Baltimore City schools are feeling the early benefits of first steps taken to implement the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, the multi-billion-dollar education reform legislation, as the state enters its third year of implementation.
But in a virtual town hall Thursday night, district leaders said there’s still a long way — and much more funding — to go. Sandi Jacobs, the city’s Blueprint Coordinator, said some changes will require more funding than the state is currently allocating.
“While we’re really excited about all these new resources and the opportunities that they’re bringing, for City Schools it is really just beginning to close the long history of underfunding that we’ve had here,” she said.
The city is especially feeling this budget constraint in efforts to expand pre-K access, and support students with disabilities, Jacobs said. And the budget feels tighter for smaller schools.
“The formula wasn't really designed with thinking about smaller schools,” she said. “When you think about large schools that have lots of kids that are getting funding from all of those streams, that's very different than a small school, even if it has some of those building blocks, just the multiplier effect isn't there.”
But district officials also said that city schools are ahead of the Blueprint’s plans in some ways.
“In some ways, the Blueprint is catching up to city schools,” Jacobs said. “Because we knew, with a focus on equity, that these were the right things to be doing for our students, even before the Blueprint came along.”
By next year, all schools will be designated as community schools — meaning they provide wraparound services for students and their families by connecting them with local resources.
“As everyone else is working on the various pillars that are a part of the Blueprint, community schools kind of weave a thread through all of those things,” said Sheila Drummond, manager of community schools.
The district also had a Fair Student Funding model, which allocated budget money based on school need. This echoes the Blueprint’s mission, Jacobs said, which requires that “funds follow students to their schools, and based on their needs,” she said. This means some schools get more Blueprint funding than others.
“Each funding stream is based on enrollment, but it's based on the characteristics of those students,” Jacobs said. “There's foundation funding that goes to every school for every student. Then multilingual learners get an additional allocation on top of that. Students living in poverty get an additional allocation. Students with disabilities get an additional allocation. So the total funding per student is completely connected to student needs.”
And the district has offered full-day pre-K to four-year-olds coming from low-income families for years, said Crystal Francis, the executive director of early learning programs. This past year, scores on the state’s Kindergarten Readiness Assessment increased by 16 percent.
“So what that says to us is that the money that we are putting into pre-K, the investment that we are putting in, is really having some really wonderful effects,” Francis said. “And we're seeing it with our students once they get into kindergarten, and are hoping to set a really strong foundation for once they move up through the rest of their school years.”
Baltimore City also has 14 Judy Centers, which offer early education at Title I schools — marking the highest number of any local district in the state.
But the district is still working on creating a “mixed delivery” system, blending private and public pre-K programs to offer seats to as many local families as possible.
Leaders said they are also still negotiating a new career ladder for teachers, and developing a support network for students who do not meet state career and college readiness standards.
Executive Director of Academics Rachel Pfeifer said the district is building support teams complete with school counselors, post-secondary advisors, career coaches and more.
“There's really this meaningful network of support that we're looking to build for our middle and high school students, to help students get the help they need to pursue whatever options after high school they are interested in,” she said.
All Maryland school districts have to submit implementation plans for the next three years to the state Accountability and Implementation Board by May 1.
