Baltimore schools CEO, Andres Alonso, isn’t the only one saying good-bye to the city’s 85,000 students. Three out of the nine commissioners on the Baltimore City School Board are due to leave their posts by the end of the month due to term limits. Governor Martin O’Malley and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake are expected to announce their appointees to the Baltimore City School Board just as the Board is about to embark on the search for the city schools new CEO.
Neil Duke is President of the School Board - until his replacement is named. "It certainly wasn’t part of the plan," he said. Duke came on in early 2007 and was part of the team that hired Alonso. "When I stepped on board initially there was kind of a flux in the district and we were in the process as we are now seeking new leadership." He says there was a lot of “handwringing” before they figured out what leadership direction the school system would go.