According to the Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys, the city is threatening to shut down a Baltimore City charter school over what they're calling a string of “technicalities.”
The threat of doors closing has parents, students, and staff up in arms.
"To know that we may be moving or closing, it’s very disheartening," said Regina James Banks, who has four children enrolled at the Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys.
Banks said a month inside the Baltimore City Public School System is all it took before she pulled her kids out of public schools and placed them into the charter.
"Overcrowded classrooms, teachers that are overwhelmed, it's just too chaotic in the regular Baltimore City traditional setting for me and my family," she explained.
After making the shift, Banks said her sons are now thriving.
"They push them forward for the future," she said.
But soon, this charter may no longer be an option for her children.
"It's just very disappointing. I would hope that we could partner better," said Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys CEO, Edwin Avent.
Avent said a renewal review found the charter was suffering in several categories.
"I would classify them as technicalities," he said.
Technicalities, he explained, involve things like missing paperwork or data entry errors.
"They were procedural operational things that we believe can be and have been addressed," said Avent.
However, in the report found on the district’s website, the city found the charter’s teaching practices and staffing have also fallen short. The report reads in part, “The operator of Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys, has had serious, ongoing operational difficulties over the course of the contract, which have affected the safety or wellbeing of students, staff or the district.”
Still, Avent argues the challenges facing his charter are far less concerning than the challenges seen in public schools city-wide.
"I don't think that they rise to the level of closing a school because certainly, if we were a district school and it were the same issues, you wouldn't be closing the district school," he said.
According to Avent, the charter’s current graduation rate is around 95% and their college enrollment rate is well over 50%. That's higher than what’s seen in city public schools where only 69% of students graduate and 47% go to college.
"We don't blame the city, but what we ask for is grace because I do believe that their schools are going through some of the similar challenges that we're going through," he said.
So far, there’s been no official recommendation to revoke the charter.
Baltimore City Schools' CEO Dr. Sonja Santelises is scheduled to make her final recommendation to the Board of School Commissioners next Tuesday. Following that meeting, the charter will have a chance to plead their case to the board on Thursday.