, no voice. I wasn’t being seen for who I am,” Angel said. “It made me feel as just, like, a score, not a person.”

Still, community members aren’t feeling defeated. They’ll tell the school board how they feel in a virtual meeting Thursday evening and again Jan. 9. The school board will vote on the district’s recommendations Jan. 14.

Overton said, although there was initially a lot of sobbing, the current mantra is “We’re not even going to think about closing.”

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.