September 30, 2021 For Immediate Release

Baltimore City Public Schools announced it has been chosen as participants in The Wallace Foundation’s Equity-Centered Pipeline Initiative. As participants, the district team will receive grants totaling $8.2 million over the five-year period. The initiative puts City Schools in a learning community with seven other large districts to strengthen and sustain principal pipelines. 

“We are excited to be part of this initiative that will help us build on our existing work to develop our internal pipelines into and through a career in the Principal role,” stated City Schools CEO Dr. Sonja Brookins Santelises. “Our shared goal is to continue developing principals who can advance our vision of equity. With the Wallace Foundation's support, we're looking forward to building on past successes, learning from peers, and deepening the focus of our principals and principal supports on racial equity.”

This five-year endeavor that supports eight large, high-needs districts to build evidence-based principal pipelines with the goal of developing principals who can advance each district’s own vision of equity. City Schools was chosen based on strong support for this effort from local stakeholders, university partners and the relevant state education agency.

The district’s current principal pipeline work includes a Principal Residency program to train our own new principals, new principal coaching and mentoring supports, and new leadership projects extending the reach of our strongest veteran principals through our Transformational and Distinguished Principal pathways. The grants will enable the district to build upon/strengthen its equity-centered principal pipeline efforts to recruit, retain, develop and support principals which will in turn redound to the benefit of our students.