It’s been a decade since the Baltimore city schools looked for a new leader, but this summer the school board will embark on what is likely to be a nine-month search to replace Sonja Santelises.

During the late 1990s through 2010 the city saw school leaders come and go every two to four years. But Santelises has provided a steady hand since 2016, steering the school system through a pandemic and difficult relationships with teachers unions and charter schools.

Santelises’ contract will expire on June 30, 2026, two years after the school board, under different leadership, kept her waiting until the last minute to execute a third extension of her contract.

Superintendent searches for large urban school districts can be time-consuming and competitive, with two or three districts vying for the same pool of candidates.

After hiring a firm, Alma Advisory Group for $107,926 to do the search, the school board will begin the process of asking the community what characteristics they are looking for in a new CEO. The system hired Alba to do other searches for previous top staff vacancies.

“One of our goals here is to make sure we’re reaching out to our community, that it doesn’t just transpire here in North Avenue in this boardroom, but we’re actually finding those opportunities to engage” with families, educators, business leaders in all of areas of the city, said Robert Salley, the board chair.

Beginning in September, the board will hold public meetings to collect community opinions. By late fall, the board is expected to be interviewing candidates, and by late winter to refine the list to finalists. The board is expecting to hire the next CEO by April, allowing a period of transition for Santelises and the new person. In Maryland, nearly all superintendents begin their jobs on July 1.

Jayson Green, head of the Parent Community Advisory Board for the school board, said his organization is interested in making sure that parents and community organizations are heard in the search process.

“There is excitement because it has been a long time. So this is brand new for a lot of people,” he said.

The PCAB wants the next CEO to focus on student mental health and equity among schools so that students in West Baltimore’s Sandtown have the same opportunities as students in North Baltimore’s Roland Park.

“They tried to spread the wealth,” he said of the current administration. “We want more of that to continue.”

Parents and staff are also concerned about school safety and about long-running disputes between charter schools and the school district over funding.

“We’re looking at it as a generational change agent. We want to really move the needle in the city,” said Ashiah Parker, the vice chair of the board. “How we can move the needle with our students so they’re strong?”

Santelises, one of the longest-serving superintendents in the state, has served the city schools longer than any superintendent since 1946, a national anomaly.

A 2025 Council of Great City Schools study found that current big-city school superintendents have been in their jobs, on average, between two and three years.

Black and Hispanic women tend to have the shortest tenures of current superintendents. And there appeared to be little correlation between how much a superintendent earned and their length of tenure.

Salaries in districts with large numbers of economically disadvantaged students, such as Baltimore, did not have higher salaries, according to the study.

Superintendent searches rarely involve the public in the final stages, and this one will be no exception. Only once in the past 25 years did the finalists for the city school position agree to have their names made public and participate in a public forum.

Whether Baltimore can attract top candidates for the job is unknown, but Parker said she believes the city will be attractive.

Baltimore is considered one of the lower-performing urban districts in the nation, but city students have posted gains in test scores over the past decade — including gains in English language through the pandemic. While still low, the district’s rise in test scores is faster than the state average and is beating other large districts since the pandemic.

“We are a mid- to large-size district. There are people who are looking to have that experience,” Parker said. “I think we are attractive to any leader that is looking for new opportunities, looking to grow, looking to have impact and looking to be like a part of Baltimore’s renaissance.”

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.