Andrew L. Ross, Ph.D., LCSW-C, president and CEO of The Children’s Guild, educational manager of Monarch Academy Baltimore, a public charter school for Baltimore City Public Schools, issued the following statement regarding Monarch Academy Baltimore’s charter renewal:

We are deeply disappointed that the Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPSS) Board of Commissioners accepted the misguided recommendation of BCPSS’s CEO Dr. Sonja Santelises to close Monarch Academy Baltimore and disrupt the lives of 1,000 students and their families. We remain concerned about BCPSS’s charter renewal process and lack of evidence behind the closure vote and will be appealing to the Maryland State Board of Education.

The nonrenewal recommendation was never about a serious concern with Monarch Academy Baltimore’s PARCC performance or special education compliance, as Dr. Santelises herself has admitted. Rather, it supports BCPSS’s goal of reducing the number of charter schools, at the expense of children who were progressing academically and socio-emotionally. Indeed, closing Monarch, a city-wide school serving students from 49 districts, strips families of their right to educational choice.

We are very grateful to all our parents, teachers, community members, elected officials and, most importantly, our students who continue to fight for educational opportunities and safe and outstanding school facilities for Baltimore’s boys and girls.

We will do everything in our power to see that the lives of our children are not disrupted and that they can continue to attend Monarch Academy Baltimore, where they are happy and are learning and where the needs of the whole child are met every day. So, we ask our supporters to hang in there with us and help us get this ruling overturned.

Monarch Academy Baltimore is a public charter school operated by The Children’s Guild for students in kindergarten through eighth grade in Baltimore. Monarch Academy Baltimore provides students with an enriched, rigorous, hands-on, academic curriculum emphasizing project-based learning and the arts and technology. In addition, Monarch Academy Baltimore follows Transformation Education, an organizational philosophy that infuses a school’s beliefs and values into the look of the school building, instructional approach, teachers’ mindset and behavior and operating systems. (www.monarchacademy.org)