Students at the Inner Harbor East Academy will relocate to a temporary facility next week because the school's operator, Sojourner-Douglass College, hasn't paid the heating bill, according to city school officials.
Baltimore schools CEO Gregory Thornton said in a letter to parents this week that officials learned of financial troubles at the charter school in January but were "hopeful that the financial challenges would be resolved."
Conditions have not improved, however, and the heat will soon be turned off at the school's building on Central Avenue in East Baltimore, Thornton wrote.
The school has 326 students in prekindergarten through the eighth grade, according to December enrollment figures.
Students will be moved for the remainder of the school year to the former William C. March Middle School at 2050 N. Wolfe St., near Harford Road. That school closed after the 2013 school year as part of the city's 10-year plan to upgrade facilities.
"It's a total nightmare," said Cierra Smothers, a parent who said she selected Inner Harbor East Academy for her 8-year-old son, Omari, because of its reputation. "How will this impact him?"
The decision to move the students is the latest blow to Baltimore-based Sojourner-Douglass College, which has struggled financially in recent months after losing its accreditation in the fall. Last week, the college announced it had closed its satellite campus in Edgewater after the landlord sued over the school's failure to pay rent.
Officials at Sojourner-Douglass did not respond to requests for comment. A woman who answered the school's main phone number referred a reporter to Baltimore school officials.
The city school board had already decided not to renew Sojourner-Douglass as the operator of Inner Harbor East Academy past the end of the school year, but a school spokeswoman said officials didn't realize how serious the financial situation was until recently.
"We discovered the utilities were due to be turned off for lack of payment," city schools spokeswoman Edie House-Foster said. "Our goal is to make sure our kids are in a safe learning environment."
Thursday is the last day at the Central Avenue building. Students will start in their new classrooms Wednesday.
No notices about the impending closure were posted on the school's website. Under the "Our Facilities" tab, pictures show classrooms at the Central Avenue site with new furniture and computers, boasting that "each classroom has a reading center which houses all brand new books."
Parents at Inner Harbor East said they were notified of the change only this week, and as of Wednesday were unsure how they would get their children to the new building or how the move would affect student performance and preparation for standardized testing in March.
At a meeting at the school Wednesday morning, school officials told parents that they can't transfer children to another school to finish the year.
"I just found out about it yesterday," said Mia Crudup, one of several dozen parents who attended the meeting. "My daughter is so upset."
She's worried about the education her daughter will receive the rest of the year. "Sojourner-Douglass will be in charge, but then they will disappear."
Shamia Alston said she's frustrated school leaders failed to notify parents earlier. "They should have said something," she said, adding that parents might have helped organize fundraising.
"Everybody wants their kid in a positive environment," she said. But now, she said, she wishes she could afford Catholic school for her 12-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son.
Tiesha Holland picked up her 7-year-old daughter, Jaylyn Hurt, on Wednesday and said she's concerned about how her daughter will get to school at the new site. Holland has to be at work by 7 a.m., and her daughter often stays with her grandmother, who lives near the Central Avenue school building.
But the new location is much farther away. "There's nothing I can do," she said.
Parent Schneika Brown said many students who attend the school come from low-income families who don't have cars to drive them to school. The younger children are too young to ride city buses by themselves, she said.
She's frustrated because her 9-year-old son and two nephews are able to walk to the current location. Though Inner Harbor East is a charter school, she described it as a community school, drawing many kids from the neighborhood.
"The crossing guard knows the kids," she said.
Baltimore Sun reporter Colin Campbell contributed to this article.
twitter.com/janders5