Gregory Thornton, 59, superintendent of the Milwaukee Public Schools, will take over as CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools on July 1, several news agencies are reporting.
Dr Thornton, right, honors US Sen Herb Kohl in Aug 2012 (Photo: Milwaukee Public Schools)
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel said yesterday that he was on the short list to take over for interim Superintendent Tisha Edwards.
The Baltimore City school board advertised the position at a $290,000 annual salary, but the Baltimore Sun quickly noted that other aspects of the job drew Mr Thornton to Baltimore from his similarly sized school district in Wisconsin.
“Folks don’t truly understand the attributes that sit in their own backyard,” he said, referring to the $1.1 billion, 10-year facilities building plan now in progress in Baltimore. “We’re the envy of the country, being able to engage in one of the biggest building campaigns in the country.”
However, he comes to Baltimore City at a time of great stress as well. A report in Sunday’s paper suggested that discipline is out of control and has been for several years in the city’s schools, which exist in long-impoverished communities—or non-communities, really. The Sun writes:
This is a city with entrenched, inter-generational poverty of a severity rarely seen in other large cities. Many children come from broken homes and grow up without adequate support from parents or relatives. They arrive at school without having eaten a good breakfast [and] go home to domestic environments that are often dysfunctional and in turmoil.
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