Around Maryland

Sonja Santelises, the CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools, and the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners agreed on a third contract Wednesday after weeks of stalled negotiations. Santelises, 56, will continue to serve under a one-year contract with a $349,989 annual salary. The announcement comes a little more than two weeks before her contract expires June 30 and after months of public concern over the board’s delayed decision.

A yearlong investigation recently published by The Baltimore Banner and The New York Times revealed an unprecedented overdose crisis gripping Baltimore. Nearly 6,000 people have died from overdoses in the last six years, the worst drug crisis ever seen in a major American city. Baltimore’s death rate from 2018 to 2022 was nearly double that of any large city.

Facing another funding shortfall, the Washington County Board of Education voted 5-2 Tuesday morning to cut nearly $3.7 million from a funding pool for potential raises as a way to balance its $348 million budget. School system officials said that leaves the school board with enough money to provide at least a 3% pay raise for employees, though negotiations are continuing with the three employee groups.

Less than three months after a massive container ship struck the Key Bridge, sending it collapsing into the Patapsco River and killing six workers, officials shook hands with port workers and celebrated the reopening of the river’s shipping channel on Wednesday — marking the end of a crucial phase of the response to the catastrophe.

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The Baltimore County school board voted unanimously to reshuffle the district’s language curriculum Tuesday night, cutting 25 classes from the course catalog that administrators say were mostly elective, mislabeled or redundant. Courses in Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese, German and Hebrew, as well as English as a second language, were cut.

The Frederick County Board of Education on Wednesday night narrowly voted to reallocate $1.5 million that would’ve gone to a trust fund dedicated to post-employment benefits and use it to restore the Remote Virtual Program for middle schoolers and cut back newly increased athletic fees from $205 to $185. The board eliminated the Remote Virtual Program (RVP) for grades 3 to 8 during its meeting on May 15 to help balance Frederick County Public Schools’ fiscal year 2025 operating budget.

In the days before Anne Arundel County is required to pass its fiscal 2025 budget, the County Council voted to reallocate more than $3 million in education funding in light of the delayed opening of New Village Academy. The charter high school, originally planned to open this fall in the former Nordstrom space at the Westfield Annapolis Mall, will delay its opening to fall 2025 after being unable to finalize a lease.

Posters of the Eiffel Tower, pictures of the Great Wall of China and French and Chinese flags will be the likely reminders for students to check their English at the door and immerse themselves in another language and culture. That’s at least the goal of Bilingual Global Citizens Public Charter School, which will soon become Baltimore County’s first language immersion school and its second charter school.