Parents should have more say over who governs school boards, say activists who plan to lobby for partially elected boards in the Baltimore metropolitan area.

“There should be a sea of parents in outrage,” said Reba Hawkins, a Baltimore mother of two.

A growing number of parents, teachers and education advocates plan to lobby state legislators Wednesday to bring partially elected school boards to Baltimore City, Anne Arundel, Harford and Baltimore counties, where 300,000 children attend public schools.

“We are bringing a fight to Annapolis that has not been heard in the last 10 years,” said Del. Cheryl Glenn, D-Baltimore City, who will sponsor legislation calling for a Baltimore school board split between elected members and those appointed by the mayor and governor.

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Sen. Bobby Zirkin, D-Baltimore County, also plans to sponsor a bill calling for a hybrid elected-appointed school board.

Baltimore City school board members wreaked havoc when they approved a practice of housing multiple high schools in one building and failed to help schools that still lack libraries, Glenn said.

Marietta English, Baltimore Teachers Union president, called the appointed board a “monster” that created a budget deficit several years ago.

Elected schools boards, found in 17 of the state’s 24 school districts, could become indebted to the special interest groups that got them elected, said Anirban Basu, a Baltimore school board member.

Despite the growing number of supporters, advocates for elected school boards still must face the legislature, where Senate President Thomas Mike Miller Jr., D-Calvert and Prince George’s, has railed against them.

“If I go to hell, it’s going to be because I created an elected school board,” Miller said on the radio last year.

“The idea that some distant official decides gets to run our local school system is infuriating,” Cindy Mumby, a Harford mother and officer with the Bel Air High School Parent Teacher Student Association.

In Harford, elected school board proponents have collected 1,000 signatures showing support.

Examiner staff writer Matthew Santoni contributed to this story.

kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com