BCSB CEO Says City Set School Up to Fail After Closure Vote

Edwin Avent, CEO of Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys, said the school was “set up to fail” after the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners voted 6-4 on Jan. 14, 2026 to not renew the charter and close the city’s only public all-boys school at the end of the 2025-26 year. The board cited ongoing financial struggles, poor academic performance and special education shortfalls as reasons for ending the charter, a move that immediately raises questions about where hundreds of boys will enroll next fall.

District leaders recommended non-renewal on Nov. 12, 2025, and that recommendation was made public before the board vote. Avent said making such a recommendation public before a board decision amounts to a financial death sentence for a small charter school. “I was devastated when the vote came down against us,” he said, and warned of a pattern: “It seems like every time that there's an all-male school in this city, they close them.”

Board chair Robert Salley framed the decision in data-driven terms. “What I see here, what I see in data does not demonstrate that Collegiate has made the necessary progress to continue to move along academically,” he said, as commissioners pointed to declining achievement and financial management concerns. CBS reported the board also cited a lack of resources for the school’s special education program and described the financial problems as insurmountable.

Baltimore Collegiate opened in 2015 and serves fourth through eighth grades. Enrollment figures differ across reports: Fox said 303 boys, mostly Black and from disadvantaged backgrounds, attended this year; the Baltimore Sun described the school as serving about 300 students; CBS cited 362 students. The school says nearly 90 percent of boys who leave BCSB graduate high school and about 50 percent go on to two- or four-year college programs.

A Project Baltimore investigation found the way City Schools handled Avent’s charter review process in 2023 may have set his school up to fail, a finding cited in local reporting. That review in 2023 ended with a board deadlock that kept the school open then, but Avent and supporters argue procedural irregularities and public messaging eroded the school’s financial footing and community confidence.

The decision has drawn swift political response. City Councilwoman Odette Ramos urged the district to move deliberately to create another school focused on educating young boys, saying, “This will take a specific initiative of experts, resources, support, and dedicated time and energy, not just from a school operator who may be successful, but deliberately from the Baltimore City Public School System.” Former student Tori Holmes, now at Loyola, described the school’s impact: “I don't think I would be as successful and as upfront about the things I want without this school... Without this school, I wouldn't be as willing to try new things, even if I fail at them, at least I know I tried.”

Avent said he is considering an appeal to the State Board of Education. Meanwhile, Baltimore City Public Schools has not immediately outlined how it will absorb BCSB students for 2026-27. For families, the closure decision means disruption to school placements, special education services and supports that staff and advocates say must be carefully mapped out in the weeks ahead. What comes next will hinge on any appeal, the district’s placement plan, and whether city leaders will pursue a district-led initiative to recreate an all-boys option.