UVa Picks Baltimore City Schools CEO to Feature in “Exploring New Frontiers for K-12 Systems Transformation.” Seriously.

Sonja Santelises, CEO, Baltimore City Schools Courtesy UVa

by James C. Sherlock

I try to keep up in the field of education.

That led me to read “Exploring New Frontiers for K-12 Systems Transformation” produced by the UVa Partnership for Leaders in Education (UVA-PLE), a long-existing joint project of the Darden School of Business and the School of Education and Human Development.

I read it hoping to see if perhaps Darden could rub some of the rougher edges off of the uber-progressive ed school and offer some good ideas.

Bad guess.

What I found instead would have passed for a satire on educational journals. Not the Bee could have published it. Only much shorter.

There she was, Sonja Santelises, on page 18 smiling out at me on an entire page titled Expanding High Quality Learning: Baltimore City Schools.

She has headed up that school district since 2016.

Those are the same Baltimore City Schools which:

There is lots more, but you get the drift.

Mr. Jefferson’s University, perhaps dazzled by Ms. Santelises race, did not.

Bottom line.  Baltimore City Schools is a contender for the worst school district in the entire United States.

Yet Ms. Santelises, who the city of Baltimore pays more that $445,000 for her leadership, was given an entire page to express her views on “Exploring New Frontiers for K-12 Systems Transformation.

UVA-PLE has embarrassed itself.  Those otherwise very bright people need to get a clue, or better researchers, or both.

On second thought, Not the Bee might have rejected that story.

Too absurd.

This column has been republished with permission from Bacon’s Rebellion.

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BillP
BillP
10 months ago

Remember when “You couldn’t be able to make this stuff up” was considered a cliche? The effort to make UVA a national joke marches on….

taruva76
taruva76
10 months ago

Bachelors from Brown, Masters from Columbia, Doctorate from Harvard, what could possibly go wrong?

James C Thompson
10 months ago

Anything to keep the temple on the hill from being torched

Wahoo74
Wahoo74
10 months ago

The Ryan Administration has paid for some ludicrous woke initiatives during his 5 years in office, but this may take the cake. I live in Baltimore and can attest that we have what is pretty undeniably the worst public school system in the US.

How on earth could the UVA Education School and Darden choose Baltimore as the paragon of K-12 “transformational” education? This is absolutely ludicrous, and yet another example of misspent expenditures under President Ryan.

lorna gladstone
lorna gladstone
10 months ago
Reply to  Wahoo74

You are so right about that!!!!!

lorna gladstone
lorna gladstone
10 months ago

And it odd that they would choose someone from a failing educational system.

James B Newman
James B Newman
10 months ago

The insanity continues. Recently the Charlottesville Board of Education reported that there was an altercation in the Charlottesville High School. This was only after most of the teachers elected not to come to school on the 20th. Initially, it was reported that the teachers were sick. Later that day a video of the “altercation” was posted on Facebook (See Charlottesville High School Fight) and it was obviously not an “altercation” but a full-blown riot involving over 60 students. (This was the 3rd incident of this type in 6 months.) It seems the principal did not retire for reasons of personal issues but because the high school is unsafe and the students are out of control. This was affirmed on Monday at a special meeting of interested parties when the “teacher panel” admitted that the teachers “walked” because the high school is unsafe. Now even the adults fear for their lives.

Now the University imports another educator, Sonja Santelises,
who offers herself as a solution when in fact she has a long history of failure. Sadly her ineptness resulted in persons of color being set back even further.

You can not make this stuff up. It is tragic and it is a FRAUD.
The only question is how BAD does it have to get before the BOV is energized to putting a stop to this madness.

Euclid Noble
Euclid Noble
10 months ago

Just more from the progressive bizarro world.

The Bootstrap Kid
The Bootstrap Kid
10 months ago

I live just outside of Baltimore City. A very high percentage of the children in the Baltimore public school system are reading at levels far below their present grade levels. The administrators are indifferent to the plight of these children.

Patrick Ryan
Patrick Ryan
10 months ago

DEI has totally defeated the Peter Principle.

Anne Carson Foard
Anne Carson Foard
10 months ago

That is totally bizarre. Trying to be nice here, maybe they are trying to get a foot in that door and fix the problem, without calling Baltimore schools out as the complete failure they are. Why they wouldn’t just go ahead and do that is beyond me.