Midtown Academy

About The Midtown Academy

Overview

The Midtown Academy is a public, K-8 charter school located in central Baltimore City's Midtown community. Founded in 1997 to serve primarily the families of Reservoir Hill and Bolton Hill, the school continues to do so today, while also representing a broad cross-section of the city. Academic achievement, diversity, a small, family-like environment, and the arts are core values of the 180-student school, which is run by a strong academic team with the strong support and involvement of parents and the community.

A member of the Baltimore City Public School System, The Midtown Academy is operated by The Midtown Academy Inc., a nonprofit organization, and the educators, community members and parents who comprise its Board of Directors.

The Midtown Academy Mission

Uniting diverse communities, Igniting an enduring passion for learning, Developing outstanding global citizens

History

Midtown was founded in 1997 as part of the New Schools Initiative, a court-ordered pilot program launched as a partial solution to the Baltimore City Public School System's long-standing failure to comply with federal and state special education requirements. Under the program, new community-run schools would be given the same per-pupil funding that other city schools receive, in exchange for the flexibility to use any curriculum, school calendar and staff they wanted. The underlying idea was that these "new schools" would be Petri dishes for educational reforms the school system could subsequently implement in other schools.

But the idea for Midtown was borne a year earlier, in October 1996, when a small handful of Bolton Hill parents learned about the New Schools Initiative, and the opportunity to submit proposals for a first round of "new schools" that would open the following year. These parents had misgivings about both Baltimore City's public and private schools, and the opportunity to start a brand new school seemed like an ideal solution. In a few, short weeks they put together a proposal and reached across North Avenue to invite Reservoir Hill families to join the effort. By early winter these parents were researching curricula and working on securing space, and little by little, the school they wanted to create took shape.

As the families of these two racially and socio-economically divergent neighborhoods interacted, their differences became increasingly stark, and fears, preconceptions and prejudices emerged. But ultimately trumping those was a mutual desire among all parents to do right by their children and to create for them both an exceptional education, and a future devoid of the kind of discomfort they themselves were feeling. The notion of a "multicultural" school took root, where half the students would come from Bolton Hill and half from Reservoir Hill, and where diversity and community would be core values.

In May 1997 the Midtown group was rewarded a contract with the city school system, and in September of that year, the school's doors opened. In that first year Midtown served 80 students, 20 each in kindergarten through third grade. Every year after that, the school added a grade, until reaching its current form and size: a K-8 school, with 20 students per grade.

In 2003, Maryland lawmakers passed charter legislation, and in fall 2005, the state's first charter schools opened. That same year, Midtown converted to charter school status and it is now one of 23 charter schools in Baltimore City.

Today, Midtown continues to primarily serve the families of Reservoir Hill and Bolton Hill, and by all accounts it has succeeded in achieving the multiculturalism, diversity and sense of community its founders envisioned a decade ago. Now in its tenth year, Midtown and its students, staff and families take pride in a decade of solid academic achievement and of cultivating exceptional students and thriving, young citizens.