Baltimore County will get a new charter school in the fall — as long as its third attempt to find a home is successful.

Bilingual Global Citizens Public Charter School is now eyeing a White Marsh campus after its hopes to open in the former Golden Ring Middle School building were dashed.

The unexpected switch is the latest challenge the language-immersion charter school has faced getting up and running. Bililngual Global Citizens was unanimously approved by the Baltimore County school board in April 2024 to teach kindergarten through eighth grade students in Mandarin Chinese and French. It was originally slated to open this fall but had not signed a charter agreement with the school system by May and had to delay.

Bililngual Global Citizens would be the district’s second charter school, joining Watershed Public Charter School in Windsor Mill, which opened in 2019. Puzzle Pieces Learning Academy Public Charter School was recently approved and is also slated to open in the fall of 2026.

Baltimore County’s school board, like most in Maryland, has historically approved very few charters. Local school districts tend to be reluctant to dedicate precious public funds to these privately run schools.

Bilingual Global Citizens’s executive director, Bertrand Tchoumi, first considered housing the school in the now-closed St Pius X Church in Towson. However, parishioners were fighting to stay in the building, Tchoumi said. The ongoing fight took St Pius X off the market.

Then Tchoumi set his sights on the former Golden Ring Middle in Rosedale, which closed in 2023, as a temporary location. He said school district officials never got him an answer, but at a board meeting last week, the district announced plans to move Crossroads Center, an alternative school, from its Middle River location to Golden Ring’s building.

“I take the silence as a no,” Tchoumi said.

A spokesperson for Baltimore County Public Schools declined an interview request but said in an email: “We engaged with Bilingual Global Citizens over the potential use of the Golden Ring site last winter, but those discussions stopped in February 2025.”

Tchoumi spoke to school board members about the challenges in August, accusing school district officials of rejecting his proposals and quoting him excessive rates during leasing negotiations. The delays caused the Maryland Alliance of Public Charter schools to suspend a $2 million grant to Bilingual Global Citizens.

“From the get-go … we started having some challenges receiving communication from Baltimore County,” he said at a board meeting.

Despite the setbacks, Tchoumi is still optimistic.

The school system approved the charter agreement in September, Tchoumi told The Banner this week. And the charter school alliance regifted the $2 million grant.

Tchoumi recently found a location in White Marsh that he said seemed perfect. He did not want to share the address until the sale was final but said it was near the White Marsh Mall.

The campus would be home to two buildings. The existing main building is 57,000 square feet, said Tchoumi, and can hold over 300 people. It’ll be for the elementary students and will be equipped with 12 classrooms, a special education center and a space for English learners. Tchoumi hopes to construct a second building with 10 classrooms in a few years to expand into middle school grades.

If everything goes as planned, they can close on the property in March, he said. The plan is still to open by fall 2026, said Tchoumi.

“I’m super excited,” he said. “More than before.”

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.