Esposito, Kenyatta-Bey lead Baltimore City school board primary race
Early vote totals put Ashley Esposito and Kwame Kenyatta-Bey ahead in Baltimore’s school board primary as families weigh accountability, buses and school conditions.
Ashley Esposito and Kwame Kenyatta-Bey opened a lead in Baltimore’s school board primary, putting two familiar names in position to keep representing parents and students on a board that helps steer daily life in city schools. The race matters well beyond City Hall politics: Baltimore City Public Schools enrolled 75,811 students in 151 schools in the 2023-24 school year and is operating under a $1.9 billion budget approved for fiscal 2026.
Two of the district’s nine board seats were on the ballot in the June 23 primary, and the top four vote-getters will move on to the general election Nov. 3. The field included seven candidates for the two at-large seats: Esposito, Kenyatta-Bey, April Curley, Salimah Jasani, Jamar Day, Domonique Flowers, Brian Robertson and Glenn Schatz. Regular board terms run three years.
Esposito and Kenyatta-Bey were first elected in November 2022 and took office Dec. 1, 2022, becoming the first elected members in the history of the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners. Their election followed Baltimore’s shift from a fully appointed board to a mixed model that added elected seats, giving city voters a direct role in a system that had long been controlled through appointments.
The campaign centered on questions families feel in concrete ways: transparency, accountability, school facilities, attendance, transportation, chronic absenteeism, racial inequities and academic performance. Those issues will shape what the next board does with staffing, building repairs, bus service and budget choices heading into the next school year. For parents, the practical question is whether the board keeps its current course or gets a stronger push to move faster on the problems that show up at kitchen tables, bus stops and school doors every morning.
Esposito’s campaign has said she has the endorsement of the Baltimore Teachers Union and describes her as a parent and organizer. The early results give her and Kenyatta-Bey a clear advantage as the city heads toward a November runoff for the two seats that will help set policy for one of Baltimore’s largest public institutions.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Did this article answer your question?
