Commentary

The Frederick County Board of Education and the staff of the school system have shown an admirable and necessary willingness to adapt to new conditions as the county grapples with an extreme shortage of classroom space in the schools. The board last week approved a site for a new school in the heavily congested section of the county east of the city of Frederick, even though the plot of land is far less than ideal and will require an innovative construction plan.

The Latino community in Baltimore is a vibrant tapestry of diversity, comprising individuals from a multitude of countries and backgrounds across Latin America. We are Mexican, Salvadoran, Honduran, Guatemalan, Dominican, Puerto Rican, Peruvian, Ecuadorian and Colombian. Our community spans a spectrum of skin colors, a testament to the complex history of colonization and the trafficking of human beings that shaped our ancestral homelands.

This week, I am stepping down from my position as Maryland state superintendent of schools and transitioning to a role as senior advisor to the State Board of Education. It has been my great honor to serve the children and families of this state, and to lead the Department of Education, as we’ve worked to recover from the pandemic and transform public education through the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future.

Nick Mireles died in June, one of three people shot to death amid a neighborhood dispute that forced Annapolis to cope once again with a mass shooting. Unlike the 2018 murders of my five friends at Capital Gazette, the deaths of Mireles, his stepson Mario Mireles, and family friend Christian Segovia barely registered on the national consciousness. It wasn’t an attack on a free press. It was just one more entry in the growing list of more than 500 mass shootings this year.

The man accused of killing Pava LaPere, the young tech entrepreneur and CEO of EcoMap Technologies, got out of prison last year despite the view of the Maryland Parole Commission that he should remain behind the walls. How did that happen? Don’t we have a parole commission to make all the decisions about releasing violent offenders back into society?

Let’s start with the indisputable facts. Frederick County has a tsunami of new housing and new residents coming, and many will bring children with them. The Frederick County school system is not prepared to absorb all of those children. The good news is that local leaders from the county, the school system and the city of Frederick recognize the problem and are working on it. But we have little time to waste.

As we navigate the intricacies of the 21st century, the traditional paradigms of society are being reshaped, reimagined and revolutionized to meet the diverse needs and aspirations of people everywhere. More specifically, in the ever-changing terrain of education, a dynamic shift is on the horizon, fueled by an ever-growing appetite for personalized and more effective learning encounters.