New CEO Appointed To Lead Baltimore City Public Schools
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- The Baltimore school board is replacing the chief executive officer of the city's schools with an administrator who oversaw academic performance improvements during a previous stint with city schools. An announcement that comes following complaints of leadership and poor quality of education.
Tracey Leong has more.
After only two years on the job, CEO Gregory Thornton is out.
The announcement comes amid criticism of Thornton's management.
"It was time, we are glad the board has really stepped up," said Andrew Foster Connors, B.U.I.L.D., co-chair.
Under Thorton's leadership there's been growing concern about the quality of education in Baltimore: from low test scores, to violence on campus and even video surfacing in March of a school officer caught slapping and kicking a student.
RELATED: BPD Investigating After City Schools Officer Caught Slapping Student
"It's constantly an ongoing problem, an ongoing issue, that's not being resolved so I think they need to change the leadership for here," said Stacey Thompson, a Baltimore parent.
Instead of focusing on the problems, many believe now is the opportunity to get Baltimore and our schools back on track.
Baltimore parent, Sherrell Savage says she hopes the changes will "address some of the structural things that have plagued the district for a long time".
Education advocates are hopeful that the new CEO, Sonja Santelises--who was the former Baltimore City Schools Chief Academic Officer in 2013--will provide the guidance Thorton lacked.
"We need a safe city across the board and the only way to do that is to work together on some of those foundational challenges and education is certainly the linchpin for all of it," said Connors.
Marietta English, the Baltimore teacher's union president says Thornton made great progress to fix the district, but it wasn't enough.
"There were so many other issues that happened that he probably walked into and he wasn't able to fix," she said.
Baltimore Public Schools Chief Legal Counsel Tammy Turner will act as interim CEO during the transition.
