Baltimore City schools says in-person classes for middle and high school will resume mid-April
Baltimore City school officials will reopen all city schools at every grade level by April 19, continuing the gradual expansion of in-person instruction that began last year.
Middle school and pre-kindergarten students can return on April 12 and 10th and 11th graders can return as early as April 19, school officials announced Tuesday night.
The school system began inviting students back into schools as early as last September, although the schools weren’t staffed by teachers but proctors who oversaw the students while they learned on their laptops.
On March 1, about 5,400 students in kindergarten through second grade, or nearly a third of the students who are enrolled in those grades, returned to classrooms throughout the school system, according to CEO Sonja Santelises.
School officials announced previously that students in third through fifth grades and ninth grade will begin on Monday, March 15. Seniors will begin on Monday, April 12. In the next wave of reopening, about 11,000 students, or 26% of the enrollment in those grades will be in school, according to Santelises.
The city school system is providing weekly testing of all staff and students, even those without any symptoms of COVID-19, and all of the elementary and middle school ventilation systems have been upgraded. The high school buildings will be completed before the buildings reopen, Santelises said.
