Baltimore residents demand power to elect school board

“Parental involvement is always talked about so give them an elected school board so they feel they have a stake in the process,” resident Ernest Coverson told the House Ways and Means Committee.

The city school board would be a hybrid comprising elected members and members appointed by the mayor and governor, under a bill introduced by Del. Cheryl Glenn, D-Baltimore City.

A busload of supporters plans to testify today before the Baltimore City delegation.

“We have a vote of no confidence for our school board,” Glenn said.

“We had $58 million unaccounted for. Parents were livid about students learning from Cosmopolitan magazine. We had lead in our water fountains, and the school board never shut down those fountains. It took a brand new CEO from New York to do that.”

Del. Melvin Stukes, D-Baltimore City, who serves on the committee and is a co-sponsor of the bill, blasted some of current board members as being rude to residents and unwilling to listen to their concerns.

Robert Heck, a Baltimore city school board member, testified against the bill, saying it was the current board that can be credited with hiring CEO Andres Alonso.

“I haven’t heard how an elected school board fixes the historic ills of this system, when in fact this particular board is engaged in a complete and total review of school reform,” Heck said.

“An elected school board is no panacea in response to decades-old concerns about a non-responsive system.”

Heck added: “Change is in the air, and it’s already happening.”

Religious leaders, City Council members and the teachers union back an elected school board in Baltimore.

Baltimore City is one of seven school districts in Maryland with an appointed school board. Other major school districts nationwide have appointed school boards, including Chicago and Boston.

Maryland lawmakers are also considering a bill creating an elected school board in Harford County.

kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com