It takes time, resources and considerable luck to overcome the trauma of a difficult year, and Baltimore's efforts to recover from 2015 came in fits, starts and disappointments aplenty.

Baltimore city schools suspended nearly 8,500 students last year — a 25 percent increase — despite several years of effort to reduce the rate of disciplinary removals.

Renaissance Academy, the West Baltimore high that staved off closure, mourned three slain students – including one who bled out in the school's hallway – and rallied to graduate one of its largest classes ever last spring is facing closure for the second year in a row.

Parents and others say the merger of Forest Park and Northwestern high schools is taking place with little notice, poor planning and minimal community input. The merger is part of the district's $1 billion plan to renovate and rebuild its dilapidated infrastructure.

When the Baltimore school board revealed this month that it had secretly hired a new CEO, city and state officials were incensed that the panel had circumvented a process that would have given them and the public a say. But they have little recourse beyond airing their grievances.

The Baltimore school board used its private attorney to secretly hire a search firm when it quietly looked for a new CEO earlier this year, circumventing school system purchasing requirements, the board president acknowledged Friday.

Santelises also names first member of her administration

¿ West family

The Baltimore school board came under criticism Wednesday for embarking on a secretive selection process that left the public and key legislators unaware that a new schools chief was being hired.

The process that led to the appointment of Sonja Santelises as city schools CEO lacked transparency or public input

Often the difference between a good schools CEO and a mediocre comes down to fit with the district. Therein lies the basis for the enthusiastic hope engendered by the appointment of Sonja Santelises as the new CEO of the Baltimore city schools. Unlike the departing Gregory Thornton, her strong suit is academic leadership.

City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young on Wednesday criticized the school board for its lack of transparency in naming a new school system CEO.

The Baltimore city school board is poised to vote on a $1.2 billion budget next year that will require another round of central office staff cuts, including school police officers, but boost funding for literacy and math initiatives.

Baltimore City schools CEO Gregory Thornton released Tuesday a proposed $1.2 billion budget that reduces funding for charter schools and plans for rising expenses in salaries and health insurance.

State lawmakers want a greater role in choosing the next leader of the Baltimore city school district, and want to give city voters some say in the makeup of the school board.

Mayoral candidate David Warnock on Thursday pledged to devote more than $20 million during in his first term to start more than 100 new community schools, which would create neighborhoods hubs with afterschool programs, health and social services and more.

Quentin R. Lawson, educational adviser to Mayor William Donald Schaefer who later became executive director of the National Alliance of Black School Educators, died Monday of complications from prostate cancer at his Windsor Mill home. He was 83.

Baltimore school leadership, already under scrutiny, also faces a challenge from the top candidates for mayor — all of whom say they would seek a stronger role in managing the city's schools.

Evaluating the schools chief

While publicly supporting its new schools chief last spring, the Baltimore city school board was privately expressing disappointment with Gregory Thornton, noting in written documents that he was a poor communicator and had provided no plan to improve flagging academics.

The principal of Friendship Academy of Engineering & Technology urged city school officials to preserve, even expand, the force that has come under recent scrutiny.

Baltimore schools CEO Gregory Thornton said he will review the training and selection of school police officers after an officer was filmed slapping a teenager last week at the REACH Partnership school in Clifton Park.

A city senator is calling for Baltimore schools Superintendent Gregory Thornton to resign immediately or be fired after a school police officer was caught on video this week slapping and kicking a student. State Sen. Bill Ferguson called it "unacceptable" that the school system couldn't immediately say whether the youth in the video is enrolled at the school.

Less than two years into Gregory Thornton's tenure as city schools chief, some Baltimore civic and political leaders have lost faith in his ability to lead the school system — and some say it's time for him to go.

City school leaders will decide Tuesday whether to allow a charter school to take more students from its surrounding streets, even if it ultimately endangers the survival of a nearby elementary school.

Investigators need to get to the bottom of what appears to be Baltimore City schools' inflated enrollment figures.

Joan Hammonds, a longtime Baltimore City teacher who served as executive assistant to the school district's interim CEO, died last week of unknown causes at Good Samaritan Hospital, her son said. She was 65.

After enrollment in Baltimore public schools unexpectedly dropped following years of growth, officials are bracing for nearly $30 million in funding cuts and investigating whether hundreds of students were mistakenly kept on the rolls.

The Baltimore city school board voted Tuesday to close four schools. Westside Elementary School, located in the Penn-North neighborhood that experienced the brunt of looting and rioting in April, is among those the board voted to close at the end of the school year. The others that will close are Maritime Industries Academy High School, Baltimore Community High School and the Maryland Academy of Technology & Health Sciences.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Wednesday she visited the University of Maryland's Shock Trauma Center to support the family of a student stabbed at a West Baltimore high school.

A student was stabbed inside of Renaissance Academy high school in Baltimore on Tuesday, according to Baltimore Police.

City residents sound off at public forum on education.

A number of Baltimore City schools were forced to eliminate staff this week following mid-year budget cuts. Nearly 130 staff were left looking for job placements after the school district imposed budget cuts because student enrollments turned out to be lower than estimated before the school year began.

State and local education officials struggled Wednesday to explain historic declines on national math and reading in the National Assessment of Educational Progress exam, after Maryland became the first state ever to record significant, across-the-board drops.

Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco said Monday morning that he and the offense are in for an adjustment with the short-term loss of wide receiver Steve Smith Sr. and the season-ending injury to wide receiver Michael Campanaro.

Baltimore school officials said Tuesday they will scrap a controversial proposal to reduce funding to several public charter schools after University of Baltimore president and former mayor Kurt L. Schmoke agreed to step in to seek an agreement between the school system and the charters.

Gregory Thornton has made concrete progress in expanding the number of arts teachers in schools so that beginning this school year, every city school will have at least a music teacher or a visual arts teacher. This is a net gain over last year of 21.2 arts teachers. After a decade of arts programs being eliminated in many schools, this change is evidence of significant progress. And unlike previous CEOs, Mr. Thornton initiated the recruiting and hiring process early and relied on outstanding

Members of the Baltimore City Council are calling on the school system to reconsider a proposed formula that would reduce budgets of several public charter schools.

The head of Baltimore city schools' human capital office is out, city school officials confirmed Friday, a move that comes after weeks of management issues in that office including teacher vacancies and paycheck shortages.