Attendance and parent involvement are up at the city s four new schools run by nonprofits, according to Jo Ann Cason, the program s interim director. Six proposals for new schools to open come September are currently before the New Schools Advisory Board for review. Pending oral presentations this week, some or all of them will be forwarded to the New Board of School Commissioners and Robert Schiller, interim schools chief executive officer, with the winners to be announced March 3. That Baltimore will see a second batch of new schools this year is a coup for the program, and bodes well for the first crop of fledgling new schools, which opened last fall but are operating under contracts that could be discontinued at any time. The nonprofit institutions poised to assume that role this year reflect these lofty goals for the new schools.
Recent developments suggest the latter road.
According to Cooper Boston, the decision was largely financial. Baltimore City has such financial problems it begs for us to have caution as we try to expand the new schools. The door has not been closed, but at this point we're on hold with wholly new schools while putting more emphasis on existing schools. Cooper Boston says. We want people who can bring more and do a better job, people with resources, connections.