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Community protests closure of Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys; operator cites funding holdbacks and appeals to state
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Summary
Parents, community leaders and the school’s CEO told a council committee that the Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys was recommended for nonrenewal after what they described as withheld district funds and pre‑vote notices that depressed enrollment; the district pointed to pending litigation and declined to discuss the funding formula in public.
Edwin Avant, chief executive of the 5 Smooth Stones Foundation and the operator of the Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys, told the City Council Education Committee that his school was voted for closure at the end of the school year and that a sequence of district actions and a change in the funding holdback damaged enrollment and finances.
Avant said he met with district officials in early January about a purported change in the holdback percentage and that he received a recommendation notice on Jan. 18 and a family notice about the recommendation on Jan. 25. He told the committee that families interpreted early notices as a decision and that several left the school before a final vote, reducing enrollment and revenue. "They took the money," Avant said when describing the withheld funds; he argued the reduction in revenue pushed the school’s finances into deficit and contributed to a recommendation of nonrenewal.
Avant also testified that the Maryland State Board of Education issued a declaratory ruling on Jan. 28 in favor of charter operators on the funding formula dispute and that the district’s later actions were therefore untimely for his school. He described improvements in his school’s effectiveness measures since 2022 and cited graduation rates in multiple years (examples he gave ranged from mid‑80s to low‑90s percent) as evidence of the school’s impact.
A string of parents, alumni and community leaders echoed Avant’s account at the hearing and urged the council to intervene. Testimony repeatedly emphasized the school’s reported high graduation rates, its mission as an all‑boys college‑prep program and its citywide enrollment. Leo Burrows of Roots of Scouting and other speakers asked why a school with the cited outcomes had been targeted and urged the council to investigate whether funds were withheld or misallocated.
District representatives, including Angela Alvarez and Allison Perkins Cohen, told the committee that some parts of the funding formula and related calculations are subject to pending lawsuits and that the district could not discuss contested formula details in an open committee hearing. Alvarez reiterated that operators may appeal nonrenewal findings to the state board and described the formal renewal rubric and site‑visit process that inform recommendations.
Council members and city residents asked the district for an outline of the funding formula’s inputs (for example, how counts of special‑education or multilingual learners factor into allocations) in a way that does not violate legal confidentiality; district staff agreed to provide high‑level briefings where permissible. The committee did not act to reverse the nonrenewal during the hearing; speakers said appeals remained pending and community members planned further advocacy.
The committee hearing made clear that two separate processes are now in play: the board’s nonrenewal/closure recommendation and a legal dispute about the charter funding formula. Both are likely to determine the school’s fate before the next school year begins.
