By Tashi McQueen
AFRO Staff Writer
tmcqueen@afro.com

Baltimore City Mayor Brandon M. Scott (D) and Baltimore City Public Schools (City Schools) CEO Dr. Sonja Brookins Santelises welcomed students back for the first day of the 2025-26 school year on Aug. 25.

On the warm, sunny morning, Scott visited Franklin Square, James McHenry, Frederick and Cherry Hill elementary/middle schools, meeting with principals, staff, teachers and students. Santelises stopped at Midtown Academy, joined the mayor at Franklin Square, and later visited the National Academy Foundation.

Santelises offered students practical tips to help them start the school year off on the right foot.

“Bring your best to school,” she said. “Find at least one caring adult who you can share with. Make sure you’re getting to bed early. Make sure you’re eating a solid breakfast, not heavy in sugar.

“Make sure you find something that helps you develop your own gifts and talents,” she added. “Not everybody’s going to be an athlete, not everybody’s going to be in the school musical, not everybody is going to want to be the head of student government, but everybody should be able to find something that’s their connection in their school community.”

A group of eighth-graders at Franklin Square Elementary/Middle School shared with the AFRO what they are most excited about this school year—and what they expect to be challenging.

“For the first day of eighth grade, I’m most excited to meet new teachers, classmates… . I want to focus on my grades,” said Kaden Boxdale, 13. He added, “I’m not excited about the cell phone policy. I’m very obsessed with my cellular device.”

Brandon Height and Madison Muse echoed that sentiment.

At the beginning of this school year, City Schools enacted a stricter phone policy requiring students to power off their phones and put them away throughout the school day. The city has cited research showing that limiting or forbidding cell phone use reduces distractions, improves school climate, lowers disciplinary problems and more.

“The cell phone policy is a need, but saying we cannot have it during free time—including lunch and resources—I feel like that’s a problem because we’re not doing work then,” said Muse, 13.

Scott maintains that access to cell phones and social media apps is unnecessary during the school day.

“They need to be solely focused on learning,” said Scott. “Everyone should understand that, especially parents. We went to school where if you took a cell phone out, it would be taken, not just for that day, but probably for the remainder of the year.”

During the visits, Scott recognized the winner of his quarterly attendance challenge, an initiative that rewards City Schools with the greatest year-over-year improvement in daily attendance.

According to the Maryland State Board of Education, about 48.7 percent of students in Baltimore City were chronically absent during the 2023-24 school year.

“I am pleased to present this certificate, again, to James McHenry Elementary/Middle School in recognition of your achieving the highest overall decrease of chronic absenteeism in Baltimore City Public Schools for the 2024-25 school year,” said Scott.

This marks the third consecutive time James McHenry Elementary/Middle School has earned the recognition, after reducing chronic absences by 23 percent last school year through home visits and attendance monitoring.

“We’ve made lots of progress, but we still have a way to go,” said Denita Plain, principal of James McHenry. “We will not settle until we have every single child in school every single day. It starts with today.”

Plain said tackling chronic absenteeism requires everyone to step up—including students, families, staff, partners and the district office.