Students around the Baltimore region return to the classroom as districts face various challenges
BALTIMORE -- Approximately 328,000 students in Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Anne Arundel County and Howard County returned to school Monday.
"I woke up this morning and cried like a little baby," said Brandon Nance, a senior in Baltimore County. "It is my last first day of high school, but I am getting excited."
After three years of some form of COVID-19 protocol, Baltimore County's approximately 110,000 students returned to school with expectations and excitement.
"Freshman year we got cut off way too early, sophomore year, virtually, and then junior year we had masks," said Jalen Tran, a Baltimore County senior. "Normally it's not really in the cards for us, but at the same time, we're learning to embrace our changes."
As the area's largest school district, Baltimore County leaders said they are still working to fill under 200 teacher vacancies and bus driver vacancies.
"We deploy central office staff members to fill in gaps, we looked at long term subs who've been a part of our system. We looked at our paraeducators who may have had a degree," said Superintendent Dr. Darryl L. Williams.
Baltimore City also opened its doors Monday for its 77,000 students. At last check, the district was short approximately 200 teachers. Dr. Sonja Santelises, the CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools, said the district is hoping retired teachers will come back as substitutes until the district can fill the slots.
Santelises said this is her favorite time of year, but the district faced the challenge of a handful of schools having to close early because they had no air conditioning.
"We had an additional six or seven that were broken. One, for example, Gardenville broke this morning - it's already repaired," she said. "So we are on target with communication with the families early and our teams have been working around the clock on the six to seven that need to be repaired now."
In Anne Arundel County, the district has approximately 85,000 students, and some got to sleep in a bit later because the high school start time got pushed back to 8:30 a.m. Leaders pointed to research that says there could be positive health benefits.
"Being able to have our high schoolers start at 8:30 gives them that additional hour of rest. We also know that we have a lot of secondary students who have to work, and having to work means that they don't get home until 11 or 12 o'clock in some cases," said Anne Arundel County Superintendent Dr. Mark T. Bedell.
But Anne Arundel County, like all of its neighbors is struggling with staffing shortages. Officials said about 50 bus routes had to be canceled on the first day, and Anne Arundel County is about 300 teachers short.
In Howard County, about 56,000 students returned to the classroom Monday. The district said it's short about 85 bus drivers and they still need about 65 staff members.
"I want to assure our parents that we will have a teacher in every child's classroom on the first day - - but I am very pleased with where we are," said Howard County Superintendent Dr. Michael Martirano.