The Baltimore City school board voted Wednesday to close its only all-boys public school.

The Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys met its demise at the end of a nearly five-hour public meeting during which the board decided it wasn’t ready to end months of deliberation on the fates of the two other schools on the chopping block: Renaissance Academy and Dallas F. Nicholas, Sr., Elementary School. The board deferred those decisions to next year’s annual review process, meaning those schools will continue to welcome students this fall.

Commissioners said they needed more time to consider the futures of those schools, the students they may displace and what would happen to their buildings. Commissioners also want to assess enrollment patterns and where families are going across the city as the district grapples with an expensive small school problem.

“I’d hate for families to choose a school and then lose a school that they intentionally chose because it was a smaller classroom setting and probably better for their child,” Commissioner Ashley Esposito said. “I am in favor of a moratorium so that we can actually study this.”

Students, parents and school leaders had called for the board to keep all schools open until the system replaces outgoing CEO Sonja Santelises. Though Wednesday’s vote was held in an online-only meeting, community members previously packed the board’s meeting room to rally against school closures. At one public comment session, it took 10 minutes to clear out enough people to comply with the fire code. At a second, speakers hoisting signs and sporting matching t-shirts had to be called in by school so they didn’t all crowd the room at once.

Local elected officials threw their political weight behind keeping schools open at public comment sessions held in December and January. Baltimore City Council Member Odette Ramos, who represents the district that is home to the Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys, doubled down on her support for Maryland’s only all-boys charter school, which City Schools said is plagued by academic and financial problems. The Northeast Baltimore school narrowly escaped closure in 2023.

“It can be frustrating when you’ve laid out some of the things that need to change and they just did not go far enough,” Ramos told the board earlier this month while asking for another three years to get it right.

A majority of board members decided they could not again forgive what the district characterized as low test scores and unsustainable cash flow, even with promises from school leaders that a plan was in place to get back on track. The only time Santelises spoke at length during the meeting was to warn board members against the precedent she said they’d be setting if they renewed Baltimore Collegiate’s charter.

“No board prior to you has renewed a school that is ineffective in the major work of achieving students,” Santelises said.

Board Vice Chair Ashiah Parker raised alarm bells over the financial status of the school’s operator, pointing out that the nonprofit operating New Song Academy in Sandtown-Winchester folded less than a year after getting renewed by the board.

But students, community members and alumni like D’jibril Barry said Baltimore Collegiate is more than its problems: It’s life-changing for Black boys in the city.

“I drove an hour and 30 minutes from Delaware to come to Baltimore just to speak, because Baltimore Collegiate has played such an instrumental role in my life,” said Barry, a Delaware State University pre-law student, at a Jan. 8 hearing. “I’m talking about me being courageous, my integrity, the hard work, grit — all of that has originated from here.”

With the board’s decision, Baltimore Collegiate will close at the end of the current school year.

City Council Member Jermaine Jones spoke up for Dallas F. Nicholas, Sr., Elementary School, saying that more families are moving into the neighborhood and “size really won’t be that much of an issue in the future.” With just 187 kids, the school is well below the threshold of 300 students that the school district considers financially viable.

Now, Baltimore City Schools will have to figure out how to budget for keeping some small schools open as public school enrollment declines; fewer students usually means less money from the state. Some commissioners noted that Baltimore can’t sustain small schools long-term under current funding formulas.

Santelises had recommended closing Dallas F. Nicholas and merging it with Margaret Brent Elementary/Middle School half a mile away. The school system said low enrollment at both schools had forced the district to step in with additional funding to keep them afloat.

The merged school would have only served elementary-aged students, eliminating Margaret Brent’s middle school. The board put off that decision, too, as closing those grades would have further eroded Margaret Brent’s low enrollment.

Staff and parents from Dallas F. Nicholas pleaded with board members just last week, saying students and their communities needed stability, especially those who rely on the school’s special education programs. They also questioned why the district would pour money recently into new facilities, windows and an elevator just to close Dallas F. Nicholas and repurpose its building for district use.

“Instead of closing Dallas, let’s invest in Dallas, as it should be a staple for City Schools, especially since it’s directly behind the school board,” said special education paraeducator Tiffany Smith, referring to the school’s location near the district’s central office. “You can have our parking lot. But please do not take our building.”

Santelises had also recommended closing Renaissance Academy, the city’s smallest public high school. District officials proposed closing Renaissance in 2016 but reversed their decision.

Today, the school enrolls just 191 students. But its supporters previously told school board members that their small environment allows kids to thrive. Staff said students at Renaissance transfer there to get the peer and teacher support they need to graduate on time. The larger schools they left will be the same ones they’d get sent back to without Renaissance, teachers said.

“The primary purpose of a school system is student success, not cost efficacy alone,” said Joshua Collier, who’s taught art at Renaissance for three years. “Every year, the support has been more necessary, not less.”

Dallas F. Nicholas, Margaret Brent and Renaissance Academy are all community schools, which provide additional support outside of the classroom for low-income students.

The school board did adopt the district’s recommendation to drop the middle school grades at National Academy Foundation and turn it into a high school, a step officials hoped would relieve overcrowding at Ben Franklin, Digital Harbor and Patterson high schools. The school will drop one grade level per year, transitioning to only serving high schoolers in the 2028-29 school year but allowing current middle schoolers to finish their time there.

Additionally, the school board granted renewal to six of its charter school operators as the state wrestles with how to fund charters going forward.

Edwin Avent, CEO of the Five Smooth Stones Foundation that operates Baltimore Collegiate, said his organization will seek other opportunities to carry out its mission of disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline and uplifting Black boys.

“Hopefully, this fight brought a light to the city to know there is an opportunity for us to work together in this city to change the outcomes for this population,” Avent 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.