Baltimore County Board of Education

Baltimore County teachers told the school board Tuesday night that they need help dealing with their students who are in crisis because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

During a public hearing on the proposed budget for the coming year, the teachers pleaded with the school board to ask the county for more money to pay for mental health professionals and social workers.

The economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are driving Baltimore County School Superintendent Darryl Williams’ proposed $1.77 billion budget that goes before a public hearing Tuesday.

For example, Williams said, more of the county’s students qualify for free and reduced-price meals because of the pandemic.

Baltimore County school officials stunned the school board when they recently released a list of proposed capital projects that does not include replacements for Dulaney and Towson High Schools.

Baltimore County Public Schools officials want to bring students back to classrooms in the second semester. But with just one month to go, it remains unclear if the county’s COVID-19 positivity rate will throw that plan off course.

A divided Baltimore County School board split the difference Tuesday night when picking its leadership for the coming year.

Baltimore County students and teachers will be able to return to their virtual learning classrooms on Wednesday.

Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olzewski said Monday he has as many questions as the public when it comes to the cyberattack last week on the Baltimore County Schools.

Baltimore County School Board meetings often are hours long and run late into the night or even into the wee hours of the morning. Major issues come up late when fewer people are still watching.

At the beginning of a recent meeting, the board tried to address that.

The Baltimore County Schools now have a plan on how students from preschool to second grade will be brought back to the classroom.

But with COVID-19 rates worsening, it’s anyone’s guess when that will happen.

The COVID-19 positivity rate is rising in Baltimore County. For that reason, the school system announced Wednesday it will not open four schools for severely disabled students November 16 as planned. They were going to be the first county schools to reopen since school buildings were closed statewide in March.

This will have a ripple effect across the entire county school system.

Teachers at four Baltimore County schools for disabled children were supposed to report to their classrooms Monday morning.

Their return is being delayed one week while the teachers’ union and the school system negotiate how those teachers can return safely.

Nearly 85% of Baltimore County educators surveyed by the teachers union this week said they are anxious or very anxious about returning to classrooms before January.

The Baltimore County teachers’ union will survey its members this week to learn what they think about returning to classrooms. This comes as the union calls on school superintendent Darryl Williams to rescind his decision to have teachers report to school buildings October 19.

All of Baltimore County’s teachers and some of its students will soon be heading back to school buildings.

That announcement Thursday caught the teachers’ union, school board members and the county executive by surprise.

The Baltimore County Public Schools’ IT help desk was overwhelmed during the days leading up to the start of school, as well as during the first several days of virtual classes.

School administrators told the county school board Tuesday night that from August 30 until September 11, there were more than 8,000 requests for technical support.

Special education students make up 12 percent of the enrollment in Maryland public schools.

With the school year just getting under way with virtual learning, advocates and parents say many of those students are already at risk of failure.

There will be no school buses on the road Tuesday, even though it’s the first day of classes for a number of school systems in Maryland, including Baltimore City, and Baltimore and Howard Counties. Every school district in the state is starting the year with virtual learning.

Weeks after Maryland’s school systems submitted to the state plans for virtual learning this fall, the state school board is looking at a proposal for a minimum level of live, online instruction time for students.

The proposal comes as school is already under way in some parts of the state and about to begin in others.

Public school students in central Maryland are starting the school year with a virtual learning model.

Thursday, three school superintendents laid out what needs to happen before those students can return to the classroom in a virtual discussion that got off to a rocky start with some technical difficulties.

Baltimore County students will be doing distance learning through at least the first semester. Tuesday night the Baltimore County School Board got into the nitty gritty of what that’s going to look like. Everything from attendance, to class schedules, to conduct, to sports got an airing out.

WYPR’s John Lee listened in on the meeting and joined Morning Edition host Nathan Sterner to talk about it.

The unions that represent teachers, administrators and other school employees in Baltimore County are calling for students to begin the school year at home, doing online learning. 

The unions said Monday at a news conference that school buildings are unsafe. 

Baltimore County Schools Superintendent Darryl Williams will look into whether hate symbols like the Confederate flag should be banned in the county schools.

The Baltimore County Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday to order the inquiry and directed Williams to report back by January.

Baltimore County teachers have a lot of questions about what the reopening of schools in September might look like.

TABCO, the Teachers Association of Baltimore County, plans to meet Thursday to draw up a list of concerns for school administrators.

  A Maryland legislator is calling for a ban on confederate flags and other hate symbols in the Baltimore County Public Schools.

She was asked to submit the request for a ban by a Black Lives Matter group in a part of the county that is overwhelmingly white.

Baltimore County teachers have ratified a contract that contains a 1% pay raise, which is far less than what teachers originally expected to get.

Update to the story: 

By a 78% majority, The Baltimore County Teachers Union voted to ratify the contract which takes effect July 1.

Original post: 

Baltimore County teachers this week are voting on a new contract.

Under the proposed deal, teachers would get a raise, but not as much as they had expected.

The COVID-19 pandemic is making clear the divide between the rich and the poor students in Baltimore County schools, according to members of the school board.

Closing that divide may be made more difficult because the board itself is divided and distracted.

Baltimore County law allows developers to build homes and apartments near crowded schools. 

School advocates and some officials want to reshuffle the deck they say is stacked in favor of developers.