Baltimore City Public Schools provided an updated timeline for the ongoing national search for a CEO, including the development of a plan to collect stakeholder input through the summer and early fall.
The stakeholder input is meant to aid the development of the candidate profile and job description, which is set to be released around September and October, according to the updated timeline posted on the school district’s website Monday.
The school board will collect “data and insights” from parents, students, staff and community members with the “potential” for public input, according to the district‘s website. Alma Advisory Group, the consulting firm contracted for the search — at a price tag of $107,926 — in May, will take the input and guide the board in the profile and description.
Information on community forums will be announced at a later date, and the timeline will further update as more details become available, according to the website.
The stakeholder input is part of the school board’s promise for an “open and transparent” search to replace current CEO Sonja Santelises, who will step down in June 2026. The board extended Santelises’ contract until June 2026, giving more time to a transparent national search for the new CEO, who is set to begin on July 1, 2026.
Santelises, the longest-active CEO in decades, is earning nearly $350,000 in her one-year contract with a 5.5% increase, in part retroactively, from July 2024 to June 2025, according to a list of amendments to her contract. The amendments also required Santelises to provide a succession and transition plan by the end of last year.
Santelises sought a longer term for her third contract, but the board settled on a one-year renewal after prolonged negotiations.
The Baltimore Teachers Union pushed for a transparent search amid fears the board would once again circumvent community input after the board privately selected Santelises to replace then-CEO Gregory Thornton in 2016.
The board aims to identify, screen and interview candidates by the end of the calendar year. Finalists, named by early 2026, will then “fully engage” with board members and stakeholders before the new executive is named in March to April next year, according to the timeline.
This article will be updated.
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