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CEO of City Schools withdraws controversial plan

Posted at 3:32 AM, Sep 23, 2015
and last updated 2015-09-23 03:32:07-04

In a surprise announcement at last night's school board meeting, the head of the Baltimore City school system scrapped a proposed funding plan for charter schools.

The proposal would have cut funding for charter schools in Baltimore City, in some cases by hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Some charter operators said that would have forced them to shut their schools next year.

But now the schools CEO Gregory Thornton says Baltimore City's mayor has called in former mayor Kurt Schmoke to help negotiate a new agreement between the school board and the charter schools

“I am committing to you, the board is committing to you on-going conversations tonight. The proposal is off the table. We think it's a good faith effort to come back, let's start over, to hit the reset button,” Thornton said.

There had been a public forum scheduled for this Saturday, for charter school operators and parents to officially bring their concerns to the school system.  With the scrapping of the funding plan, that forum has been canceled.

Instead the charter school operators have planned their own rally for Saturday morning at Lake Montebello.