Baltimore schools spend $11 million to renovate building slated for demolition

Baltimore City Public Schools is spending about $11.17 million to turn the University of Baltimore’s Academic Center into a short-term campus for Baltimore City College, a building that the university’s own master plan says should eventually be demolished. The move has become a flashpoint over how the district handles scarce facilities dollars, especially with the renovated space set to be used only from August 2025 through August 2028.

The district approved the transition plan in May 2024 with an estimated price tag of about $9.8 million. Since then, the expected total has climbed by roughly $1.37 million. City Schools said $7.14 million of that total is hard construction cost, with the rest covering items that make the building function like a high school campus, including transportation for athletics, fingerprinting, move costs, portable restrooms at athletic fields, touch screens and hall monitors.

The lease itself is strikingly cheap on paper: $1 a year. But the savings on rent are being offset by the cost of outfitting the site with 30 classrooms, labs and a cafeteria so City College students can relocate while their century-old campus undergoes major renovations.

The University of Baltimore’s master plan does not treat the Academic Center as a permanent asset. It recommends replacing the building, with design work targeted to begin in 2028 and demolition and new construction stretching into the early 2030s. That timetable means City Schools is investing heavily in a building with a limited shelf life, a fact that has fueled criticism from Baltimore officials and school-watchers.

City Council Member James Torrence questioned whether the district could have extended the lease and used the swing space for other schools. School-board candidate Brian Robertson called the spending a waste of taxpayer funds and said the money could instead go to schools still lacking basics such as air conditioning and drinking water.

City Schools said it also looked at the former Thurgood Marshall Middle School as a swing-space option, but rejected it because the upgrades would have cost about $11.5 million and because the property was on track to be surplused to the city.

The debate lands in the middle of Baltimore’s long school-facilities overhaul. The 21st Century School Buildings Program began in 2010, grew out of a 2012 report that pegged deferred-maintenance needs at $2.4 billion and was formalized by legislation in 2013. City Schools says more than $1.3 billion has been invested, 33 school buildings have been rebuilt or renovated, and two more are under construction and scheduled to reopen in 2026. In 2022, city leaders also announced a separate $400 million renovation plan for five high schools, underscoring how much of Baltimore’s education budget remains tied to bricks, mortar and the cost of keeping schools open while the work gets done.