By Tashi McQueen
AFRO Staff Writer
tmcqueen@afro.com
Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys (Baltimore Collegiate), a charter school founded in 2015 to educate young boys throughout the city, is facing a vote by the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners (School Board) to close the school in 2026.
The School Board, which governs Baltimore City Public Schools, is scheduled to vote on Jan. 14, 2026, on whether to renew Baltimore Collegiate’s charter. They faced a similar decision in 2023, but the institution was given an extension to prove they could achieve necessary results.
According to the School Board’s 2025–2026 annual school review, released Nov. 12, Baltimore Collegiate is set to be denied a charter renewal, leaving the school facing closure in the summer of 2026.
“We started the school with the premise that we wanted to interrupt the school-to-prison pipeline,” said Edwin Avent, CEO of the Five Smooth Stones Foundation, which operates Baltimore Collegiate. “We started our school with the intention of capturing as many of those boys as we could…to be able to turn those statistics around.”
Avent said the school has graduated four classes of boys who have now finished high school and gone on to college. He emphasized that while Baltimore’s Black boys from economically disadvantaged communities graduate high school at roughly 60 percent, Baltimore Collegiate alumni graduate at nearly 90 percent. Over the past three years, the school has shown consistent academic growth in both English Language Arts and Math.
Baltimore Collegiate serves boys in grades 4 through 8, preparing them for success in college and life. Avent said the school focuses on social-emotional learning and discipline instruction not typically found in traditional schools, aiming to uplift the whole child, not just their grades.
Operator contracts for charter schools can be renewed for three, five, or eight years, or non-renewed through the School Board’s annual review, which aims to help schools provide high-quality education. Recommendations may include changing grades, merging or relocating schools, updating facilities, opening new schools, or renewing or ending contracts.
Charter schools must meet specific educational goals to operate independently of district rules, providing flexibility in curriculum, operations, and staffing. The board’s decision on Baltimore Collegiate followed a review citing grant-management errors, data-entry issues, and administrative and disciplinary lapses.
“My pushback on that has always been that you can’t compare an all-boys school to co-ed schools,” Avent said. “You have to disaggregate the data. When we disaggregate the data, particularly around the MCAP (Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program), we see that we are comparable to 19 schools in the math scores, and at least 10 schools on the English Language Arts MCAP.”
Consultants observed the school, collecting surveys and focus group feedback using the Five Essential Survey, in which the school showed improvement since its last renewal.
Still, in a letter to the operator, Dr. Sonja Brookins Santelises, CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools, recommended that the School Board not renew the contract.
“Baltimore Collegiate has had multiple partial renewals with conditions,” wrote Santelises in the letter. “This year’s cycle of renewal review of the school’s operator resulted in ratings of ‘Not Effective’ in Academics, ‘Developing’ in School Climate and ‘Not Effective’ in Financial Management and Governance.”
Baltimore Collegiate received two out of five stars for the 2024-2025 school year, consistent with previous years.
Despite this, parents and grandparents insist the school meets their children’s needs.
“I think it would be a travesty to close this school,” said Chauncey Adams, grandfather of two students. “My grandsons are doing well here. They like it here a lot.”
Adams particularly enjoys that there are older adults at the school, particularly men, who are well respected by the children and provide crucial male authority figures for the youth.
Rashena Eaddy, a mom of a student at Baltimore Collegiate, echoed that sentiment.
“I intentionally selected this school for my son,” said Eaddy, 35. “I don’t know how to raise boys to make them men, and I wanted somewhere that was going to give them that guidance. I love that I could see the leadership and the development in my son each day.”
Avent invites community, students, parents and more to support their endeavor to keep their school open by donating, signing a petition and sending written letters, emails to the School Board.
Public hearings are one way people can express their support for the school’s renewal. The first will be held on Dec. 11 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the District Office at 200 E. North Avenue in Baltimore, Md. The second will take place at the same location on Jan. 8 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.