City Schools’ primary goal is to make sure that every student has high–quality educational experiences that support their learning and their personal growth where our students will thrive and graduate from our high schools with the skills, knowledge, and understanding to succeed in college, careers, our community and wherever their dreams will take them.  

For over a decade, City Schools has used a “portfolio” strategy to review, discuss, plan, and implement recommendations for physical and programmatic developments that best foster student learning and professional growth and have called this process “Portfolio Review.”

Words can be important indicators of what we value. While numeric data is an important component, consideration of the qualitative and lived experience of our school communities is essential to co-create quality schools for every child. Given we value a holistic approach, we have decided not to call this process “Portfolio Review” any longer and are calling it the “Annual School Review.” We have also continued to expand and shift the review process to be more inclusive and centered in the communities we serve. Please read the Annual Review Report linked below to learn more about this.

To see this year’s recommendations, please review the summary table below and select the Annual Review Report link for details on this year’s process, ongoing work of the district that impacts all of our schools, and reports for COMAR recommendations (or recommendations that are for closure, surplus, or relocation). 

On January 23rd, the Board of School Commissioners voted on the 2023-24 Annual Review recommendations. To learn the details about the recommendations, please review the full report linked above or each school’s individual report linked in the table below. Please see letters communicating different parts of the process and other ways for school communities to engage.   

On February 22, 2024, the Board of School Commissioners issued a written report documenting the decision to combine Bluford Drew Jemison STEM Academy West and Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts into one high school in summer 2024 that will remain in the Harlem Park building where both schools are currently located. The report is linked to above on this webpage, and hard copies of the report are available at the affected schools for viewing. Members of the public can appeal this decision in writing to the Maryland State Board of Education within 30 days of the date of the report, February 22, 2024. Appeals can be sent to:

Office of the Attorney General, Maryland State Department of Education
Attn: Jackie La Fiandra/State Board of Appeals,
200 St. Paul Place, 19th Floor
Baltimore, Maryland, 21202. 

 The Annual Review process includes reviews of our traditional schools and their facilities, as well as operator renewal, which is a review of contract schools run by outside entities, such as charter, transformation, or contract operators. For more information, please visit our operator renewal webpage.