Baltimore schools filling teacher spots, staying flexible before 77K students return to class
BALTIMORE -- Educators at all levels of Baltimore City Schools are preparing as tens of thousands of students head back to class Monday.
Before the first bell rings, educators at Carver Vocational-Technical High School in West Baltimore have free reign to roam the halls and prep their classrooms.
Shanea Williams-Melvin has seen 18 years of the first day of school.
"It's kind of like a new beginning, and even for our school, we have a new thing we're using for this year now that hibernation is over," she said. "Like we've gone through all these things, and now it's time to kind of get back to some sort of normalcy. "
And that's the excitement Baltimore City Schools CEO Dr. Sonja Santelises says she's feeling too.
"There's just something about like sharpened pencils, bright new book bags, and you know, the fact that nobody's written on the whiteboard yet," Dr. Santileses said. "That kind of thing that just signals a new start."
But before school starts - Baltimore is rushing to fill teacher spots. The CEO said that the number stood at 225 vacancies last week.
Retired teachers are coming back as subs.
The issue of teacher shortages became even more challenging when Baltimore received funding to hire hundreds of extra staff.
"Principals could add more art teachers, reading specialists, but what that also means is the challenge of filling those positions is particularly you know, acute right now, given what we know is going on nationally," Santileses said.
Dr. Santileses also talked about plans to combat COVID-19 after the CDC recently lifted some restrictions.
"Well, one of the things I think that we've seen is that it's a combination of mitigation efforts," she said. "And so we know that paying close attention to what the trends are, means that we might have to be flexible, and we might need to adjust."
Just as students were getting ready to leave for summer break, there was a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Dr. Santelises said securing schools is a top priority.
"We're working with our operations team to, for example, reinforce outside entryways, right doors and locks," she said. "That was one of the things that our principals said to us is a major kind of vulnerability point, particularly at the high school level."
The first day back to school for baltimore's approximately 77,000 students is Monday.