BALTIMORE — School is less than one week away for students in our area and Tuesday, the CEO of Baltimore City Schools talked about what people can expect going into the new semester.
Dr. Sonja Santelises talked about new security measures in place, and new protocols as it relates to transferable illnesses, and new instructors.
“We have a real heavy focus on building communities within schools. Across the country we’ve seen that our young people were impacted by being in a virtual setting for a couple of years and you can’t wave a wand and have that go away,” Santelises said.
Making sure students and teachers are safe, schools are fully staffed, and everyone is ready for the first day of school has been the main focus for city school leaders this week.
This is the fourth semester where students will be returning to in-person learning following the pandemic. The CDC’s guidelines for COVID have changed since kids were last in school and there’s even a new monkeypox virus to now take into consideration.
“We’re continuing a very close working relationship with the health department to keep abreast with any movement around kind of new developments like monkeypox and how we respond,” Santelises said.
Baltimore City Schools crowned themselves the leader in their advanced method when it came to developing safety measures related to COVID, and although aggressive measures will change, Santelises says their response and ability to quickly adapt will not.
“Even in the easing of some of those protocols we’re still keeping the infrastructure in place. We will still have a mask available even if they are not required which they are not and that’s just the way of continuing to hear from our families,” Santelises said.
Another issue concerning parents with sending their children back to school is the potential threat of a school shooting and overall security measures on campus.
“So, we’re working with our operations team. For example, reinforce outside entryways, doors and locks, that was one of the things that our principals said to us that is a major kind of vulnerability point particularly at the high school level," said Santelises.
This week, Santelises said she’s been visiting the schools with new principals to reinforce support and plans to address all teachers virtually on Wednesday.
City schools now have around 225 teacher positions that are still open, however, Santelises wants parents to know Baltimore City Schools is a place where they’re working hard to make sure all of your child’s needs are met.
“That’s the focus of city schools, it’s not just to give kind of a baseline education, it is to develop the gifts and talents of our young people,” Santelises said.
